Hot on the heels of Zoom’s recent explosive growth and success in the video conferencing market, Facebook has launched a host of new video calling features for Messenger and WhatsApp to help people connect during the coronavirus pandemic.
Messenger Rooms now enables group calling capabilities for up to 50 people, which means it goes head-to-head with the likes of Zoom and other video-enabled platforms able to connect large groups of people.
This week Zoom announced that its video conferencing platform has grown to an astounding 300 million daily active users, many would assume that this high demand is due to consumer apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and others, not being able to offer these kinds of capabilities to the masses during the lockdown.
To mitigate similar incidents to “Zoombombing” Facebook has apparently been working hard to build in additional security measures to prevent unwanted guests from dropping into conversations, something Zoom has had a rough ride with recently since its platform has been used by more than just business users.
New Features
Facebook is going to make Messenger Rooms available to users globally over the forthcoming weeks, here are some of the top features we are aware of:
- Join from computer or phone, no download required
- No meeting limits
- New AI powered augmented reality (AR) effects
- 360-degree backgrounds
- 14 new camera filters
- Room creators must be present in order for the call to begin
- Creators can remove guests at any time
In a blog by
Does Zoom have a New Competitor?
During the pandemic, millions of consumers worldwide have started using Zoom for virtual hangouts, blurring the lines between our domestic lives and business meetings. Zoom’s mission has always been to connect business users in meetings, not the general public, but is their strategy about to change, or will Zoom go back to being a business platform after the pandemic ends?
It remains to be seen whether Facebook can compete with business-grade platforms like Zoom, Cisco Webex, and Microsoft Teams. I don’t think Facebook’s goal is to compete for business users, it’s more likely that they simply want to mitigate losing its users to alternative platform vendors.
I personally can’t imagine myself opening up Facebook Messenger on my smartphone to initiate my next team meeting at work, can you? Oh, but they do have a business app called Workplace. 🙂
