What the Tech? How Facebook Messenger Rooms Compare to Zoom
It appears every company is trying to nudge in on the popularity of Zoom video meetings. Zoom may be the social media network of the Coronavirus pandemic as people work from home and students are taking classes over Zoom meetings.
But Zoom has had its problems of late. Many meetings have been interrupted by so-called “Zoom Bombers” not to mention some privacy and sharing concerns. Zoom has addressed many of those issues but it’s still giving other streaming platforms an opportunity.
The latest is Facebook which announced a new meetings option of its own called Messenger Rooms. It has many similarities but a few improvements as well.
Over the weekend I hosted a high school class reunion. Everyone was safe in their home of course, we did it not only to catch up on everyone but to see how Facebook Messenger video streaming compares to Zoom.
We connected over Messenger by starting a call to a group of classmates I set up earlier. We had classmates from Alaska, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama and Colorado, all answering the call over either their computer or smartphone.
Each time someone else answered the messenger call, there was both anticipation and excitement from my classmates to see who was going to pop up in a new window.
Some of us hadn’t seen each other since graduation…let’s just say a few years ago. Everyone had used Zoom before but Messenger was a new experience. While Zoom allows up to 100 people to join a meeting, Messenger limited us to 8. Other people who tried to join the call were not allowed in.
Facebook Messenger Rooms addresses that limitation by allowing up to 50 people to join a ‘room’, another word for a meeting.
Anyone can set up a room by posting to Facebook or sending a link. You don’t have to be on Facebook to join a room. While Zoom limits free plans to 40 minute meetings, Messenger Rooms have no time limits. Another advantage Messenger has
over Zoom is that there are no time limits.
When Rooms is available to you, you’ll see rooms that you can join in the chat listings. How does Messenger compare to Zoom?
Two of my classmates said they prefer Messenger because of the video and sound quality. But we did have some issues. Several times during our reunion the sound of a radio blared over our voices. No one knew where the sound came from and no one had a radio on in their home.
It was loud, distracting and a little worrisome. A couple of my friends suspected someone was trying to interrupt our meeting.
Facebook also says you’ll be able to set up rooms in Instagram and What’s App, and that people will soon be able to have virtual dates over video through its dating platform. You may not see Messenger Rooms available to you now, Facebook is rolling it out to users.
If you don’t see it immediately, check for updates to Facebook and the Messenger app in the next few days.
By the way, while you’re stuck at home I recommend reaching out to old friends and classmates over Messenger or Zoom. We shared a lot of laughs this weekend and promised to do it again soon.
