The social media giant Facebook recently launched its new app, Rooms. The message board application is more similar to a blogging platform. It lets you create tiny message boards for posting text, photos and videos. You can create your own username and identity in each room. These rooms are invite only and requires a special code [QR Code] that needs to be scanned with your phone. The unique codes can be shared anywhere via emails, forums, social networks or even through news papers for inviting users of a particular region. This lets them gain entry to your room. The room created is a bit like mobile forum inside an Instagram styled vertical feed.
The NewYork Times reported earlier this month that Facebook will be launching an app that allowed anonymity. This isn’t exactly right. You don’t need to connect with your Facebook account to reveal your details or friend lists as both the platforms are entirely different. The invite system helps you to build a community based on your particular interest. The creator of the room is the Moderator and has full control over the room. There can be more than one Moderator for a room and they do the role of administrators. They can ban the unruly members and those who don’t follow the guidelines. Once banned, the user is restricted to enter the room with his banned device. Not just this, they can change the room’s look, add a nickname to the room or a background image, or use an emoji instead of the like button. The moderator can even set the room to 18+, in case.
After the launch, Facebook is sued by Damien Rottemberg, developer of the app, Room which was launched before Rooms. Maybe a huge coincidence, both the apps offer very similar experience with an identical name(almost). Anyways, Room is more like killed now as the small company’s app has been buried in online search results. Whether the search tags are ‘room’ or ‘rooms’ it will now lead only to Facebook’s app, not the other one.
Just 24 hours after the app’s launch, The Facebook product manager, Josh Miller discovered that the users have hacked it. The main discovery was the hashtag search on Instagram (#rooms). Searching for the term, Miller found a room called VSCO cam, started by a college student in England which had 32 members. And someone in the room posted an invite to another room! In order to access a room user needs take screenshot or capture a picture of the QR code with the app. Miller wrote in a post “They have essentially ‘linked’ to another room in the same way forums, message boards and blogs used to link each other in the early days of the web ”
Rooms is the next after the release of Slingshot and Paper that didn’t created much hike in the stores. Available in US, UK and few other countries and is free to download from Apple App Store. No words yet on a Windows Phone release but an Android version is expected to be released in early 2015.
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