The gist of it is that Facebook wants to put a lot more audio in your News Feed. For one, the company is slowly introducing a feature called Soundbites, which it describes as a “short-form, creative audio clips for capturing anecdotes, jokes, moments of inspiration, poems, and many other things we haven’t yet imagined.”
It basically sounds like the short voice clips you might share with friends in WhatsApp and Messenger, except with a more public, shareable emphasis. Soundbites will be rolling out to a “small number of creators” over the next few months before it becomes widely available. If you’re more into long-form audio, the company also announced you’d be able to listen to podcasts directly within Facebook in the next few months. It’ll provide suggestions based on your interests, and you’ll be able to share them and comment on them just like any other content on the social network.
Unsurprisingly, Facebook is looking to get a bit of Clubhouse in its primary social network too. The company plans to launch an audio-only version of Rooms, called Live Audio Rooms. It’s a bit more public-facing than existing Rooms though, as it intends to allow public figures and creators to interact with the population at large. Fans will be able to donate to creators during a Live audio session, for example.
The company is building out tools to make these audio experiences easier, more fun, and more accessible, including automated captions, translations, and AI-powered noise cancellation technology. The company will let you use music from its sound collection, as well as a variety of sound effects, and voice filters. Facebook proper aside, the company also noted it’s working on the ability to send “sound effects like crickets chirping to quotes from popular songs” in WhatsApp and Messenger. It kind of sounds like the audio version of a GIF, which is kind of interesting, I guess.
