The dream of the ’90s is alive in Facebook Rooms
Ah, the 1990s: The grunge music, the overabundance of flannel, the anonymous chat rooms you explored on your 28.8 dial-up modem. Facebook is reviving at least one of those blasts from the past with its new standalone chat app, Rooms.
The app, released Thursday and currently only available for iPhones, lets users create private chat rooms to post text — just like the good ol’ days — along with photos and videos, in a nod to the Instagram generation.
Rooms was developed by Facebook Creative Labs, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it’s a Facebook product just by looking at it — you don’t need a Facebook account to log in, just an anonymous user name and an optional email address.
Users are able to create a room based on the topic of their choosing (but come on, we all know it’ll be used mostly for sex chats); choose a theme, colors and presentation; invite guests; and moderate content.