Social & Digital Update: Facebook Audio Rooms
The giant that is the Facebook suite have, rather unsurprisingly, announced an audio-only rooms function to take on the recent trend in audio. There’s no doubt this trend has catapulted due to the current climate and the drive to seek alternative ways of connecting, but it is also a functional way for groups to come together - think Reddit threads as audio groups!
The Facebook function, similar to Clubhouse, and the recent Twitter ‘Spaces’ will enable users to create broadcasts so that their audience can tune in and participate within the app. From an audience perspective, many who already use their apps will no doubt find it easier to integrate their new functionality, rather than getting involved in ‘yet another’ new social app. While not an original idea, that fact will likely not stand in their way of progression.
It is speculated that this will be a build on the current video Rooms set up, where hosts can create public or private audio group chats for people to drop into in real time, as this screenshot from developer Alessandro Paluzzi was shared:
Although Facebook is often in the news for the wrong reasons, it still has 2.8 billion monthly active users globally while Clubhouse currently has 10 million global users. This immense difference, along with the offering of a seamless integration within the Facebook suite, will no doubt work to Facebook’s favour. It will be interesting to see how the other apps distinguish themselves from the giant.