Facebook takes on Zoom: Messenger Rooms that Allow 50 Participants with No Time Limit Announced

Facebook, the American social media and technology giant owned by Mark Zuckerberg, has announced a new Messenger Rooms feature and has also increased the WhatsApp voice and video call limit to include up to eight participants at present presumably to take on Zoom. WhatsApp until now allowed only four people to take part in voice and video calls at a time.

Apart from this, various other features have been announced and are being tested by the social media behemoth. Several new product updates have been announced across the company's Messenger, app, Instagram, Gaming app, WhatsApp, and Portal from Facebook.

Facebook Messenger Rooms to Allow 50 Participants at a Time

A new innovation by the name Messenger Rooms has been introduced, which allows group video calls to be initiated from Messenger, Facebook app, and soon also from Instagram, WhatsApp and Portal. The feature is currently being tested in a few countries, and should soon be available for a global roll-out, says the company.

Messenger Rooms will be capable of holding up to 50 people  at a time with no time limit. “You can drop in and spend time with friends, family, and people who share your interests. You can discover Rooms from your Facebook friends, Groups, and Events at the top of News Feed,” adds the company.

The Live Feature Takes Precedence

As more and more users are now making use of the Instagram Live feature, the Zuckerberg owned platform has now brought live videos to the desktop version of the platform as well and has also added a feature that lets users save their live videos to IGTV. The social media giant claims that there are now over 800 million active users on Facebook and Instagram live.

Furthermore, the “Live With” is being brought back on the app with co-broadcasting video features. Users will be able to donate and raise money directly on Live apart from being able to mark Facebook Events as online only and broadcasting live to guests. The organization also says that they were exploring ways for users to be able to charge for their Live events.

Livestreaming will also be allowed on the Facebook gaming app and soon, gamers would be allowed to set up gaming tournaments on the app as well. Lastly, Facebook Dating will now allow live virtual dates as social distancing norms are expected to be followed for an indefinite period of time.