Facebook has launched a competitor to Zoom Meetings and Skype video conferencing products – Messenger Rooms.
FB Messenger already had video calling functionality but that was limited in terms of the number of participants and required that participants have Facebook accounts.
Messenger Rooms ramps up the limit to 50 people maximum per video call and to increase convenience participants don’t require accounts to be a part of the call. Simply having a link to the meeting allows one to join a meeting.
In Facebook’s blog post announcing the new feature it doesn’t sound like they are trying to pitch it against Skype or Zoom, instead highlighting connections with friends;
Messenger Rooms make it easy to spend quality time with friends, loved ones and people who share your interests.
… If your friends or communities create rooms that are open to you, you’ll see them on Facebook so you can find things to do and people to hang out with
In keeping with that more casual tone Facebook also allows users with the Messenger App to use AR effects to add filters and backgrounds and “mood lighting”.
Messenger Rooms started rolling out in some countries last week and will expand to the rest of the world over the coming weeks. It doesn’t seem like