If you’ve been worrying about Zoom and its privacy gaffes, you might be interested in Facebook’s new standalone Messenger app for Mac (and Windows, though it’s not new). Now you can chat with up to 8 people at a time from your computer, making it a more personal way to hang out with your buddies.
Having a different, perhaps less business-oriented way to chat with our friends from our Macs and Windows PCs could possibly relieve some of the worries around Zoom and help keep a better separation between work and home.
How does it work: Facebook Messenger is available as a single app for Windows 10 and macOS on each of the platform-specific app stores. Once downloaded, you’ll log in with Facebook and get a window with all your Facebook Messenger chats in it. Create a group of up to 8 people (including yourself) and hit the video camera icon and you’ll be chatting in no time, camera to camera. In our testing, we were able to connect desktops, laptops, and mobile versions of Messenger with nary an issue.
Why do you care: Current quarantine restrictions have a ton of us staying at and working from home. Zoom has become the darling of our need to collaborate and socialize, but the company has had some privacy and security issues lately. That’s not to say Facebook is any better at protecting your privacy, but if you’re already part of the Messenger experience on your phone or the web, this is a no-friction way to connect with others.
Bottom line: Granted, Zoom can connect with up to 100 people at a time (and give you funny virtual backgrounds to play with), and Google’s Hangouts is a robust solution as well, but Messenger is something we already probably use and 8 people is generally enough to have a good conversation (or happy hour) with.
Via: TechSpot
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