Meta is going through a complex stage in its life, but that doesn’t stop it from continuing to develop new features for its social networks. In addition to testing a subscription model that would allow users to get the famed blue check on Facebook and Instagram for $12 a month (an imitation of what Twitter did a few months ago), the company is also developing a new feature called “Roll Call”.
App analyst Mat Navarra recently posted a series of screenshots on Twitter showing Meta’s new Roll Call feature. The feature would allow you to “see what everyone is doing in a group chat” by using the front and rear cameras.
Roll Call is clearly inspired by BeReal, the app in which, once a day, you are notified that you can take a photo of whatever you are doing (both front and back), without allowing you to upload a previously taken photo or put filters. You can also comment on the photos of other users with “emoticons” represented by your own photos.
At the moment, the feature is “an internal prototype, and is not being tested externally,” according to Meta spokesperson Liz Sweeney, but it would give us a sense of how the feature would work in Messenger, Instagram or other Meta apps, should it eventually be implemented.
Navarre details in its thread that users in a group chat would have a maximum of five minutes to respond with a roll call, sending their own photos. Whoever initiates the roll call will be able to specify what types of photos should be uploaded, such as photos of food or pets, for example. In addition, users will only be able to see each other’s photos once they upload their own, in the same way as in BeReal.
