Forget Zoom: Facebook starts 50 video calls for free

Forget Zoom: Facebook starts 50 video calls for free

[Facebook is launching Messenger Rooms, a new video calling feature that allows up to 50 people to participate without time limits.

With many people working and staying home under quarantine restrictions, video calling and conferencing services like Zoom are in very high demand; Zoom recently revealed that more than 300 million people joined the service's meetings on April 21.

Not to be left behind, Facebook is rolling out several new video products, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today via live stream.

The biggest new feature, and a direct challenger to Zoom, is Messenger Rooms, which allows Facebook members to create public or private video chat rooms that can accommodate up to 50 people for unlimited time. By comparison, Zoom's free calls can accommodate up to 100 people for 40 minutes.

Starting today, Facebook users can create rooms from Facebook or Messenger (and later from Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Portal). Once in a Messenger room, users can use virtual backgrounds (the same as Zoom backgrounds) or use Facebook's augmented reality filters. New filter sets can brighten up dark rooms and improve appearance.

In a very unusual move, Facebook is allowing people without an account to join messenger rooms via a link.

Room calls are not encrypted end-to-end, but Facebook says it does not eavesdrop on calls. Also, room creators can remove participants at any time.

Zuckerberg overshadowed Zoom's privacy and security issues during the live feed, saying, "A lot of the time I've spent on this over the last few weeks as we've been building it up and getting it ready to ship, privacy, security, integrity reviews, and around Zoom and how to make sure that a lot of the use cases that have been problematic in the past are not replicated here."

Messenger Rooms is not the only new video upgrade Facebook is introducing. They are also adding new live streaming features to both Facebook and Instagram; Facebook Live is bringing back a feature called Live With That. A donate button will also be available so that users can solicit donations while live-streaming.

Instagram users will be able to post to IGTV as well as Stories once the live stream is over. In addition, for the first time, Instagram live streams will be viewable on desktop.

Facebook will also double the maximum number of WhatsApp calls from 4 to 8 people and add video calling to Facebook Dating. These new features will roll out in the coming weeks.

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