It’s annoying when you’re engaged in a lively room, and want to connect to someone, you have to go to their profile, find their Twitter or Instagram handle and message them there. That’s probably about to change. [Read: Why entrepreneurship in emerging markets matters] Clubhouse accidentally leaked its under-development chat feature called Backchannel. This UI element disappeared very quickly after some users noticed it, so we don’t know much about how it’ll supposedly work. Check out the video in the tweet below for a glimpse of the feature.
Seems it’s rolled back now but from what I saw it was beautiful!! On stage > move to hallway > hit arrow > back channel popped up! @jowyang @GaryLHenderson pic.twitter.com/5bJfVlg7t5 — Brian Fanzo ? Keynote Speaker $ADHD (@iSocialFanz) June 18, 2021 The company’s founder had previously mentioned the possibility of building a DM backchannel in a townhall room. He said that the company has to think about making “sure that the feature enhances the experience rather than taking away from the experience.” Potentially, he’s referring to a scenario where users may send unsolicited messages to others.
/via @_SimonLau cc @morqon @BryanMenegus pic.twitter.com/qTwTDN6GZU — Chris Messina (@chrismessina) June 21, 2021 We’ve asked Clubhouse for a comment, and we’ll update the story if we hear back. This new development comes days after Spotify launched its own real-time conversation app called Greenroom. Incidentally, that app has a chat feature that lets you connect with another person in the app via text. With the number of live audio apps rising, Clubhouse wouldn’t want to miss out on critical features like this and potentially lose users early in this game.
