Is Facebook planning to integrate Rooms into its Messenger app?

Facebook might be planning on adding a new feature to its Messenger app called Rooms which will include groups to publicly chat about different topics. The unlaunched feature was found by TechCrunch when developer evangelist Chris Messina found it inside the Messenger’s iOS app’s source code. Last year the company had shut down its standalone Rooms app that it had launched in 2014. It allowed people to have an alias and join interest-based discussion groups, but since it didn’t gain a lot of attention, the Social network had no choice but to discontinue it. There is a chance that Facebook will utilise the features of the discontinued app and integrate it into Messenger. The code in the app mentions the following text, “Introducing rooms. Rooms are for public conversations about topics and interests. Each room has a link that can be shared so anyone on Messenger can join the conversation”.

Some of the screenshots show how one can join a public room, chat with friends as well as strangers using the standard Messenger interface, how to manage a Room, and the ability to share the Room so that other people can join in. Facebook did not initially comment on the speculation however it did later say in a statement “We often run small tests – nothing else to share beyond that.”