Mark Zuckerberg Announces Facebook is Working on a Clubhouse Clone

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announced that the company is building audio features where users can engage in real-time conversations with others, similar to the app Clubhouse, which gained a lot of buzz in Silicon Valley circles earlier this year. From a report: Zuckerberg said Facebook plans to invest a lot in audio features and build them out over the coming years. "We think that audio is of course also going to be a first-class medium, and there are all these different products to be built across this whole spectrum," Zuckerberg told Casey Newton on Monday on the Sidechannel Discord server. The new feature is called Live Audio Rooms, and the company expects it will be available to everyone on the Facebook app and Messenger this summer, the company said in a blog post. The company will start to test Live Audio Rooms within groups on Facebook. "You already have these communities that are organized around interests, and allowing people to come together and have rooms where they can talk, I think it'll be a very useful thing," he said. The feature comes with little surprise.

Good way to collect voice prints

[fustakrakich]

Protect yourself. Use some software to alter your voice before transmitting.

Better solution

[alvinrod]

Protect yourself. Don't use Facebook.

Re:

[fustakrakich]

That's unpossible. The mic is always hot anyway. What facebook doesn't get, Google will collect for them.

Re:Better solution

[luvirini]

Except if you do not use Facebook and Google based products.

(yes it is getting harder every year, but still possible today though not maybe in few more years)

Re:

[Actually, I do RTFA]

. What facebook doesn't get, Google will collect for them.

How is FB or Google hacking my iPhone? I just don't install their spyware.

Re:

[fustakrakich]

It might come pre-installed, under an NSL, we still have those. But a regular network sniffer should bring it out of the dark

Re:

[Actually, I do RTFA]

I'm pretty sure that the US Gov isn't so in the pocket of Google/FB that they used a NSL to have Apple spy on me for them.

For sure

[bumblebees]

If you cant innovate then just copy everything

Re:For sure

[93 Escort Wagon]

Well, that paradigm has worked out pretty darn well for Facebook so far.

Re:For sure

[Cid Highwind]

If you can't innovate, copy. If nobody uses the copy, buy the original.

Re: For sure

[ArmoredDragon]

What Facebook is doing doesn't seem far removed from what standard oil was doing. When does Sherman get applied?

In other news

[boudie2]

Satan today announced he'll be offering free long distance service to anyone who switches to their "Your Soul Is Mine For Eternity Plan". You can sign up using your facebook credentials.

Stop making integrated baskets!

[geirlk]

I do not want just one basket for my eggs! And your basket sucks facebook, and you should be ashamed of yourself!

cloners and money

[erexx23]

All that money and all he can do is clone more.

Translation...

[erp_consultant]

Facebook tried to buy Clubhouse and they refused to sell. So Facebook is going to build a clone of it and try to put Clubhouse out of business.

Another product...

[dark.nebulae]

Just another product from them that I'll never use.

Re:Another product...

[luvirini]

But you are not the target. The real target is clubhouse. Facebook just has to cause enough confusion over the product so that so other big tech company will buy them to try to compete with Facebook.

Re:

[rot16]

And when Microsoft buys the clubhouse, it will become unusable in a year and become irrelevant anyway.

Different Conversations

[bill_mcgonigle]

From what I can tell, almost none of the people making Clubhouse popular are on Facebook.

Can't clone reputation.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[oneiros27]

Are there hot women waiting for me to call?

That's what they told us on commercials in the middle of the night ... and only $.99/minute!

I haven't really looked into Clubhouse, although a friend offered me an invite a while back. So I'm not sure if it's an internet party line / public Discord / voice IRC / internet CB radio, or something even worse .... like voice chat on Xbox with a bunch of 12 year olds who haven't learned any social skills but at scale.

I do hope they stick with the invite system though.

Why Facebook's version will be better

[matthewd]

Facebook will monitor the conversations and make sure "problematic" talk and wrong-think are corrected, and no misinformation is spread.

As I recall, the problem with Clubhouse is that people were having "unfettered" conversations. https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1361450276750848000?lang=en

Clearly the New York Times only thinks people should be having fettered conversations online.

With all of the Google Home and Amazon Alexa devices, soon we will be able to enjoy fettered conversations at home as well!

Why are audio-only apps necessary?

[ayesnymous]

There should be a function in chat apps to allow a host to disable all video.

Wow

[AppXprt]

Facebook has zero plans to change their business model of copy, steal, drown. Even after being hit with Anti-Trust lawsuits... WOW. I've never seen a company more brazen at the concept of, "We'll do anything we fucking like..."