New Facebook Feature Lets Messenger Rooms Broadcast via Live

In a move to compete with Zoom, the video calling platform of choice for most people staying at home, Facebook has announced that people using Messenger Rooms can now choose to broadcast that Rooms chat to Live, which lets people broadcast directly through Groups, Pages, and in timelines via their Profile (via TechCrunch).

Messenger Rooms, Facebook’s video chat software that lets people create calls with up to 50 people via a link without requiring users to have a Facebook or a Messenger account to join the call, will now allow calls to be carried out on a stage, seen by as many as would have seen a Live broadcast.

When the room goes “Live”, participants will have to opt-in to be a part of it, and they can also leave before it starts to broadcast.

It’s actually not clear how many people are now using Messenger Rooms. Nor is it even clear if Facebook ultimately finds Zoom a threat. Today’s news, it seems, is about adding more incremental engagement across Facebook overall, and adding in features that already exist for the de facto leader in the market.

Facebook said that the feature is getting rolled out in limited release today and will soon expand globally.