Facebook updates Messenger Rooms to set it apart from Zoom
You can now customize your room with personal video backdrops.
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, Skype, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams. The service is free, and up to 50 people can chat in a room at once with no time limit.