UPDATED 07:46 EDT / OCTOBER 24 2014

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg NEWS

Miss the 90s? Facebook’s Rooms is a niche chat throwback

Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg

For those who miss the feeling of chatting with random people in niche topic chat rooms, Facebook has just launched a new iOS app called Rooms that is designed to recapture that late ’90s magic.

The new app allows users to create their own “rooms” based on just about any topic they can think of.

Creators can customize the look and feel of the room by setting their own background wallpaper and choosing the color scheme. They can also customize member permissions, pin photos, and change text and emoji styles, with more customization features planned for the future.

Some of the example rooms on the app’s official website include topics for city gardens, pugs and makeup. Users can also use separate nicknames for each room, allowing them to chat anonymously across different topics.

The app allows users to share their rooms or join existing ones using QR codes—no Facebook login required. In fact, there is little to no Facebook branding to be seen in the app or its product page.

Rooms is the fourth app to come out of the Facebook Creative Labs program, which allows to smaller groups within the social media giant to design new products. When announcing Paper, the first Creative Labs app that was released back in January, Facebook said that Creative Labs is “where we’re crafting new apps to support the diverse ways people want to connect and share.”

Creative Labs allows the company to try out new apps and technology without the pressure of directly associating them with the Facebook brand. In an interview with the Times of India, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said of Facebook Creative Labs:

One of the things that we’re trying to do with Creative Labs and all our experiences is explore things that aren’t all tied to Facebook identity. … I think you should expect to see more of that, where apps are going to be tied to different audiences that you can share with.

Rooms is currently on iTunes and is available for iOS only.


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