Some users of Mumu Chat Room want more than just chatting
Mumu Chat Room brings a familiar concept from the '90s and early '00s to your modern-day iPhone and iPad. That concept is chat rooms - being able to join an online room full of strangers and chat away, typically about a specific topic designated to that room. Mumu puts its own spin on it by using location as a tool to both connect with people nearby as well as remove some of the anonymity typically associated with online chat rooms. It also includes coins as a means of customizing and upgrading the app. Mumu Chat Room is free with in-app purchases and requires iOS 7.0 or later.
Chat rooms slowly faded out of the consciousness of Internet users when they became unsafe due to instances of sexual harassment and worse. Today we live in a world where security and privacy have become top priorities for users, yet at the same time many are seemingly more comfortable with sharing even more of their private information on the Web. So in the changing environment, what can Mumu Chat Room bring to the table?
Well, when I logged in with my freshly created Mumu account, I saw an extensive collection of chat rooms. All of them are created by users, by the way - Mumu doesn't have any preselected topic rooms. Some of the rooms summon teens only for chat, I saw one specifically for Beyoncé fans and most of the others are as predictable as you might imagine. People creating rooms are mostly looking for explicit conversation and sexual favors.
I love music, and the plethora of hormonal teenagers wasn't going to stop me from finding people to have a civilized conversation with about music. I created my own room, which again, anyone is welcome to do. Entitled "Music Lovers," two users quickly joined. When you create a room, you have options to set its capacity (two to 28 humans,) a password for private chatting, enabling kick and ban from the room and enabling photo sharing. Any capacity over eight starts costing you some coins.
One user joined my room, asked "Are u a boy" and then immediately left. I'm sure that was just a song lyric I'm not familiar with.
When you find interesting people on Mumu, adding them to your Contacts list saves them for chatting later, even one-on-one if you choose. The app also has a Nearby tab that lists user names and photos near you currently online and available for messaging.
To create large rooms or customize colors within the app, prepare to spend your coins. Earn more by staying active in Mumu but otherwise, packs of them are sold in app starting at US$1.99.
Mumu Chat Room feels plagued by the number of users looking for some action, but the app really isn't to blame for that. Users have taken to the app and made something out of it, which is a power anyone holds. Create some rooms and get the conversation going about whatever you're interested in. If others aren't biting, at least you tried. If Mumu doesn't want sexual conversations dominating the content of its app, I recommend having some preset room topics from the get-go. For now, its entirely up to you to make it your own. Mumu Chat Room is free with in-app purchases for iPhone and iPad.
