Clubhouse has launched officially this Wednesday (14/07) its direct messaging feature, Backchannel. The tool, available for both iOS and Android users, had already been accidentally leaked a month ago and allows people on the platform to exchange popular “DMs” (direct messages) — like on Instagram or Twitter — while chatting in audio rooms.

The tool, for now, suffers from some restrictions. For example, you can't yet send images or videos in a conversation. Clubhouse promises that these functions will be available soon, but for now, in addition to text messages, chats (individual or group) only allow the sending of links. There will also be an optional secondary inbox where message requests will be stored.

In testing since June, Backchannel was launched by Clubhouse as a way for moderators to chat with each other while a room is active and also as a solution for people who want to connect after an event. In another aspect, it is also a way to keep users within the app, instead of “outsourcing” conversations to another platform, and to expand the status of Clubhouse itself, which is now no longer just chatting to voice.

Rise of competition

With this move, Clubhouse hopes to mitigate the threat from established rivals like Twitter and Facebook, which have taken advantage of the app's momentum and launched their own voice features — Spaces and Live Audio Rooms, respectively. Since early May, the app has seen a significant drop in downloads, according to data from Sensor Tower, due to the entry of Big Tech into this market niche.

Partly because of this, Clubhouse released, at the end of the same month, the service for Android. After the expansion, the company says it has already reached eight million downloads of Google's operating system.

Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. The Verge

Image: Clubhouse/Disclosure