Ever since the audio-based social networking app Clubhouse gained popularity in the market, we have seen various alternatives already in the works. Now, Instagram has joined the party and is planning to bring an audio-based live room feature to its platform. The company is also working to add end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for chats.
As per a recent tweet by app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi, Instagram is currently testing a Clubhouse-like feature for its app. The feature, dubbed “audio rooms”, is currently under-development. Paluzzi, however, was able to acquire a couple of screenshots showcasing the feature. You can check them out in his tweet attached below:
#Instagram is working on audio rooms 👀 pic.twitter.com/5TI6YzLi9A
Now, in one of the screenshots, there is a mic icon right beside the camcorder icon on Instagram. In the second screenshot, we can see a “loading” message on the user-profile, hinting at the initiation of the audio room. Along with the loading message, there is also a mic icon and a cross-icon. So, this might mean that the user can mute or unmute their mics or leave the audio room altogether.
Apart from the audio rooms feature, Paluzzi also discovered that the Facebook-owned entity is working to enable end-to-end encryption for chats. He shared another screenshot from the app, which shows the chat screen with the message “start end-to-end encrypted chat.”
#Instagram is working on end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) chats 👀 pic.twitter.com/XSb4DqHtU6
