“Messenger Rooms” will initially offer space for 20, later for up to 50 participants. The usage should be as simple as with Zoom: The organizer invites via web link.
Facebook does not want to leave the rapid growth in video chats in the Corona crisis to the rising star Zoom and counters with its own offer. At “Messenger Rooms“Initially, video conferences can be set up for around 20 participants, later it will be up to 50.
Use should be similar to that of Zoom: The organizer sends a web link that other participants can use to join the conference.
This simple process helped Zoom to get from 10 million to 300 million users a day in the corona crisis. However, it also caused problems such as “zoom bombing”, in which strangers interfere with video conferences. Zoom took countermeasures later with additional access restrictions, Facebook wants to start right away Rooms Make arrangements. The organizer said he could remove a participant from the video conference at any time and also prevent the invitation links from being shared, the online network said on Friday.
Video encrypted, chat not
The connection to the Facebook server is encrypted – but the chats are not secured with the so-called end-to-end encryption, in which they are only accessible to the participants, but not to the platform itself to ensure that full encryption is implemented. With Facebook’s completely encrypted WhatsApp service, the number of participants in video chats is now to be expanded to up to eight people.
With Zoom, which so far has also refrained from complete encryption, up to 100 users can participate in a video conference – and up to 1000 in a video transmission. The duration in the free version is limited to 40 minutes – Facebooks Messenger Rooms should not have a time limit.
Facebook dating
Facebook assures that data from the Rooms– Video chats are not used for personalized advertising. At the same time, users should be shown chat rooms of their Facebook friends in which they might be interested.
Facebook also announced a video chat feature for its flirting platform “in the coming months” on Friday. Facebook dating was also due to start in Europe in February, but the date had been postponed due to privacy concerns.
(APA / dpa)
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