Clubhouse reinvented the social media sphere. And others followed.
The craze made the app a unicorn, even when it was still in beta. After ending its iOS exclusivity by expanding to Android, it was a little bit too late for the social audio app
Even its CEO admitted that Clubhouse grew "way too fast."
While the Clubhouse hype has diminished, audio-based feature is still popular in other platforms.
Including on Reddit.
Reddit's Clubhouse clone, Reddit Talk has gained enough momentum that the company is investing on it more to expand its reach and to also add some more features.
Reddit Talk is a "tool that lets you host live audio conversations in your communities."
It's the platform’s audio-only chatrooms.
In a blog post, Reddit said that Reddit Talk is getting features that include: a recording function, web experiences, comments and emojis, as well as a Live Bar.
First up, the recording function allows users to listen to past Talks on their own time line. With the feature, when a redditor visits a Reddit Talk post from a past live session, they can listen to a recording of the conversation. The feature includes a playback bar that enables redditors to skip to any timestamp, pause or unpause, and fast-forward or rewind 10 seconds at a time.
Next, is bringing Reddit Talk to the web. Before, Reddit Talk was exclusive only to users of Reddit's native app.
As for the comments and emojis feature, it allows users to use text and emojis in Reddit Talk.
"Previously, redditors who were listening to a Talk were able to raise their hand to join the stage, but couldn’t comment in real time. Enabling comments and emojis makes Talks easier to engage with, even without speaking," explained Reddit.
And lastly, the Live Bar feature allows users to see highlights of Reddit Talks that are happening in real time.
Located at the top, this should make it easier for users to discover Reddit Talks in the communities they love.
Reddit first introduced Reddit Talk on April 2021. Since then, the feature could only be used by moderators who have joined a waiting list. Only those people that could host the audio-only sessions.
At this time, nothing is changing, with the platform saying that it has no "plans to extend the live audio feature to Reddit users outside of moderators."
This is predicted, since Reddit doesn't follow what other social media platforms are doing.
When social media companies tend to make their users go viral, Reddit only makes contents viral. This is why Reddit Talk might seem a bit counterintuitive at first, since many redditors use Reddit for anonymity.
By expanding the feature, Reddit is taking things slowly.
With the update, Reddit is pushing live audio to be a more central part of its platform, after seeing a "250% growth in daily active listeners.”
The company also noted that more than 1,000 subreddits have enabled the feature so far.