Discord has announced its own Clubhouse lookalike, Stage Channels. Within less than a year, Clubhouse has turned into one of darlings of social media. Though the audio chat app is still an exclusive party, everyone wants to get in on the latest craze, with numerous other social media networks having developed their own takes on the audio chat platform.
Last year, Discord got its time in the spotlight. Though more office-oriented telecommunications apps like Zoom and Google Meets rose to the top, Discord became a haven for gamers stuck during the pandemic, hitting 100 million users by June last year, which is no doubt past of the reason for Microsoft’s interest in the platform. However, amid its growth among gamers, the company announced its departure from a purely gaming orientation and started focusing on other markets. Discord wanted to cater to a more diverse market, marking the app’s desire to compete with its rivals during the pandemic and post-pandemic world.
Discord’s launch of Stage Channels furthers the app’s desire to cater to a more general audience. The new feature allows a group of users into a single voice channel. However, instead of allowing everyone to speak at once (like how voice channels usually work on Discord), Stage Channels will allow only one or a few to speak at a time. A Stage moderator can manage who gets to speak on the channel. Server owners can try the feature by enabling the feature on Server Settings and going to Community.
How Does It Stack Up To Clubhouse?
Naturally, Discord’s biggest strength against Clubhouse is its lack of exclusivity. While Clubhouse is invite-only, anyone can sign up for a Discord account and set up their own server. The new Stage Channel is available for anyone in a server but, despite the feature’s openness, Discord still offers a modicum of privacy; only server members can participate in their respective Stage Channels. Discord is also available on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, which towers over Clubhouse’s current iOS exclusivity, although that will change as Clubhouse expands to more platforms and audiences.
In terms of features, Stage Channels function very similarly to what Clubhouse promises. Like Clubhouse, the feature has a moderator to manage how the Stage Channel goes and a raise hand feature. However, although Stage Channels do a good job at offering Clubhouse’s popular features, Discord also has its other tried-and-tested features: voice channels, text- and photo-based chats, private messaging, screen sharing, and many others.
