It was reported in February that Facebook is working on a competitor to Clubhouse, the new fully audio-based social network that has received a lot of attention recently. Now, we can finally take a look at what is internally called “Live Audio”, Facebook’s new feature that is basically a copy of the Clubhouse.
Developer and reverse engineering Alessandro Paluzzi figured out how to enable the new feature on the Facebook mobile app, which is still hidden from regular users. The images were shared by TechCrunch, which also detailed how the feature should work – at least based on its internal version.
The audio feature would be integrated into the Messenger rooms, which is a Facebook platform similar to Zoom with audio and video chats. Users will soon find an option to start a live audio stream that allows them to hear what you are saying in a room, similar to the Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces.
After the live audio room is created, the user can invite other users to join the conversation through a Facebook post, direct message on Messenger or by sharing a public link. The profile photos of the users of that room are shown in a circular shape and will be separated between speakers, people followed by speakers and others, just like the Clubhouse does.
As Paluzzi pointed out, this is just an unfinished interface that doesn’t even work at this point, so we can’t say that the Live Audio feature will look like this in its final version. However, it is impossible not to compare it to the Clubhouse, as Facebook seems to be taking full inspiration from its new rival.
Facebook is not alone when it comes to developing a new audio platform to compete with the Clubhouse. Twitter has been expanding its Spaces feature to more users in recent weeks, with plans to make it available to everyone starting in April.
The Clubhouse exceeded 8 million downloads on the App Store last month, so other companies are expected to try to reach this audience, as there seems to be a lot of interest in audio apps at the moment.
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