Rooms are Facebook’s volley against Reddit
Just a few years ago, Facebook was a website. It spawned a handful of popular social networking clients for mobile platforms, but these apps primarily allowed users to interact with content readily accessible on facebook.com—to the point that early versions were simple web views. Today, Facebook has transformed into a formidable conglomeration of mobile experiences that span billions of users, including two best-in-class messaging platforms with Messenger and WhatsApp and an entirely new social photos platform with Instagram. But Facebook isn’t stopping there: following the launch of spin-off apps like Instagram Bolt and Slingshot earlier this year, the Menlo Park company this week introduced a new take on private communities and threaded conversations. Its new app is called Rooms, and represents an about-face for Facebook’s legacy of authentication and identity.
Message boards are as old as the internet, allowing communities of people with similar interests to exchange ideas and engage with friends in private. These services have evolved from basic web forums into highly interactive internet communities like Reddit, which attracts millions of daily visitors and includes “subreddits” for broad interests ranging from cute animal pictures to science fiction book clubs. Facebook has historically not been conducive to this kind of focused conversation, favoring public posts and photo albums to share with wide swaths of friends. Despite the company’s addition of Groups and group messages for more private conversations among friends, the user perception of Facebook assumes the network’s intent is public content. Google+, the search giant’s small community–based social network, sought to capitalize on this unmet user need but saw slow user adoption. Rooms is Facebook’s attempt to remedy this blind spot, but its approach is unlike any of its previous endeavors.
Rooms is built on a board-first model, allowing users to join any number of topic- or community-based groups though QR code invitations. But these QR codes are unlike the long-derided marketing variety. Room creators can share image previews of their rooms containing these codes to social networks, and friends then screenshot these QR codes to “accept” the invitation. The Rooms app detects QR codes within screenshots from users’ Camera Rolls, and adds them to the relevant room. It’s a workaround to traditional link-based invitations, and allows all rooms to be as private or public as its creators intend.
Perhaps most interestingly, and counter to recent versions of acquired apps like Instagram, Rooms users can’t log in using their universal Facebook ID. Instead, they’re enabled to create unique usernames for each individual room, lending a degree of anonymity and customization to each Rooms experience. The approach is counter to Facebook’s Platform, which seeks to unify the login process across web services and native applications, but supports Facebook’s idea of where social experiences are heading. Users are looking to interact with tight-knit communities, and are growing uninterested in sharing with “the public” through the traditional Facebook experience. Groups within Facebook wasn’t enough, but Rooms could succeed where the company has failed.
The app supports Facebook’s single-purpose app strategy, and expands the company’s portfolio of unbranded and untethered mobile applications. The company has sought to reinvent its core product experiences with Facebook Paper, Mentions for brands and personalities, and the new Messenger experience. It also adds to unbranded Facebook properties like Instagram and Slingshot, which are designed to outlive the cohesive Facebook ecosystem. The company is looking to diversify its mobile footprint, to evolve with social users whose interests are beginning to shift. Twitter was designed to allow users to broadcast their thoughts to the world, and Facebook began changing its platform to match. But Facebook’s original intention was to connect users with friends—and Rooms is a new initiative to rekindle that vocation.