Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook Inc. has officially introduced Rooms, an anonymous chat-sharing app that lets you create rooms for different topics in hopes of attracting others with similar interests. It is currently available for users in the U.S., U.K., and some English speaking countries.

“A room is a feed of photos, videos, and text – not too different from the one you have on Instagram or Facebook – with a topic determined by whoever created the room. Early users have already created rooms for everything from beat boxing videos to parkour to photos of home- cooked meals. There’s even a room called “Kicks From Above” that showcases photographs of cool shoes in cool places,” Rooms’ blog stated.

Room creators have control over their chat, able to change the text and emoji on the “Like” button, add a cover photo and theme colors, create custom “pinned” messages and custom member permissions. There’s even a setting to control whether or not people can link to a creator’s content on the web.

These are just the early features of Rooms, but its developer team from Facebook Creative Labs aims to add “more customizable features and ways to tweak your room.”

You can be as anonymous or as public as you want when using Rooms. You can have the same username for different rooms, or use a different name and persona for every room you create.

How to get started with Facebook Rooms

First, you need to download the Rooms app. It is currently only available for iPhone users, and its free. No news yet as to when the Android version of the app will be available.

Facebook Rooms iPhone app

When the app launches, you’ll be presented with a few quick tips on what you can do with a Room, and then you’ll be asked to create an account. This is where things gets interesting. Instead of linking your Rooms account to Facebook, it asks you whether you have invites to certain rooms. If you select “no, I would like one” you will be presented with an invite to a Room which you need to take a screenshot of to complete your account creation. After that, you can now explore the recommended Rooms or create your own room.

To create a Room, you first need to name it. Name it anything you want, like your favorite band, color, cartoon character, food or place. Be as creative as you want. Then you need to enter a description of the Room, and maybe a few rules like the topics you are interested in discussing in the said room, or rules if you want.

After entering the description and hitting the ‘done’ button, you can change the background color and wallpaper of your Room. To change the background color, just tap on the color palate for the desired hue. To change the wallpaper, you need to give Rooms access to your photos if you haven’t permitted so in the initial setup process.

You can now go to the next step, where you set the controls of the Rooms. You can assign permissions and require approval for posts, set an age restriction, and establish the Room’s discoverability. You’ll then be asked to nickname the Room. Again, be as creative as you please.

Your room is now ready to use.

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Just visiting?

If you’re not into creating Rooms, you can explore the recommended chats from the Rooms team. To join a Room, you just need to take a screenshot of the invite then go back to the Rooms’ homepage, where you will see your desired Room.

photo credit: guydonges via photopin cc