In an effort to join the race for the best video conferencing applications, Facebook announced the launch of its own Messenger Rooms. Messenger Rooms allows groups of people to converse remotely using the Facebook Messenger app.

With so many video conferencing apps available, we thought it would be fitting to compare Messenger Rooms and see how it stacks up against Zoom, currently the most widely used video conferencing app.

Messenger Room: Any Facebook user can create a room, either through the Facebook Messenger app or through Facebook itself. The host can then send the invite link to participants and have them join. Alternatively, the host can directly add users who live in their Facebook contacts. Once participants are added to a room, they can come and go as they please, as long as the room is still active. Only the host has the ability to close a room.

Zoom Meetings: These are more traditional, as a host creates a meeting and invites participants. Once the meeting ends, all participants are automatically kicked out of the room. Unlike Messenger Rooms, once the call ends, participants can’t re-enter the room and the invite link expires.