Business & Economy

Facebook announces new audio features emulating Clubhouse

San Francisco, US, Apr 20 (EFE).- Facebook has announced the launch of a series of new audio-based products and features, emulating the Clubhouse audio-chat app that has grown significantly popular in the first year of its release.

In a corporate blog post titled “Be Heard: Bringing Social Audio Experiences to Facebook,” the social media network said the products would be available over the next few months.

“We think a lot of magic happens at the intersection of audio formats, as well as at the confluence of text, audio, and video,” the company said.

The audio-related services include online tools for sound editing, sharing audio briefs and sound captures on the main page of the social network.

Podcasting platforms and spaces to broadcast live audio are among the main catches.

“With live audio, creators will be able to turn a live conversation into a podcast for everyone to listen to later,” Facebook said.

The blog said the company also wanted to give creators and fans tools to share the best excerpts from live audio or podcast and publish them as soundbites to encourage more discussion.

The company is going to offer captions on all these audio experiences to make them accessible to all.

“We’ve seen time and again just how much creative energy is liberated when you build powerful creation and editing tools, make them free and easy to use, and put them out into the world.

“By bringing the magic to new audio formats, we’re giving people a new way to say more of what they’ve always wanted to say, this whole time.”

The new features put Facebook in direct competition with Clubhouse.

The popular audio app is a mix of a virtual conference and interactive podcast in which users can create topic-based discussion rooms that can accommodate groups of up to 5,000 people.

The app hosts virtual rooms for live discussions and has gained great popularity thanks to the participation in some of these conversations of people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

However, the number of users is limited because it is only available for Apple devices and also uses an “invitation-only” method.

The two factors mean that it is mainly used by celebrities, politicians, and prominent figures in the media.

In early March, Twitter also announced the launch of Spaces, its audio service where users can create their public conversations. EFE

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