Facebook introduced a new iPhone app Thursday that lets you create forums to talk about any topic you're interested in.
With the app, called Rooms, you can create your own username and identity for each message board, as well as post and share comments, photos and videos with friends and strangers about various interests, according to The Verge.
Users will be able to set rules for posts and kick out those don't follow them as they would for a regular message board. They can also set moderators and age restrictions for their forums, as well as pin posts.
Rooms doesn't require users to sign up with their Facebook accounts or email addresses, nor does it take information about their contacts from their phones or Facebook profile, TechCrunch reported. Instead, a QR-code invite system is used, requiring people to get in the forums by taking a photo or screenshot of the Room's code. This is intended to allow users to build relationships based on common interests.
Facebook was reported earlier this month to be working on an anonymous app, and while Rooms isn't exactly anonymous, it gives people the same freedom of discussing topics that they would have in forum-like settings.
Josh Miller, the creator of Rooms, pointed out that the app allows people to have forum-like discussions on mobile devices, unlike traditional message board communities, The Verge reported. Miller is the co-founder of Branch, a web discussions site that Facebook bought about a year ago.
"I would love to impress that this was not our idea," Miller admitted. "The early web seemed infinite, like what else is out there? You just type in a URL. But today you don't get that. I only have a few apps on my home screen."
Miller also said Rooms is different from other apps like Secret and Yik Yak because it can host a forum for people around the world, as well as for different groups and topics, TechCrunch reported. Such groups could include book clubs, sports fans, and art enthusiasts.
Miller added that even he is unsure of how well the app will do in the future.
"I think the coolest rooms will be things we haven't thought of yet," he said. "The Twitter guys didn't know what Twitter would be good for. The Snapchat guys didn't know what Shapchat would be good for."
Rooms is currently only available in the U.S., U.K., and several other English-speaking countries, and Facebook plans to make it available for Android users in early 2015.
