With social media heading towards a desire for greater privacy, Facebook has just released its latest offering- an anonymous social app called Rooms. Rooms functions as an image message-board for those who want to share their interests in a private setting. So is this new app part of the trend in anonymous social sharing, and can we really keep our information private by using these forums?

In the past we looked at discreet social apps such as Whisper and Secret, and then Ello appeared to follow suit with its call for data protection and elimination of on-site advertising. Now Rooms seems to have brought a new dimension to anonymous social sharing. With elements of Google Plus’s “Communities” feature, and online messaging forums, Rooms is a way for users to share and discuss specific topics and interests completely in-app. There’s no need for users to have an existing Facebook account or email address, instead, the app uses a 2D QR-code invite system which can be shared privately or publicly, whereby people have to take a picture or screenshot of a Room’s code to enter. Rooms can also be age-restricted, with topics ranging from the everyday to niche. Each room can accommodate a user’s shared text, images, and videos, and creators can decide upon the topic, add cover photos, change the colour scheme, buttons, create pinned messages, and even add a setting for whether the room’s content can be linked to externally.

So why has Facebook felt the need to launch Rooms? The fact is that it’s down to Facebook’s Creative Labs to test and launch new apps, independent of its own mobile app. Facebook product manager Josh Miller, argued that Rooms was “inspired by both the ethos of […] early web communities and the capabilities of modern smartphones.” These, he went on to say, were places on the web where you could connect with people “who didn’t necessarily share geographies or social connections, but had something in common.” Aside from this, Rooms might also be a way for Facebook to test the way in which users share information, and how freely they do this under an anonymous guise. If Rooms fails to gain popularity, it might at least be able to help Facebook improve its other features on its main site and app, such as News Feed, Groups and Community pages.

Perhaps Facebook is also trying to gain back trust in its users, by launching an app where anonymity is paramount. In competition with apps such as Whisper, where users post anonymous confessions, and sites such as Ello which shun third-party advertising, Rooms appears to be a way for Facebook to distinguish itself from its main site, and win favour with a whole new concept. However, true anonymity isn’t, according to Miller, a feature of Rooms, as he believes that a user’s pseudonym still gives them a recurrent identity and one which they use to connect with other members, in a way that apps such as Whisper don’t. He argues that having some kind of name is essential for allowing communities to form on the app. Still, we imagine that app users will love the notion of pseudonymous chat- the kind that harks back to the beginnings of social media.

Does the concept of Rooms appeal to you? Do you think it will gain popularity with those who wish to remain private when using social media apps? We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital, and share your comments on our Facebook page.