Oct 23, 2014 02:48 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Facebook is launching an app meant to emulate an online forum, allowing its users to join chat rooms under pseudonyms, aptly named "Rooms."

According to the New York Times, it was no secret that the social media giant has been developing the app, which will feel "more like Reddit" than Snapchat. Like Reddit, users can create and join discussion boards on any topic they want.

"Rooms" is also highly customizable, with interchangeable and re-nameable "Like" buttons and the chat rooms can also be set in different colors. All users will need to log in is a Facebook account and they will be able to change their user name in every different chat room they join, if they want.

"If links are the currency of the web, photos are the currency of mobile," Josh Miller, Rooms' team leader, told the Times. "We don't want this to be a place where you talk to friends.

"There are many people out there that you didn't go to high school with that you want to connect with."

Rooms is not meant to be anything like Messenger, the standalone app Facebook made just for direct messaging. In Messenger, users can participate in group discussions, but with use of their real name and it is not nearly as customizable as Rooms.

"Our initial focus is on working closely with a small set of community builders. From talking with founders of successful communities, we've learned that many of the most successful communities on the internet grew very slowly," Miller wrote in a Rooms blog post. "If you think your room has the potential to be one of those, we'd love to figure out how we can help. Shoot us an email at team@rooms.me, along with an invite to your room and a paragraph about why you think your room has the potential to be a meaningful community for a certain type of person. We're committed to helping you succeed."

Rooms is the latest product of Facebook's Creative Labs, which brought us Paper, Slingshot and Mentions.

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