Even Discord is working on its own version of Clubhouse

Clubhouse and the concept behind it have taken the world by storm. In a world that’s currently enduring a harsh pandemic with no end in sight, Internet-based services have taken even more prevalence, and the public chatroom concept Clubhouse has pioneered has managed to attract a lot of users, lured by the concept of public, audio-only rooms that are more engaging and dynamic than simple live streams. Twitter is launching their own alternative to Clubhouse called Twitter Spaces, while it was reported that Facebook and Telegram also had their own alternatives in the works. A new player might be joining these other two companies, though, and it’s none other but Discord.

Discord already offers audio chatting as well as video chatting in individual servers, but these are meant for smaller groups rather than bigger audiences like on Clubhouse. A user actually reported on Reddit that they seemingly got beta access to a new feature on Discord: an all-new type of channel called a “Stage Channel” that would join the existing text channel, voice channel, and announcement channel. It was then clarified in the comments that Stage Channels would be an all-new type of voice channels meant for larger audiences, where a select few can speak, users listening can “Request to Speak”, and authorized users can grant these users the right to speak. So, basically just Clubhouse.

“Stage Channels” showing up in channel types inside of the Discord app. Image credits: /u/MaximumPollution

Now, while this feature is in the works, it’s not really ready for primetime yet. The original Reddit post, for example, clarifies that the app doesn’t really let them create a “Stage” channel yet even though the app is giving them the option. Given how Clubhouse and its concept are rapidly growing trends, a big team at Discord is probably hard at work on this feature as I write this article, so maybe we’ll see it roll out very soon. For what it’s worth, a couple of Discord data miners spotted this feature a few days ago, but we weren’t expecting public beta tests to happen so soon.