Facebook has announced the introduction of a new anonymous app dubbed Rooms, which will allow users create places for things they have an interest in as well as invite others who share the same interests.
Created through Facebook Creative Labs, the app allows people to create rooms on any topic they would like to talk about, with an option to customize with colour designs, icons and photos.
Members invited to the room can then post and share photos, video and texts which will appear on the room’s feed facilitating for an ongoing multimedia conversation.
A room is no different from the one people have on Instagram or Facebook, it works the same way with a topic being determined by the person who created that room.
“You can change the text and emoji on your like button, add a cover photo and dominant colours, create custom pinned messages, customize member permissions and even set whether or not people can link content on the web,” said Josh Miller, Facebook’s product manager in a post.
As Anti-Facebook as the new app can get, Rooms embraces anonymity by allowing users to sign in with whatever names they feel comfortable with and can also create different identities for different contexts and chat rooms.
Invitations to Rooms requires users to have a sort of code by taking a picture of the invitation after which the app scans recent photos for the QR code before signing you into the room.
The app is separate from Facebook, and hence does not require a person to have an active Facebook account, and it does not allow users to import lists of friends.
How public or private each room can be will be determined by its owners and members with invitation codes being posted anywhere online, or to a select group of people.
The app has been designed for iPhones.
