Messenger Rooms

THE PROBLEM:

iPhones dominated the market, so FaceTime dominated casual video calls. This left many Android users unaware of how often they were being left out of video calls because of their phone. People who knew they were being left out didn’t confront their friends about it. They were too ashamed of their uncool phone to even bring it up. This is what my team was working on right before to the COVID-19 pandemic. Let anyone with any device join a free video call — even if they didn’t have a Facebook account or a cool phone.

THE lockdown —

Video-calling quickly became a lot more important to a lot more people than the social-savvy 20-somethings we were focusing on. People needed easy ways to connect with co-workers on laptops, cousins on Androids, and grandma on Portal. Our project became the focus of an org wide effort to meet this need. Dozens of teams brought their expertise to the table to bring Messenger Rooms to life on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and Portal.

THE RESUlts —

Thanks to this effort, people can now connect on a video call with up to 50 other people on almost any device (for free). We didn’t solve the problem we’d set out to fix. We did help friends, family, and co-workers find an easy ways to connect when they needed it most.

WHAT I DID

  • Provided naming recommendations, defined core terms, authored product overviews and briefs for localization

  • Helped over 15 content designers from across the org ramp up on the Rooms product so they could bring it to life on the apps they worked on

  • Developed new user onboarding experiences, established standards for unique concepts (like locking), and refined in-room ringing options to help people remedy missed connections.

  • Held on for dear life/survived

THINGS TO CELEBRATE

  • Successful launch of Rooms on Messenger, Facebook, Instagram and Portal!

  • Established a beachhead in the rapidly growing video call marketplace.

  • Provided our family of apps users a fun way to stay connected to friends, family, and co-workers when they needed it most.

  • This feature has sense been deprecated, but it was the right product at the right time. It was a really interesting project to be a part of.

CREDITS

  • Content Design // Wade Campbell / + 15 others

  • Product Design // Ross Legacy + many, many more

  • Product Marketing // Jay Sethna, Veronica Smith + many, many more

  • Project Manager // Paul Ogawa / Minjae Lee + many, many more