Clubhouse accidentally leaked its own private messaging function

Clubhouse — which inadvertently sent every other tech platform from Spotify to Facebook scrambling to build out copycat functionality — seems to be taking its first steps away from pure live audio experiences. How do we know this? The company appears to have accidentally leaked a messaging feature, called Backchannel, to some users late last week.

Based on several tweets circulating on Friday (including the below screen recording), Backchannel is an apparent means for users to chat via text instead of audio. Apparently the feature was not referenced whatsoever in the app’s release notes of the version, and what was rolled out looks blatantly unfinished. It’s not clear how long this version of Backchannel existed out in the wild, but...

Continue reading…