it’s official ! Clubhouse’s competitor, Live Audio Rooms, launched in the United States in June 2021 and then launched globally last October. The company has announced that some US-based public figures, as well as some groups, may start hosting rooms through the main Facebook iOS app…
Interesting Features…
After Reddit, which mimics Clubhouse, it’s now Facebook’s turn to officially launch its new audio application: Live Audio Rooms. Anyone can be invited as a speaker, unlike Clubhouse, which has about 13 million downloads a year, and which has room size limits, which can have up to 50 people speaking at the same time.
Live Audio Rooms thus makes it possible to listen to Live Audio Rooms and podcasts and also offer other interesting features, such as:
- Notifications when your friends or customers join a room;
- Live subtitles just like on Twitter Spaces and not Clubhouse;
- “Raise your hand” button to ask to join the conversation;
- A “thumbs up” button at the bottom of the screen to “Like” or to react to content while it is broadcast. This button also connects you to the Facebook emoji reaction set;
- Facebook-type reactions to interact throughout the chat;
- Tools for sharing rooms with others on Facebook through items such as News Feed or group posts;
- “Stars” to show support for the public figure of the live audio room. These stars can be purchased during the conversation and used at any time, just as they work with other Facebook Live content;
- Sending donations: Hosts can select a nonprofit or fundraiser to support during their talk, and listeners and speakers can donate directly.
Within groups, administrators can control who is allowed to create rooms: moderators, group members, or other administrators.
Facebook works a little differently from other social audio platforms in some places. For example, hosts may invite people to join as speakers before the session, or they may choose to have listeners join them during the flow.
Facebook hopes to overtake Clubhouse
Facebook makes podcasts available on the platform via Mini Player or Full Screen Player with various playback controls, including the ability to listen when the screen is off. With the new Facebook Podcasts feature, creators can link their iTunes RSS feeds to Facebook so that episodes are automatically aggregated into your Facebook News Feed. These episodes will appear on the “Podcasts” tab.
Podcasters posting on the platform will also be covered by Facebook’s Podcasts Terms of Service, which you can view here. It’s a relatively standard deal, though there’s no clear limit to what Facebook can actually do with podcasts distributed on its platform.
Additionally, hosts can choose a nonprofit or fundraiser to support during the conversation to donate directly and post it in the chat. Again, this looks like a feature designed directly to compete with Clubhouse as many Clubhouse creators have hosted fundraisers on the app.
With its unique Live Audio Rooms features, Facebook hopes to go far beyond the clubhouse and build a larger network of influencers.