Facebook Chat 'Rooms' Return in Messenger

Facebook Rooms, the social network's semi-anonymous messaging service, is back—sort of.

Going forward though, those in Australia and Canada will have access to Rooms inside Facebook Messenger.

Rooms is designed as an outlet for people to talk about interests their friends may not share with other like-minded individuals, Facebook Messenger Product Manager, Drew Moxon, told Australia's Courier-Mail.

"Group chats today are focused on people you know—friends and family—and what we've found by talking to users is there's a lot of need for conversations about specific topics," Moxon said. "This will be for topic-based conversations and so people can talk with others they may not know."

If this sounds familiar, Facebook initially released a standalone Rooms app for Apple iOS in the US in October 2014, allowing users to chat anonymously about various topics. However, social-networking app Room, which claimed to be the "first mobile application that enables you to create and join mini private" chat rooms, accused Facebook of stealing its idea.

Ultimately, Facebook pulled the plug on its Creative Labs department, known for producing products like Rooms, Riff, and Slingshot, in December 2015 and, subsequently, ended that experiment.

That all changes now as Rooms is back in the fold, albeit inside Facebook's popular Messenger service. Users will be able to create public rooms to chat about the economy, Toronto Maple Leaves, or an election, for example. They could even create private rooms to talk about films, the environment, or typography, the Courier-Mail reported.

It could also come in handy when organizing large events like protests and rallies or sending out alerts, TechCrunch pointed out.

Facebook did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.