Facebook expands its Live Audio feature to more creators globally

Facebook is expanding the Live Audio Rooms feature it launched in the US in June to a global audience. In addition to public figures and creators, Facebook is also making the feature -- a Clubhouse competitor -- available for groups.

When it first launched, Live Audio Rooms could be created through Facebook's iOS app; Now it has added the ability to create rooms to its Android app as well. People will now be able to listen to live audio rooms on desktop, but they'll need to use a mobile app to create them. Within groups, administrators can control who will enter the audio room with private and public options.

The social media giant is rolling out its Soundbites short-audio feature to more users in the US. Soundbites live in users' news feeds; Users record a short piece of audio – an anecdote, a joke, a moment of inspiration – into a separate tool within Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the soundbites to be similar to Instagram's reels, but just for the audio. Facebook says the product is still in its early stages of development, but has so far found success among creators who use it. It will be available to more users in the coming weeks.

Facebook finally got into the podcast arena over the summer, but podcast listening on Facebook is still limited to its US audience. The company said in a statement that it plans to expand its podcast offerings to more markets in the future, "as part of its long-term vision in providing a holistic experience that will enable new distribution opportunities for podcasts, discovery and development." , will enable monetization and social networking. adds relationship. in one place."

The company also says that it has focused on moderation tools within its social audio experiences, including tools that "proactively and automatically identify harmful content," and tools to moderate audio content. for its processes. Violates Facebook's Community Standards.

How Facebook handles harmful content has certainly been a major subject of investigation in recent weeks, with internal documents provided to news outlets by whistleblower Frances Hogen after the company's research found that its Instagram platform Can be toxic especially for girls. Nick Clegg, the company's vice president for global affairs, said over the weekend that Instagram would introduce features encouraging users to "take a break" from the platform and turn them away from content "not conducive to their well-being." .