Instagram Takes on Clubhouse, Launches ‘Live Rooms’

Few companies are faster to react to new competition than Facebook and that continues to be the case with the announcement of “Live Rooms” for Instagram, a new feature that is a direct answer to Clubhouse.

The new feature will allow users to “go live” on Instagram with up to three other people. Up to this point, Instagram has only supported live streaming with one other person on the stream.

“We hope that doubling up on Live will open up more creative opportunities,” Facebook writes on a blog announcing the additional feature. “Start a talk show, host a jam session or co-create with other artists, host more engaging Q&As or tutorials with your following, or just hang out with more of your friends.”

Live Rooms also build in a monetization option that will allow businesses to earn money. Last year, Instagram announced that it would allow viewers to purchase badges for their favorite content creators on the platform and that feature is also being included with Live Rooms.

“With Live Rooms, viewers can buy badges for the hosts and use other interactive features like Shopping and Live Fundraisers,” the company writes. “We’re also exploring more interactive tools such as offering moderator controls and audio features that will be available in the coming months.”

To start a Live Room, swipe left and pick the Live camera option, then add a title and tap the Rooms icon to add guests. YOu can see people who have requested to go live and you can also search for guests to add. If you are the host of a Live Room, you’ll remain at the top of the screen when you add guests, and as the broadcaster, you can add guests all at once or one by one.

Clubhouse started to become popular late last year and has seen considerable success due to it’s ability to bring people together during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been argued that the app is able to change social media, and is growing in popularity.

Live Rooms is just the latest feature added to the Instagram platform specifically designed to tackle new competition. Last August, the company added Reels to compete directly with TikTok just a month after it tested a feature to compete with GoFundMe. Perhaps its greatest success was the addition of Instagram Stories which was a feature it added to compete with Snapchat. In 2018, its offering was twice as popular as the service it was designed to compete against.

(via Tech Crunch)