Reddit unveiled its take on a Clubhouse-like social audio product on Monday, called Reddit Talk. The company is billing Monday’s announcement as a “sneak preview,” since the feature isn’t widely available yet. Moderators that want to try the feature out in their subreddit can add themselves to a waitlist for access.
Reddit Talk is a Clubhouse competitor for subreddits
Mods can sign up now to get on the waitlist
Mods can sign up now to get on the waitlist
Image: Reddit
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
Based on Reddit’s description and images shared by the company, Reddit Talk appears to look a lot like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces, and other social audio products. Talks will “live” within subreddits, according to Reddit.
During the initial tests, only subreddit moderators will be able to initiate a Talk, and Talk hosts will have the ability to invite, mute, and remove speakers. While only mods can kick off Talks in the beginning, anyone on iOS and Android can listen to one.
Moderation has been an issue for Clubhouse, so it’s notable that Reddit is starting small and giving access only to moderators first. At some point in the future, mods will be able to bring on trusted community members as co-hosts.
The company says it is “testing ways” for hosts to customize how Talks look with emojis and different background colors, and users will be able to change their avatar, too.
Reddit joins Twitter, Slack, Discord, LinkedIn, and Spotify in announcing a social audio feature. Mashable first broke word that Reddit was working on a social audio feature on April 9th.
Update April 19th, 12:33PM ET: Reddit clarified after publishing that the waitlist is intended only for moderators. Also added that mods will be able to bring on community members as co-hosts in the future.
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