Facebook’s Messenger Rooms will now let you broadcast live to up to 50 people

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Look out Zoom – Facebook is coming for you. The social network announced yesterday that it would be mashing Facebook Live and Messenger Rooms into an unholy mess able to broadcast video calls with up to 50 participants. With this move, is Facebook deciding to use its weight to muscle in on the new normal of teleworking?

The new feature will let users stream their video calls made via Messenger Rooms to services such as Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. That move will enable things like speaker panels, networking events, virtual classrooms, and more, as long as you are okay with your data going over Facebook’s servers.

It’ll be simple to use as well, with users able to create a Messenger Room, then broadcast that from their personal profile, a Facebook Page they manage, or even a Facebook Group. The creator of the call can limit who participates in the calls, who can view the broadcasts, remove unruly participants or even lock down the whole broadcast, so you don’t get whatever Facebook’s version of Zoombombing prank is called.

Anyone up for a virtual book club? The feature is already rolling out, so if you don’t see it on your account right now, it should be there in the coming weeks.

Do you plan on using this? Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• Facebook is apparently getting ready to launch Instagram Reels, a TikTok competitor, globally
• Auditors claim Facebook has been doing a terrible job at basically everything
• Facebook’s TikTok clone, Lasso, is unsurprisingly being laid to rest
• Facebook finally wakes up, will start flagging politicians’ posts that violate its policies

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.