Windows Phone 8 to offer Google+ Hangout-like 'Rooms'

The tech circles are abuzz with the news of Nokia launching its first smartphone running on Windows Phone 8 on September 5, 2012 at a joint event by Nokia and Microsoft. It's expected that Finnish handset maker will take the wraps off Nokia Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones at this event.

Though a lot is being speculated about the devices and what they will have to offer, there's also plenty of speculation in regards to what new features one can expect from Microsoft's Windows Phone 8. One such feature, which is expected to make its debut in Microsoft's new operating system is similar to Google+ hangouts.

According to The Verge, this new feature is called 'Rooms' and will allow users to chat with friends and family in a virtual room and even share data. This feature will be in addition to the Groups feature that will enable users to have interactive group full of friends or family.

Windows Phone 8 will allow users to create Room in a similar manner as one can create groups. By default there will be two rooms present - Best Friends and Family Room but one add more to the list. To invite your friends and family members to join the rooms, one will have to send an invite through SMS. On successfully joining the group, one can exchange calendar items, photos, music and notes privately.

Earlier we had revealed how Windows Phone 8 will offer the ability to sync SMS and MMS messages to Hotmail or Outlook.com. The backup feature will also allow syncing of App lists and other individual app settings.