The invitation-only, social audio media app that facilitates communication through rooms that can accommodate groups of up to 5,000 people, Clubhouse has seen an increase in popularity in the recent months. Now, Facebook is officially going all-in on audio, announcing that they are indeed launching their own social audio app to compete with Clubhouse.

Called Facebook Live Audio Room, the app will, unlike Clubhouse, allow users to record their conversations as well as share them with others. Hosts will also be able to make money off the app, charging people access to these rooms through either a one-time fee or a subscription basis. The social media giant has said it will first be rolled out to groups and public figures for testing before eventually making its way to Messenger.

To entice users to join, Facebook has created an Audio Creator Fund to “support emerging audio creators.” The conversations will then be turned into what Facebook calls, “Soundbites”, an upcoming feature that allows people to share and create short-form audio clips alongside the algorithmic feed for promotion.

“The high-level picture here is that we think that audio is, of course, also going to be a first-class medium, and that there are all these different products to build across this whole spectrum,” said Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg in an interview with The Verge.

Posted by:Staff