After the launch of Facebook’s new video conferencing feature, Messenger Rooms, there have been talks of Facebook replacing zoom for small group meetings.
It allows up to 50 persons at a time to do video conference. You can talk for as long as you want and you can join a room whether you have a Facebook account or not. While zoom is designed for work, education and business, Messenger Rooms is perfect for video calls with friends especially in the Facebook community. Like other apps in this category, You can either create or join a room.
By default, all your friends on Facebook can join your Messenger Room. So, to make things a bit private, you have to adjust your settings to bar some or even all your friends from the room.
You can use Facebook Messenger Rooms on Mobile via Facebook app, Messenger App or a browser.  If you don’t have the app, you can download Facebook app here for android users and here for iphone users OR download Messenger app here for android users and here for iphone users. It is very interesting to use but could quickly become frustrating if you don’t know how to go about it. Read our article on How to use Facebook Messenger Rooms?
Zoom and Messenger Rooms have many similarities like viewing a list of participants, screen sharing, etc. However, we want to consider the differences between both applications here so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.
Major differences between Zoom and Facebook Messenger Rooms
| ZOOM | MESSENGER ROOMS |
| Has a 40-minute limit on free calls | There’s no limit on free calls |
| Allows 100 participants at a time for video conferencing | Allows 50 participants at a time for video conferencing |
| Allows you to mute all participants if you’re the host | You cannot mute participants |
| You can communicate via chat while the call is ongoing | You cannot chat while call is ongoing |
| Record Meetings | You can’t record meetings |
| You can ask participants to wait in the waiting room till you let them in | Once your link is shared, people can access the room directly |
We believe Facebook will add more features to Messenger Rooms in the coming weeks and we can’t wait to write about them.
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