Facebook Messenger Rooms – Yay or Nay?

Facebook Messenger Rooms

Hot off the press…Stacey Soleil, Marketing & Technology Director of WEST shares her first experiences within Facebook Messenger Rooms, now that they are officially rolling out. CLEARLY Facebook wasn’t happy about all the eyeballs they lost when users started implementing their social distancing OFF of Facebook and on to other platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Houseparty etc. But it didn’t take long for FB’s competition to start looking over their shoulders, because now Facebook has put on their boxing gloves and we’re watching the showdown begin as the mass roll out of their video chatroom service begins. From what we can see so far, it appears they are ready to do whatever it takes to keep users on their platform.

Will it work?

Only time will tell. The success rate will largely depend on the convenience factor, ease of use and overall functionality of Facebook Messenger Rooms provides the user.

What kind of meetings, events, conversations would be best suited for these new Facebook Messenger Rooms?

Based on the currently functionality that is available, we will probably see more social uses versus business uses…at least for right now.
For example I think we’ll see a quick adoption of using Facebook Messenger Rooms for;

• Virtual Happy Hours
• Birthday Parties
• Watch Parties
• Book Clubs
• Family Catch-Ups

It’s likely that users could end up preferring to use Facebook Messenger Rooms over Zoom, Google Meet or Houseparty for these types of social engagements. Why? Well partially because there won’t be a complicated invitation process, you won’t have to download anything and you can alter your settings and/or close off the room right from within Facebook where most people already are to begin with.

Let’s take a look under the hood at Facebook Messenger Rooms a bit…

Now let’s take a peek at what you’ll see as you set up a Facebook Messenger Room…
it’s very simple to set up, super quick and easy!

What about the permissions and links? How does all of that work?

Here’s a sneak peak at what your friends will see when you send them the invitation link…

And this is what YOU see once you create your room…
First here’s the settings;

Here’s where you can snag your invite URL if you want to continue to add more users into your room…supposedly you can up to 49 + yourself, so 50! 

Here’s the NEWEST feature for Facebook video chat…SHARING SCREENS!!!! Finally Facebook, THANK YOU!!! And soon you will be able to add virtual backgrounds with much more ease than on Zoom.
(Sorry Zoom…they’re really trying!)

And then once you’re on with friends you’ll start to see their screens render here. (Shout out to our amazing client,
Karena Araiza of Excellence Vision Real Estate, for taking this shiny new toy out for a ride with me!)

Have YOU tried Facebook Messenger Rooms out yet for yourself? What have been your experiences.
*SIDENOTE*
While writing this article I was dropped 3 different times from my own room within Facebook Messenger Rooms and my Chrome browser crashed twice. So clearly it’s still a bit glitchy, but I think we are only 48 hours in at this point.

Excited to see where this goes…
Would love to hear your feedback about your experiences as well.