Facebook has joined the call — the video kind.
Seeming to be standing idly by as companies like Slack, Google, Zoom, and others reaped in the rewards of the new normal of working from home, Facebook recently introduced Messenger Rooms: the latest video conferencing platform to make headlines during this pandemic response.
It’s been widely dubbed a “Zoom competitor,” which should tell you two things: (1) people expect Facebook to make a sizable splash in the video conferencing game, and (2) people are for whatever reason still using Zoom… in spite of publicized security flaws. And federal warnings. And a bounty of other suitable options.
But, hey, we’ve already wagged our finger and lectured you on making the responsible decision of moving to a more secure platform — we’re here to talk about Facebook Messenger Rooms.
Announced as an extension to its Messenger platform, Messenger Rooms aims to provide users and businesses with another option to communicate remotely. Similar to Zoom, Messenger Rooms will eventually be capable of hosting up to 50 people on the same call — expanding on the six-person total currently available on the now-vanilla Messenger.
Messenger Rooms also one-ups its rhyming rival by removing all time limits associated with any free calls made on its platform.
Where available, Rooms can currently be created through both the Facebook and Messenger interface, with options for Room creations expected to be added to WhatsApp, Instagram, and Portal down the road.
And get this: You don’t even have to reactivate your old Facebook account to use Messenger Rooms. Well, kind of. Messenger Rooms is available to those who don’t have Facebook accounts, but only those with active profiles will be able to create and invite people to Rooms.
The new platform will feature fun things like augmented reality to allow for dog filters and changeable backgrounds.
It will also feature some not-so-fun things like, you know, ties to Facebook.
The social media giant says it has prioritized privacy and security for its video chat. "We are definitely very secure and encrypted, from the client to the server and from the server to another client," said Stan Chudnovsky, head of Facebook Messenger (h/t CBS News).
That’s a lot of words to say “we don’t offer end-to-end encryption.”
Beyond that, it’s hard to forget that this is the same company that allowed Cambridge Analytica, a social media data firm that worked on President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign, to collect data from approximately 87 million unsuspecting Facebook users to impact the 2016 presidential election. It was a little venture that prompted the Federal Trade Commission to slap Facebook with a record-breaking, but probably-still-not-enough $5 billion fine over user-privacy violations.
Rewind the clocks back to 2012 and you might remember Facebook reached a settlement with the FTC over “charges that Facebook deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.”
So, yeah, probably don’t trust Facebook. At least not with any more of your information than they already have.
But this goes beyond general, but totally warranted trust issues. Facebook Messenger Rooms also offers some pretty questionable features (not including its absurdly long name that gives Google Hangouts Meet a run for its money) that may force you to think twice.
For starters? Rooms may not be as private as you think. Depending on how you’ve configured the joining options for the Room, you may get strangers dropping in on your call. Or worse: People you actually know, but didn’t actually want to chat with, may join.
While not mandatory, Facebook will allow for Rooms to be visible on primary news feeds or alongside stories. This will allow for, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg puts it, “neat, serendipitous, spontaneous interaction” (h/t PC Mag).
As if there’s anything “neat” about being Room-bombed (are we there yet?) by your not-so-secretly racist great uncle Juan.
Facebook has already done its part in blurring the definition of what it means to be “friends” with somebody in 2020 — now we’re supposed to welcome an awkward free-for-all with all those strangers? No thanks. Hard pass.
There’s a reason it’s been seven years since we’ve talked to Jeannie from chemistry or What’s His Name from the barbershop: we can’t actually stand them — but not to the point that we want them to know it by unfriending them.
Nice try, Facebook. You’ll need more than bunny filters and accessibility to lure us in.
You may as well stick to Zoom.
Just kidding. Please don’t.