Facebook Messenger can be termed as a surprise package in the smartphone world given the negative reaction it was received with when the mother company literally forced people to download the app by removing it from the main Facebook app for mobile phones.
Before 2014, those using the Facebook mobile app could easily enjoy sending and receiving private messages on the app. However, just from nowhere, Facebook announced that this feature is no more and if one wants to exchange private messages with their Facebook friends, they must download and install Facebook Messenger. After a bit of complaining from smartphone users with claims that Facebook was forcing them to install another app on their already full-of-apps phones, people started falling in love with Messenger at an alarming rate.
As at the time of this writing, Facebook Messenger has more than 1 billion monthly active users, only bettered by WhatsApp as far as IMs are concerned. The app’s success can be attributed to the fact that one only needs a Facebook account to sign up. But things have gotten better along the way, with the app now letting new users sign up using their phone numbers. In short, there is no need to be on the main Facebook platform in order to enjoy the great services of Messenger.
With Facebook Messenger as a standalone app, a lot of features have been added to the app. People cannot just chat in private, but there is now room to make voice calls, video calls as well as enjoy group chats, be it via texts or calls. Facebook wants to make things even better for you with a new update that brings the old public group chat feature.
Apparently, the tech giant is testing Messenger Rooms on Android devices. You probably are familiar with this name from the Rooms app, but this is quite different. All users need to do is search for a room based on a given topic of interest and join. If there is none, you can also create a new room and other people can join as well. It gets even better as the new Messenger Rooms service lets you control the people who can join or rather participate in the room.
At the moment, this feature is only being seen in Canada and Australia and even though Facebook has not confirmed its availability in other countries, the fact that it is now public could mean its rollout is imminent.