Messenger rooms

Video chatting has undoubtedly become the most straightforward thing these days. But when it comes to including a large number of people in a video call, you may lookout for some famous apps. These apps may be Zoom or Avaya space, etc. but do you actually believe these apps? Security and privacy are a must for everyone, and these apps aren’t that reliable. Facebook has launched a safer option for this problem. It is the ‘Messenger rooms.’ Let’s know more about this amazing feature that is coming very soon.

Messenger rooms Introduction

Facebook has announced a new feature called messenger rooms, punching into the faces of Zoom like apps. Let’s understand why this feature will be released in such a hurry.

In quarantine days, when you are far away from your friends or teachers, you need to make sure that your daily work doesn’t stop. Almost everyone nowadays is using Zoom or Houseparty like apps for their communications. The previous few years had the WhatsApp and Google duo as the best apps for talking to multiple people in a video call. But recently, we had to see a change in our preferences. This happened because of the sole reason of not having more than 5 people in the video call. And this is when the Zoom like apps came into existence. But this legacy of Zoom and other apps wasn’t destined to be longer. This was because of the security issues people reported.

The world is going through the pandemic coronavirus and has known the country and the reasons responsible for this. While China is busy hiding the actual numbers of corona patients, the world was shifting towards the Zoom app. And factually, Zoom is a Chinese company. Not only teachers but government officials were also using this app and this could literally mean sharing all the secret data to china. As soon as the world realized this issue, it was suggested boycotting Zoom and other apps, for all non-Chinese citizens. And here’s where the Facebook messenger rooms come into play. Apparently, this feature is claimed to be secure enough, at least compared to Zoom like apps. Let us know more about this feature.

Highlights

The latest messenger rooms are going to be full of features.

• The Facebook company claimed that this feature would be able to handle a crowd with 50 people maximum at any instant. Though it maybe half the crowd that can be entertained in the Zoom app, but still it’s a lot.
• The Messenger rooms will allow you to invite people in a video call even if they are not your Facebook friends. This feature is really fantastic and is even not available in the original messenger app.
• Unlike other apps, you will not have any limit on the call duration. You can continuously talk to unlimited hours using messenger rooms.
• It will be equipped with AR abilities. This will allow you even to alter the look of your screen when it is ON.
• The Messenger rooms will also give you some fun filters like bunny ears, etc. This feature is an AR-based visual effect and may seem to look like Snapchat, which will have around 14 filters.
• It will have 360° backgrounds like a giant pit ball, a black hole, and many more backgrounds that can be changed according to your mood.

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Special features

• The incredible thing about this feature is that it will allow you even to alter the lighting. Yes, you could do it when you are sitting in a dark place. This custom option is for both the feed and the room’s lighting color.
• With this feature, you can also be able to share your room’s availability so that they can know when you are up for a video call. This status feature is not available in Zoom, and hence messenger rooms are much better.
• You can also lock your room in messenger rooms or even remove people according to your choice if you are the creator of the room. This will give you more privacy.
• This feature of the rooms is going to expand, as said by Mark Zuckerberg in a live stream. He said that we might see rooms for Instagram direct and WhatsApp as well.

How to use Messenger rooms

To make any video call using this messenger rooms service, you need just to have the original Facebook Messenger app. Let’s know step by step; how to make a room.

1. If you have the Facebook messenger app on your phone already, open it. If you do not have it, open the play store. Look out for the Facebook messenger app and download it.
2. After the installation, open the app and log in to your Facebook account.
3. Now, click on the ‘people’ option in the bottom right corner of the screen.
4. Then, click on the ‘Create a room’ option. And select the people you want to add in the video call, and you are done!
5. To add the people who aren’t your Facebook friends, you need to send them the link of the room personally.

Facebook gives you all the freedom to create a room from the phone and the computer both.

see also: Facebook App Crashing: Fix the glitch of your application in just a snap

Launch

The Facebook messenger apps are said to be launched within the coming weeks. Though this feature wasn’t planned at all but appeared as an idea due to the lack of security and privacy issues from other apps. The date is rumored to be around 15-17 July 2020. This feature will be available for both Android and iOS devices. Hence, as soon as it launches, you don’t need to do anything, just keep the Facebook messenger installed. Keep looking at play store for any news and then update the app to get the feature.

Security

Securing the data is the most important thing in today’s times. The countries want to promote trades and apps with countries that are trustworthy. Since China has lost that trust, countries are getting shifted to other countries. This is what Facebook wants to make use of, and is launching this feature in such a hurry. Obviously, the Facebook company declared that the messenger rooms are not going to be ‘end to end encrypted. So we may doubt a bit about its security.

For those who don’t know, what an end to end encryption means, let’s first know that in brief. Well, this kind of encryption means that the data shared won’t be read by someone or even modified. This will remain in between the sender and the receiver only, and won’t be even disclosed to the developers. Therefore, any app having this level encryption will not allow any third party user to decrypt it.

security issue

Now talking about Facebook messenger rooms, so it has a lot of red flags. We all know about the carelessness shown by Facebook towards the data security of its users. Though the company may be counted in the best companies of the world, however, it has shown its inability to handle the security of its users. So Facebook has accepted that they can’t have the end to end encryption within such video calls because it’s challenging. Though Apple has also mastered this technology and its face time is an end to end encrypted already. However, the company is working on it still.

Also, the company is trying not to have the zoombombing during the video calls. For those who do not know what zoombombing is, it is when uninvited people enter into your room or video call. The zoombombing is a severe issue in the Zoom app and hence questions the security of a video call as well.

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Current scenario and purchases

Facebook has currently presented the messenger rooms for selected countries only. Also, now it is in a beta version that has apparently been added in the WhatsApp beta version as a shortcut. So basically, it is under testing state, and we may have it very soon. 

Talking about the purchases, it will be a free app and assumed to have no in-app purchases within the app.

Conclusion

Facebook is about to launch a new feature called messenger rooms in its original messenger app itself. It will be compatible with all kinds of devices, even computers. It has got a maximum of 50 participants allowed at a time in a video call. However, at present, Apple Inc. has been giving allowance to a maximum of 32 participants in face time for a long time. Therefore Facebook messenger room’s 50 is not an appreciating number. Talking about the security, we discussed all points, the pros, and the cons.

Though the past of Facebook has not been secured, the company is still fixing its problems. Also, since the Zoom app belongs to China, whom the whole world is boycotting, we have to trust a non-Chinese app for the time being. The messenger rooms overall will be a good app, giving perfect competition to the Zoom and Houseparty apps. This will be good enough for you to video chat your friends easily at quarantine times, using the old messenger app itself.