The arrival of voice-only social media platform Clubhouse has virtually opened up a spate of competitors wanting to offer similar features over the social media. That they are trying to either clone the iPhone-only audio chatroom or bake in features similar to what's available there, adds to the inevitability of things.
We already have Twitter Spaces live for iOS and Android devices. And now Facebook is working on a Clubhouse-clone as is Telegram, which wants to add voice chat features as well. While Clubhouse is still working hard to add more features and bring the Android version of the app, these bigger social media platforms with a massive reach are already in an advanced stages of a wider rollout.
According to a report from TestingCatalog, Telegram’s latest beta v 7.6 may allow users to start voice chat in channels. It will allow other users to listen to you and allows the users to create separate invite links for speakers and listeners. In case a user wants to speak, they can “Raise a Hand” to seek permission to do so.
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While the upcoming feature resembles Twitter Spaces more than Clubhouse, it will also let users record their voice chat and share the recording to the channel as an audio file. Clubhouse, on the other hand, doesn’t let users record the chats.
In case you’re a beta user of the Telegram app you can try updating the application to the latest version and try using the feature already. Telegram hasn’t announced the feature officially yet, however, we expect the company to make a formal announcement once the feature is closer to a final release.
#Facebook is working on audio rooms 👀ℹ️ The feature appears to be in an early state of development, the UI is just a mockup at the moment. pic.twitter.com/vCBN7MCB6rMarch 14, 2021
In a related piece of news, Facebook, which was initially rumoured to be creating a separate Clubhouse-clone app, seems to be testing the audio rooms feature on Instagram. An app researcher recently shared a UI mockup that tentatively shows how the feature may look like. It also shows that the like to the audio rooms can be shared as a post, through Messenger, a post on the wall, or a group using a swipe-up menu.
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