Facebook Test Hotline, Competitor Clubhouse

Facebook quietly launched a test phase for a new conferencing app, Hotline, on Wednesday, a fresh effort by the social media giant to keep up with the live voice blockbuster niche. The hotline is particularly inspired by Clubhouse, the chat app launched a year ago that has grown very quickly thanks to the pandemic, although it can only be accessed by invitation and on Apple branded mobile devices at present.

Read also:Clubhouse, the social network that talks a lot

Facebook’s new service emphasizes the ability to ask questions in writing, which is not possible at Clubhouse. Speakers can choose who to invite “On the scene” To interfere in the conference. “With Hotline, we hope to understand how interactive Q&A and multimedia sessions can help people learn from experts. It also helps experts develop their businesses.”, Detailed Facebook, contacted by AFP.

More professional and calibrated

Unlike Clubhouse, there will be possibility to activate video and lectures will be recorded. The Organizer will receive a digital copy. The app thus builds a more professional and calibrated image, less spontaneous and mysterious than the rising star of social networks, which has made widespread intimacy a tenet of its own.

The experiment is being carried out by a Facebook Research and Development group led by Eric Hazzard, who joined Facebook when the California group purchased the “tbh” question-and-answer app. “We’re experimenting with multimedia products like CatchUp, Venue, Collab, and BARS and it’s encouraging to see how these formats help people connect with each other and form communities.”Facebook’s Communications Director Emily Haskell added.

Read also:Clubhouse, a 1 billion VIP social network

Testing on the CatchUp app for voice calls ended last year. Venue is another question-and-answer product, while the recently launched collaborative music apps Collab and BARS are very similar to TikTok, whose short and lightweight formats continue to inspire other platforms.

Under the influence of video conferencing service Zoom and then Clubhouse, Facebook has already doubled and expanded its video and audio functions directly, on the network and on Instagram. The California group is also developing a competitor in the Clubhouse within its Messenger “lounges”.