Facebook has announced the availability for all users of Messenger Rooms, its alternative to group video calls from Zoom, Google Meet and others like Jitsi Meet or HouseParty. The particularity of Messenger Rooms is that will allow video calls of up to 50 people, in which you will not need to have the application installed on PCs and smartphones (except in the case of who creates the call).

In addition, as we have already been able to prove, Messenger Rooms does not require callers to have a Facebook account. They will only have to receive an invitation link on the smartphone or computer and enter a name with which to appear on the call.

It is something important, because installing and logging in is usually one of the causes of so many headaches in many services, and here Facebook has made it very simple.

Create a room (translation of room) in Messenger Rooms it is very simple wherever we want to start the video call. We can do it from the Facebook desktop website, in the Messenger application in Windows, macOS, Android and iOS and from the Messenger website. In all this, and when accepting invitations to enter the video call, Keep in mind that Safari is not valid in macOS, and Chrome is not valid in iOS. On desktop, the feature is only supported by Chromium browsers at this time.

To start a room / video call from the Facebook desktop website (old interface) we will have to go to the chat part (bottom right of the window), where we will find a camera symbol with a +, called Create room, as we see in the image.

You may ask us to log in again, because what the browser does is open a session in Messenger. After starting it, we will appear alone in the call. To add participants, we will have to press the second icon, See participants in the video call. From there we can copy the link, and block the room to not add more participants.

Once we have copied the link, The person we send it to and opens it will see an interface like this one in the image below, where they will not be required to have a Facebook account to join. Only his name, which may be fictitious.

It should be mentioned that the image and sound quality is acceptable, although for example it does not cancel noise as well as Zoom nor does it have Meet video quality. Options like screen sharing work very well. From the Messenger desktop application the process is very similar.

Once we create the room (for what a Facebook user is needed), the interface is similar to the one created from the web. To share the link, you need to press the option See participants in the video call. Obtaining the link should be easier and more intuitive, as we will see that it is on the smartphone, since there is a large blue button with great prominence once we start the room.

To start the process from the mobile, the only option we have seen for the moment is from the Messenger app. The Facebook application in principle is also capable of doing this, but the function is only available in the United States.

Unlike what happens on the desktop, on smartphones at the moment we can not share screen, something that would be really useful these days of confinement to help older people to learn about the functions of their smartphone or to solve problems with their equipment.

In general, in the absence of problems of being available to all users in all versions, Messenger Rooms seems like a great alternative to everything we knew. You will not have a host problem when you are on the platforms you are on, and above all, you can see its use very much when integrating with WhatsApp, as is already being seen in the beta version of the latter.

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this is how the Facebook alternative to Zoom and Meet works with video calls of up to 50 people - Explica