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Facebook updates Messenger Rooms to set it apart from Zoom

You can now customize your room with personal video backdrops.

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor
Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.
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  • I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
Corinne Reichert
Facebook Messenger Rooms

Facebook is adding more customization features to Messenger Rooms.

Facebook

Facebook is introducing new updates to its Messenger Rooms video chat app, on Wednesday announcing personalization features. With more people separated or working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Zoom competitor also added a more streamlined way to find and create rooms on mobile.

To personalize your room, you can now customize backgrounds with your own photos and home videos. It'll be available on mobile in the next few weeks.

Messenger on mobile will now also show you the top of your Chats tab in your inbox all the Rooms you've been invited to; allow you to create a room right in the middle of your Chats tab; send notifications to your invited friends; and delete Rooms you don't want to be in anymore.

Read more: Messenger Rooms: Here's how to use Facebook's free new video chat feature

"You can create a room with a default, suggested or custom activity, set a future start date and customize your audience selection," the Messenger Team said in a blog post. You'll be able to do this on desktop in the next few months.

Messenger Rooms launched in May to compete with services like Zoom, SkypeGoogle Meet and Microsoft Teams. The service is free, and up to 50 people can chat in a room at once with no time limit.