Image credit – The Courier Mail
It is clear that Facebook wants more users to use its Messenger app. This is why the company has pretty much killed off any in-app chatting via the Facebook app, thus forcing users to download the Messenger app in the process. Now it seems that we could be looking at a new feature for Messenger called “Rooms”.
It has been discovered that in certain markets, Facebook has launched a new feature inside the Messenger app called Rooms, which seems to facilitate public chat. According to TechCrunch, this was first discovered in code back in September that described the feature as, “rooms are for public conversations about topics and interests. Each Room has a link that can be shared so anyone on Messenger can join the conversation.”
So how is Rooms different from group chats? For starters it is public, meaning that chats you have in rooms might pertain to specific topics, or that it could be with people you may or may not know. At least that’s according to a report from The Courier Mail in which Facebook Messenger’s product manager, Drew Moxon, told them it was designed to allow people to chat with other people who share similar interests.
Basically it sounds almost like Facebook is creating a forum of sorts within Messenger, or even an IRC channel of sorts, which isn’t exactly new. However given how many users Facebook has and can leverage, we guess it could lead to some pretty group discussions. As it stands the new feature is being tested out in Australia and Canada, but presumably it will eventually make its way to other markets.