Mark Zuckerberg's appearance on Clubhouse meant just what everyone was thinking: Facebook is going to attack the new social network of voice.
The voice format is a growing trend in the world of social networks: Facebook knows it too, as it is working on an audio chat similar to Clubhouse, the most talked about social network of the moment. According to the well-informed, Mark Zuckerberg's platform is planning to add the new conversation mode to the textual one in the coming months.
The charm of Clubhouse, and its staggering gains in just a year of life, are very tempting for Mark Zuckerberg, who has always seen through new forms of communication. Already in the past, in fact, his social has integrated some interesting technologies tested elsewhere, creating an increasingly heterogeneous and multifunctional product. When this was not possible, the choice fell on the acquisition of the most successful expressions, Instagram and WhatsApp among the most famous, making them in fact an integral part of the main project. And now that among the many familiar faces of Silicon Valley already on the vocal social - how not to mention the room of Elon Musk where the tycoon has chatted with 5000 participants of Tesla, Mars and the monkey with neural implant - Zuckerberg has also appeared, Clubhouse really has a lot to fear.
Facebook audio chat, when will it arrive
According to what was said by a source informed about the facts to the New York Times, however, the arrival of audio chat on Facebook would not be imminent. The development would still be in the early stages, suggesting that it could still be months before we see the new feature land among those available on Zuckerberg's social.
Just on the NYT, Facebook spokeswoman Emilie Haskell stressed Facebook's willingness to give life to new communication languages, improving the permanence of users on the platform. "We've been connecting people through audio and video technologies for many years," Haskell confirmed, "and we're always looking for new ways to improve that experience for people."
Clubhouse, Zuckerberg's just one of the new social's current concerns
Clubhouse has earned more than $100 million in about a year and its value has been estimated at around a billion in U.S. currency. Yet, not even the economic successes have been able to stop the Privacy Guarantor who has formally requested more information on the treatment of personal data from the platform of Paul Davison and Rohan Seth. Thanks to a policy dedicated to privacy that is at times obscure, the platform has ended up in the Authority's sights and will have to answer some rather burning questions in the coming days.
And then the question of invitations remains unresolved. The platform, currently available only for iOS devices and not for Android, is not yet open to everyone. The need to be in possession of an invitation from users already on the platform has caused a market of passes to flourish, obviously not managed by Clubhouse, dedicated to buying and selling the much sought-after access links, thus bypassing the waiting list made available by Clubhouse for its future users.
When will it be available for everyone and how much longer will we have to wait for the version dedicated to the green robot operating system? Unfortunately, there is no clear information on these points but, at the moment, the primary objective of Clubhouse is inevitably to beat Facebook and maintain the dominance of the communication format before seeing Zuckerberg appear on the horizon.