Say hello to the new kid on the block—Facebook introduces a new app called ‘Rooms’, which awakens the dead, boring forums from the early 2000s. There was a time when forums used to be cool spots for people to hang out virtually without giving away their actual identity. But then Facebook came and those forums got lost in the whirlpool of other new platforms. However, Facebook fancied bringing old school stuff dressed in new colors, and thus we got ‘Rooms‘.
The story began back in 2011, when the creator of the app, Josh Miller decided to co-found a ‘group-blogging startup’ called Branch. Later it went on to receive $2 million from investors, and in January, Facebook acquired it. Miller has been secretly working on this app for Facebook’s Creative Labs group since then. And recently, Facebook finally broke the silence and revealed ‘Rooms’—the fruition of Miller and his team’s dedication—and the app is set to bring back the old forums which once used to be pretty popular.
The concept behind forums has been to gather like-minded people, and according to Miller, “The reason people got excited about the Internet was because they realized, ‘Wow, I can find other common people to me,'”; which motivated the conception of Rooms.
With this app, you can easily create a chat room of any topic. You can choose a background, change its color to make it appealing and more congruent to the tone of the topic, and select privacy (e.g. blocking underage people) for the room.
You can also use emojis and thumbs up buttons for likes.
Each room will have their own topic, so that people can look for them and talk about the respective topic with like-minded people.
Also, upon creating a room, you decide who you want to invite to it. Each room will have their own unique QR code, which the members can take screenshot of and save on their phones. When they login to the app, it will automatically recognize the QR codes from the camera roll, and the user will be taken into that room.
Additionally, you do not need to worry about putting your own name and can choose any username you want.
Reports say that this app will not have any connection to Facebook whatsoever. However, are you excited about the app? Do let us know if you would like to use it!
Sources: Facebook, Rooms.me
Thanks To: Business Insider; TechCrunch
[ttjad keyword=”samsung-laptop”]
