Reddit Brings New Feature Line To Talk To Overtake Clubhouse Market

Reddit Talk is now available in desktop browsers. (photo: doc. reddit)

JAKARTA - After almost a year of introducing Reddit Talk, which is similar to Clubhouse, the company is now extending its live audio chat to the desktop and adding several new features to make conversations easier to find and follow.

When it first launched last April, audio chat was only available on mobile and Reddit users had to listen live if they wanted to capture the conversation.

But that's now changing, as Reddit Talk is now available in desktop browsers, and chats can now be recorded so users can listen to the conversation again after it's over.

Apart from that, the platform also gives listeners the ability to communicate with text and emojis in real time. Prior to this change, users could only raise their hand when they wanted to speak.

Adding these two additional ways to communicate will make the conversation more interesting, especially if some users want to comment but don't want to use the microphone.

"In the last three months, we've seen a growth of over 250 percent in daily active listeners for Reddit Talk," said Reddit on its official blog.

Additionally, Reddit admits its live audio chat has had more than 1,000 subreddits (or communities), including talks in r/cryptocurrency with investor Kevin O'Leary, and r/film sessions with stuntmen from the Jackass franchise.

Furthermore, Reddit is also making audio chats easier to find by adding a live bar to the top of the app, highlighting ongoing conversations, similar to the way Twitter pushes Twitter Spaces live chat to the top of its users' timelines.

It's worth noting, for using Reddit Talk only moderators who join the waitlist can host audio sessions only, it looks like Reddit doesn't plan to let regular users take control of Talk either.

With this feature set coming, it's becoming increasingly clear that Reddit is pushing its live audio into a more central part of its platform.