Online video-conferencing providers have seen a tremendous boost in their business over the past months, all thanks to the corona pandemic. Earlier, Google ramped up the engineering resources for Google Meet to meet the increase in demand and compete with the alike. Now in a new development, Facebook has joined the bandwagon by rolling out Facebook Messenger Rooms video-calling feature with a limit of up to 50 participants.
Related: Xiaomi announces MIUI 12 new Camera interface; pictures surface online
The new feature, Facebook Messenger Rooms comes as a new add-on for its Messenger application. It will allow users to make group video calls supporting up to 50 participants at a time with ease. Being fresh out of the oven, the Messenger Rooms is rolling out in some countries starting this week and will expand to the rest of the world soon rather than later. Cause it’s the best time to get the best out of the new feature.
It’s pertinent to mention here that the Messenger app as of now is capable of performing group video calls with up to 50 participants. For the first six to eight participants, the app will stream everyone’s camera feed to one another in a grid-like view. But after six, Messenger will display only the speaker’s feed and that’s limitation will be likely fixed with the introduction of Facebook Messenger Rooms.
Invite Non-Facebook Users Too!
As per Facebook, a user can create room right from the Messenger app or Facebook and invite anyone to join the video call. As an icing on the cake, the room will let users invite those who do not have Facebook accounts as well. The company further says that Messenger Rooms will soon allow up to 50 people with no time limit and one can share rooms on Facebook through News Feed, Groups and Events.
We’ll have to see how the new Messenger Rooms stack up with the popular and widely used video-conference tools such as Zoom and Skype for both business and individual purpose. What do you think?
Terry Ts 
Rudhra Nandu