Clubhouse Introduces New ‘Backchannel’ Direct Messaging Feature

Social audio company Clubhouse has today announced the launch of its new ‘Backchannel’ direct messaging feature, which is rolling now to all users on both iOS and Android. Backchannel offers both 1:1 and group chat, as well as an optional second inbox for message requests.

My hat? Tipped
My mic? Flashed
My messaging? Direct.

After we unintentionally leaked their feature 5 times, here’s our beloved engineering team introducing the new Clubhouse Backchannel 🥰 pic.twitter.com/3bPHeGxQaZ

— Clubhouse (@Clubhouse)

July 14, 2021

Clubhouse says the feature has been designed to help moderators chat among themselves during an active room, plan what question to ask next, or decide who to pull up from the audience. 

If you’re a listener, you can chat with your other friends in the audience any time you’re in a room. Just tap the airplane icon, or swipe left to access the chat thread.

Below are some of the highlights of the Backchannel messaging system:

• Send and receive questions from the audience. If you’re a speaker, you can now take questions from people via text—and use that to decide who to call up from the audience. If you’re a listener, you can now submit questions, even if you’re not able to come up on stage.
• Say thanks to someone. Receive a payment? A good question? An invite to a great room? Use Backchannel to say thank you.
• Plan your events. A lot of work can go into planning a good event. Now you can use Backchannel to coordinate with your co-hosts, organize questions, decide on guests, and collaborate before you go live.
• Chat with your Clubhouse friends. When you meet people on Clubhouse, it’s nice to be able to keep the conversation going after the room ends. Now with Backchannel, you can. 🙂

Clubhouse is working on a bunch of additional features which will be rolled out over the coming weeks.