Facebook Rooms app to take a new spin on
online chat rooms
Facebook released an application that lets people create virtual
“rooms” to chat about whatever they wish using any name they would like.
“Rooms” software introduced in the US and Britain for iPhone
made its debut as Facebook tries to make peace with people unhappy that real
identities are mandated for profiles at the world’s leading social network.
“One of the things our team loves most about the Internet is its
potential to let us be whoever we want to be,” said a blog post from Facebook’s
Creative Labs.
“That’s why in Rooms you can be ‘Wonder Woman’ — or whatever
name makes you feel most comfortable and proud.”
Virtual rooms become home to feeds of pictures, videos, and
text.
The application puts a smartphone spin on chat forums that were
popular venues for online discourse in early Internet days.
“Forums, message boards and chat rooms were meeting places for
people who didn’t necessarily share geographies or social connections, but had
something in common,” the Creative Labs message noted.
The Rooms application was “inspired by both the ethos of these
early Web communities and the capabilities of modern smartphones,” according to
Facebook.
Rooms serve as virtual settings for photos, videos, and text
posted in the spirit of taking part in a conversation about chosen topics.
Those who create rooms can make participation invite-only or post public links
to join.
Release of the application came just weeks after Facebook vowed
to ease a “real names” policy that prompted drag queen performers to quit the
social network and sparked wider protests in the gay community and beyond.
The huge social network apologised early this month in a bid to
quell the simmering dispute over its enforcement of the policy.
AFP