Facebook has been busy during this lockdown period. Last week they announced a major investment inside a telecom company in India but earlier this month, they also launched a new app meant for those couples that do everything together. And this week, in order to keep up with the competition, it launched a new video-conferencing service for up to 50 people called Facebook Rooms. Let’s see what these new services look like.
1. Tuned: For Fusional Couples
Can’t live without your partner? Try using the latest app “tuned”, from Facebook. As you know, some couples literally do everything together. This type of relationship celebrates their love and their togetherness on a daily basis. They go to the gym together, watch movies while interlinked on the sofa every week-end, share each and every meal together and talk on the phone a billion times a day when apart. Some even have the same account on their favourite online casinos to have fun and keep their spending controlled (click here to discover the latest games).
It would seem like it inspired one of the creative minds inside the Facebook New Product Experimentation team, because “Tuned” is all about the love birds that can’t get enough of each other. This group has been at it before, releasing a meme-creation named “Whale” as well as an app called “Hobbi” that was meant to be somewhat similar to Pinterest. But this one is clearly aimed at those that live only for the love of their life.
2. What can you do with it?
Want a space where you can go back to and rekindle all these memories you have created with your loved ones, even the ones from last week? “Tuned” is exactly what you need. Although it is based on the idea of a straight-up messaging app, it does a lot more. Namely, it lets you create a scrapbook of all the beautiful moments you two spent together, no matter where you were in the world or what you were doing at the time.
But it is not only about sharing and reviewing pictures either. You can also send voice memos to your partner. If you’re feeling romantic, you can leave a long passionate recording of your thoughts through your voice. That way, your significant other can go to bed listening to you, when you are apart and continue to build the relationship even more deeply as he/she sleeps with your words in mind.
Not enough? Well, how about cards, notes and even custom stickers? That should keep the two of you connected well enough. You can even share some music through playlists that you build on the Spotify app – that is if you are not already sharing your Spotify which is quite possible if you do everything together…
3. Messenger Rooms – Keeping Up with the Competition
You can tell that Facebook is a company that is aware of everything going on in the world of communication, mobile apps and social networks as they always come up rapidly with innovations of their own when a new company hits the market. In the case of Messenger Rooms, the business that inspired them had been functional for a few years already, however its market grew from 10 million users annually to more than 100 million in the first months of this year.
4. A Communication device for Larger Groups
Zoom is a communication app similar to Skype. When the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, early this year, as everyone was being placed in lockdown companies, schools and other groups looked for solutions adapted to their needs to communicate between each other from their respective homes. The reason why Zoom was able to suddenly overtake the market was that it made it possible for large groups to share a video-conference. If you ever tried it on Skype, you’ll know that the more people you add to the call, and the potential breakdown in the communication system you’ll get.
However, Zoom is handling large groups much better and it became the perfect solution for teachers who had to keep on giving classes to their students. Today, the name “Zoom” has already become a part of the new language, as almost every type of business uses it for their conference needs. In America, lots of sports teams and major sports associations use the app for their calls which they then retransmit through various sports news websites, in order to keep some kind of visibility throughout the international stoppage of professional sports.
Facebook Messenger Rooms can reunite up to 50 different persons on a single video call. Most importantly, all users do not need to have an active Facebook account to join. The creator of the chat room receives a link that it can send to all its correspondents so that they can link in through it. Furthermore, there is no time limit for these calls, a great addition to their new service.
5. Using Facebook Rooms through Messenger
The creator of the Room literally has all the power over it. It can kick out whoever he decides, at any point in time. He can also use a lock to close the chat room so that no one else can join in once he has chosen to do so. That said, anyone that wants to leave while on the call can simply close the window and go back to his life. If a person creates a Room inside a Facebook Group, all members will automatically be allowed in without having to be added again.
Joining one of the Facebook Rooms using the Messenger service has its advantages. Users can use AR effects, modify the backgrounds and add various types of lighting to change the mood of the room where they are located.
6. Security Measures
For now, Facebook has launched its new service without complete encryption. In order to compete rapidly against Zoom, it decided to launch without doing so, as the process was causing them significant challenges which they say will be solved in the near future. For now, the conversations are encrypted between the users as well as on Facebook servers, which they say are located in countries with strong rules of law. In the meantime, it might be better not to say something you don’t want to stick in this world for eternity!
