Despite the popularity of services like Zoom and Skype, Messenger Rooms shouldn’t be overlooked if you need an easy way to host video calls with your friends, family, or coworkers.

Messenger Rooms is completely free and easy to get started. To help you on your way, we’ve rounded up the best Messenger Rooms tips and tricks.

1. You don’t need a Facebook account to register

While you need a Facebook account to create a Messenger room, you don’t need it to sign up. For those who have left Facebook for good, perhaps because of concerns about the company’s privacy policies, that means they don’t have to miss a single call.

When your friends click on the link to join, they can login with their Facebook account if they want. However, the main prompt is to join as a guest. All they need to enter is a name.

2. There is no time limit

On Zoom, there is a maximum time limit of 40 minutes for group meetings. If you want more time, you have to upgrade to Zoom Pro.

With Messenger Rooms, there is no time limit no matter how many people you chat with. This means you can take your time, relax, and not have to worry about the countdown.

3. Hold up to 50 people per room

You might have a hard time finding enough friends to get together on a video call to reach this limit, but Messenger Rooms allows up to 50 participants per call.

This means that it is perfect for business meetings, virtual quizzes, family reunions, etc. If you want to see more people on your screen at once, try the Messenger Rooms desktop app.

4. Use the Messenger rooms keyboard shortcuts

If you’re in the middle of a call, you don’t want to play with your mouse to open menus. Instead, you should use these Messenger Rooms keyboard shortcuts:

• End of call: Alt + E
• Full screen: Alt + F
• Share screen: Alt + S
• Settings: Alt + P
• Toggle mute: Alt + M
• Toggle video: Alt + V

5. Control who joins your messaging room

By default, anyone with the URL for your Messenger room can sign up. It’s fine if you’re just giving the link to a trusted group, but if you’re using the call for more public purposes, you might want to control who is allowed in.

You can do this easily with Messenger Rooms. Of Invite people window, click Edit under the coin link. Switch the authorization level to Only people you approve.

Then when someone tries to join, you can accept or decline. Keep in mind that if you enable this permission level, those who join will need to log into a Facebook or Messenger account. They cannot join as guests.

6. Share your screen

Are you trying to describe something on your screen to others on the call? There is no need. In Messenger Rooms, you can just share your screen with everyone so they can see exactly what you see.

To do this, click on the Share your screen lower toolbar icon. It appears as two superimposed squares. You can share a specific window or your entire screen.

Everyone on the call will immediately see your screen. Perfect for demonstrations, presentations and more.

If you don’t want others on the call to be able to share their screens, go to See the participants in the call > Settings > Screen sharing.

7. Organize a surveillance party

If you can’t get together in person to watch a movie, your best bet is to have a virtual wake-up party.

With Messenger Rooms, you can watch Facebook videos together. Everyone is watching the same and can control the video player, so everything stays in sync.

You can chat by voice or via the chat box on the side. Try it: watch funny videos with friends or sentimental memories with family.

8. Chat with text

While you probably mostly use Messenger Rooms for its video and audio chat functions, there is also a text chat that you can bring up. Just click on the bubble top right.

Here you can share files, GIFs, emojis, and create polls. It’s a good way to make your call more interactive.

The downside is that only those who have logged in with a Facebook account can use the chat. This means that anyone who joined your call as a guest will be banned – they won’t even be able to read it, let alone participate.

9. Easily share your room on Facebook

If you are using Facebook, it is easy to share your room with different sections of the social networking site.

To do this, click on the Live icon at the top right (it looks like a camera). Here you can choose where to share your room (timeline, page, or group) and who the audience is (like all your friends or specific friends).

You can also create a room from other Facebook apps and devices, such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Portal. If your guests use them, they can join them as well, regardless of which one you used to create the room.

10. Kick all the troublemakers

Even though hopefully this won’t happen to you, sometimes people will cause trouble on a call. With Messenger Rooms, you can quickly deal with these troublemakers.

Click on See the participants in the call in the bottom menu (the icon looks like two people) and click To delete next to the offender, then To delete again to confirm it.

If your room isn’t already, it will be set up so that only people you approve can join. Also, the person you deleted will not be able to join the room. If they are logged in to Facebook, you can ban them from re-joining any of your rooms.

Take advantage of all Messenger Rooms offers

Messenger Rooms is easy to learn. Use our tips and tricks and you will soon discover all it has to offer. It could become your go-to tool for hosting online meetings.

Have you decided it’s not for you? This is perfectly fine, as there are many other great alternatives like Whereby, Skype, GoToMeeting, Zoom, etc.

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