14 DAY TRIAL // Although Facebook was loud and clear over the year that people should not be afraid to use their real names when engaging in chat via its social networking services like Messenger for example, the company has finally backtracked on its initial policy.
When a major company like Facebook concedes and accepts that it was wrong to ask its users do something they do not want, repeatedly and for a long time, it takes more than a simple statement to make it go away.
The newest application launched by Facebook on iOS platform does seem to be more than a statement that agrees that sometime people need their privacy, especially when engaging in conversations with strangers.
“In Rooms you can be ‘Wonder Woman’ – or whatever name makes you feel most comfortable and proud. You can even create different identities for different contexts.
“In my room for technology industry discussions I am ‘Josh’ but in another about backpacking travel I am ‘jm90403’ – a homage to my hometown zip code. Sometimes I want to go with my real name and sometimes I prefer a nickname. It depends,” explains Josh Miller, Rooms product manager, in a blog post.
For long-time Facebook users, the Rooms application will be very weird at first due to the fact that it doesn’t require a user to log in with a special account and you can’t even attach a photo to your inexistent profile, because there isn’t something like that.
Room creators have absolute control over everything that appears in the chat
You simply pick a room where you want to discuss a certain subject, and give it a name that would make sense. You can choose a name for yourself of course, or a nickname, which will be used during your conversations. In the room, people that visit it can share photos, videos and notes.
There are no logos or brandings that could suggest Rooms is an application developed by Facebook. It’s as clean as possible, but it allows users to customize the look of their rooms by choosing colors, wallpapers, emoji for like button and many more.
According to Facebook, Rooms has been created to be a flexible, creative tool. Based on that, room creators will be able to make custom “pinned” messages, customize member permissions and decide whether or not people can link to their content on the Internet.
For the time being, you can download Rooms for iPhone for free via App Store. The application should be fully compatible with all devices powered by iOS 7.0 and up.
Unfortunately, Android users have been skipped from the initial launch of Rooms and there are no details on its arrival on Google’s mobile platform.
