Facebook takes on Zoom with Messenger Rooms

Facebook hopes to take on Zoom and its ability to host video calls involving large groups of people with its new Messenger Rooms feature. And like Zoom, participants won't need to have a Facebook account to join. Users can host video chats with up to 50 people, and those without Facebook accounts will receive a link to the Room a Facebook user has created and then be redirected to a browser window. For Rooms created through a Facebook Group are open by default to Group members.

If you use the Messenger app to join a Zoom, you can use AR effects as well as new features like immersive backgrounds and mood lighting. The one who creates the Room gets to choose who can see and join the chat. They can remove anyone from the call at any time or lock the Room if they don't want anyone else to join. Participants can leave anytime they want, too. Messenger Rooms have no time limit whatsoever.

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Google improves Assistant's Voice Match capability

Google is making it easier for Assistant to identify your voice, primarily if you use smart devices in your home with other members of your household. When you setup Assistant now, Voice Match will ask you to say more than just "Ok Google" to help the system identify your voice more accurately. Now, you'll need to say a longer phrase like "Hey Google, play my workout playlist." Voice Match allows you to link up to six people to a single Google Assistant-powered device.

Google Assistant's responsiveness to the "Hey Google" keyboard will soon be tweakable, too. There will be a setting in the Google Home app where you can adjust how sensitive smart speakers and smart displays can be to the hotword. And these settings can be changed at any time and can be finetuned for each device. It'll be initially available in English with more languages to follow.

Source: Google

'Beastie Boys Story' documentary kicks off on Apple TV+

The Spike Jonze directed documentary on seminal rap and alternative band Beastie Boys titled Beastie Boys Story is now available on Apple TV+. Based off a stage show where Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz and Michael "Mike D" Diamond, the surviving members of the trio take viewers through their journey as a teenage punk band and then as beacons of hip-hop in New York under Russell Simmons' Def Jam records. The focus is also on their partner, Adam "MCA" Yauch, who passed away on 2012, effectively ending their run as a band. 

The Apple TV+ exclusive merges archival photos and previously unseen footage of the band coming of age in New York as well as how their meteoric rise almost destroyed them. For Beastie Boy fans, the show is an immersive and comical retrospective of one of the most influential musical acts of the past 50 years and worth watching. 

WhatsApp will reportedly support 8 people for group calls

If the rumours are true, you might get to add double the number of people on WhatsApp group calls. According to a report released earlier this week, WhatsApp is looking to allow up to eight people in one group call. The feature is supposedly rolling out gradually as part of the latest iOS and Android beta updates. One of the caveats is that group members who aren't saved contacts on your phone won't be added to the call. And the participants need to have the most up-to-date version of WhatsApp to be able to participate in group voice or video calls. As CNET suggests, what you can do is open the calls tab in the app, select the call button and then hit "New group call." You can choose from there which contacts will be part of the call.