Facebook gives Messenger users more reasons to use Rooms
The company is giving users more options when it comes to creating Rooms on mobile.
When Facebook introduced Messenger Rooms in April, you didn't need to have Messenger installed on your phone to start video calling your friends and family. The company made it so that you could join a group call through a link on your News Feed or in Group and event pages. But now that Rooms has been available for several months, Facebook is making it easier to use the feature through Messenger.
To start, the company is introducing a new, more comprehensive interface for creating Rooms within Messenger. While you could create and share Rooms within the app before, the updated UI allows you to customize them with an activity name (you can also choose the one the app suggests if you don't want to go to the trouble of naming it yourself). It will also allow you to set a future start date for your group chat and manage your invite list. These are all things you can do through Facebook's News Feed, but now you'll also be able to do them through Messenger.
Facebook is also giving Messenger users more options when it comes to how they can customize their Rooms. You'll be able to set a custom background by uploading your photos. If you want to confuse the people you're chatting with, you can also use a video as a background.
The new Rooms creation feature is rolling out to Messenger on mobile starting today, with desktop support coming in the coming months. Meanwhile, you'll be able to customize your background sometime in the coming weeks.
