GET A ROOM, yells Facebook as it stumbles on IRC, slaps it in an app

Facebook has built an internet chat-room app that lets people anonymously gossip with one another, just like on IRC.

The social network said its Rooms software for iOS lets netizens connect on shared interests and use pseudonyms in order to hide their identities from each other. Just like IRC.

People can create their own room or join rooms created by others. Just like IRC. Upon joining a room, users will pick a name for themselves and can maintain different names for each room. Sorta like IRC.

"A room is a feed of photos, videos, and text – not too different from the one you have on Instagram or Facebook – with a topic determined by whoever created the room," wrote product manager Josh Miller.

"Early users have already created rooms for everything from beat boxing videos to parkour to photos of home-cooked meals."

An anonymous app of some sort had long been said to be in the works for the Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook. Earlier this month reports surfaced that developers within the advertising network had been toiling away on software that will allow users to login with aliases.

Earlier this month Facebook drew the ire of drag performers when it enforced its "real names" policy to prevent peeps from using their stage names on their social networking profiles.

Miller acknowledged that the Rooms service would seek to alleviate that problem, at least in par, and help users protect their personal details from strangers.

"We want the rooms you create to be freeing in this way," he wrote.

"From unique obsessions and unconventional hobbies, to personal finance and health-related issues – you can celebrate the sides of yourself that you don’t always show to your friends." ®