Facebook’s answer to Clubhouse is here - it’s called Hotline

Immediately after the Clubhouse phenomenon ignited, rumors that Facebook is working on a similar app began to surface. Now, months later, we finally have official confirmation - Facebook’s internal R&D group, the NPE Team, has launched Hotline - a Q&A app with video capabilities - into a public beta phase.

What is Hotline?

Hotline is a web-based application that shares many similar features with its more popular (for now) competitor. It allows users to speak in front of an audience and receive questions via text messages or audio.

There are some differences between Clubhouse and Hotline, though. Hotline can broadcast video if hosts decide to turn on their cameras. Another big difference is that Hotline automatically records every session, while Clubhouse doesn’t keep anything after the session is over.

It can be a double-edged sword, though. On one hand, you lose the anonymity that arguably is Clubhouse’s main appeal. On the other, recording podcast-style sessions can be useful if people want to revisit a certain topic in the future.

Hotline is also being moderated by Facebook employees, rather than leaving moderation solely to the hosts themselves, as is the case with Clubhouse.

How can you join Hotline?

At the moment, Hotline is available in the US but there is a catch. If you want to give it a try, you have to sign up for the waitlist at hotline.co. There’s no information about how long it takes to actually register and get on the app, though.

We’ll keep you posted about any further developments.