Facebook brings anonymity app to Australia

Facebook has brought its new anonymous chatting application, Rooms, to Australia.

The stand-alone app, which launched in the US in October, mimics traditional internet chat rooms by allowing users to chat with strangers on niche topics.

Unlike Facebook, which is premised on people using their genuine identities, Rooms lets users operate under pseudonyms.

Users can create their own "room" based on a topic of their choice, such as origami, and invite people to join either through private invitations or a public link.

In that way, it's a lot like the chat rooms of the early internet.

However, it is accessible only via a mobile app and designed to cater for the photos and videos favoured by the Instagram generation, rather than the written word alone.

It's not clear how Facebook will make money out of the app, which is available only on Apple devices.