Once upon a time, Facebook tested a semi-anonymous social netowrking tool that centered around interests. This tool, called Rooms, did not make it to a final release, but its basis has since been adopted by Facebook’s Messenger platform as it is now a feature for users living in Australia and Canada.
Rooms are chatrooms that allows individuals to discuss a specific topic with both friends and strangers online. Users will be able to create their own Rooms via the Messenger app, invite members into the chatroom, approve new members, set a nickname for themselves, configure notiifcations and more. Additionally, administrators will be able to set Rooms to private, allowing only certain people to join the chatroom at any point in time.
Judging from the way Rooms work, it seems that the feature will be able to complement Facebook groups, allowing members to chat with each other regardless of their friends status. It may also be great for event planning and even sending out alerts. Whatever the case, do expect more out of the feature as Facebook rolls it out to more countries in the near future.
Source: TechCrunch