Facebook announced on Monday that they’re working on several audio features, including a audio creation tool, podcasts, live audio rooms and Soundbites, a short form audio clip tool.
Among these, the live audio rooms in Facebook and Messenger is set to rival the popular audio chat app, Clubhouse. Facebook is expected to ship this feature worldwide in the next few months.
Live audio rooms will be primarily tested in Groups, and public figures may also be able to access the feature during the trial to host conversations. The list of public figures includes Russell Wilson, Tokimonsta, Elle Moxley and Nastia Liukin.
Podcasts are also making their way to Facebook in the next few months. Creators will be able to upload their podcasts directly on Facebook and users will be able to listen, share and comment on them within the app.
“We believe that audio is a perfect way for communities to engage around topics they care about. We’ll test Live Audio Rooms in Groups, making it available to the 1.8 billion people using Groups every month and the tens of millions of active communities on Facebook,” Fidji Simo, Head of Facebook App, announced.
Facebook is also working on a new short-form social audio format called Soundbites. The feature will be tested with a handful of creators for a few months and is expected to ship in the next few months too.
In addition to all this, the company also announced that they’re working on a set of audio creation tools, with features like speech-to-text and voice morphing. These will be available directly within the Facebook app.
“You will be able to use music from Facebook’s Sound Collection in the background of your story to set the tone. And with the ability to mix audio tracks, a growing collection of sound effects, voice effects and filters, it should be a lot of fun too.”
Facebook will also be bringing monetisation alongwith its audio tools for creators. At the time of launch, people will be able to support hosts and causes during live audio room streams through stars and donations. The company also plans to allow live audio room hosts to charge a one-time or recurring subscription to access the streams.
Facebook will also be setting up a ‘audio creator fund’ to support emerging Soundbites creators.
On Monday, Facebook also announced that users will now be able to transfer their Posts and Notes from the social media platform to WordPress, Google Docs and Blogger.
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