Clubhouse gets a text chat feature for live audio rooms

Clubhouse, an audio chat app that debuted back in 2020 as an exclusive social network, is now adding a feature that seems to be contrary to its initial live audio chat purpose. 9to5Mac reports that there is a major change to the app coming, and will let users interact in voice rooms with text chat.

Clubhouse getting text chat for its voice rooms in a major change

Clubhouse's live audio chat was an idea that was quickly followed by competitors such as Twitter and Reddit. Now, the app is going to add a text chat option for people who don't feel like they want to talk in the live audio chat rooms.

The app has announced in its official blog that there is a new feature that would allow everyone to be able to join live conversations, whether by voice or text. The new addition to Clubhouse's feature set is dubbed "In-Room Chat", and it works in a similar manner to Zoom or Skype. Basically, you will be able to chat within a live audio room.

The blog post reads that the feature will be useful to share jokes, request songs, or send emojis as reactions to what's being talked about.

On top of that, voice room moderators will be able to delete chat messages. Basically, creators can appoint mods to keep an eye on the chat and delete messages if found inappropriate.

Understandably though, if the room has hundreds or thousands of people, the task of moderating chat comments will indeed prove to be quite difficult.

As a creator, you will also be able to delete chat messages at any moment, and even after the live session has ended. Additionally, you will be able to turn off the In-Room chat at any moment as well, if it proves to be unproductive or annoying.


Another useful feature of the In-Room chat option is that you will be able to delete your comment during the live room or after the live room has ended.

Audio rooms that have chat enabled will appear with a dedicated icon at the bottom left of the screen. When the live audio ends, all messages sent during the session will be available for reading to anyone listening to the Replay of the session.

But that's not all the new feature is expected to bring. The social network says that the text chat will give creators an option to make quick polls or ask questions in a live chat with multiple people.

The new In-Room Chat feature is currently rolling out with the latest version of the Clubhouse app from the App Store.

Earlier, Clubhouse expanded its platform to the web

As you may probably know, initially, the Clubhouse app was available only on iOS and Android devices. In January though, Clubhouse expanded its platform to the web (via 9to5Mac), and with this, anyone could listen to a live chat. However, it is still not possible to join from the web as a speaker during live audio sessions.

The option to listen to a live audio chat on Clubhouse from your desktop doesn't require you to be logged in, so basically creators can share live audio chats with multiple people (only for listening on the web though, as we said, it is not possible to join to talk from your PC or Mac).