Facebook Develops New Q&A Program Hotline

It is not easy to create hit products in the cross-border e-commerce industry, and the same is probably true for the social media industry. Otherwise, why would social media giants rush to imitate TikTok and Clubhouse?

The protagonist of today's article, Facebook, is even more powerful. Some foreign media reported that Facebook is developing its own "Clubhouse", which is also a Q&A program – Hotline – which can be regarded as a "mashup" of Clubhouse and Instagram Live.

It is reported that Facebook’s internal R&D department NPE Team started the Beta testing phase of Hotline today. The reason why it is called a mashup of Clubhouse and Instagram Live is because Hotline not only allows the chat room host to communicate with the audience, conduct text or audio question sessions, but also allows users to turn on the camera to show their faces.

At 1 p.m. ET, real estate investor Nick Huber conducted Hotline's first public live broadcast, telling the audience about his experience of investing in real estate as an additional source of income. Professionals like Nick Huber who can help people learn professional skills or expand their sources of income are exactly the content creators Facebook wants to work with.

In the page design of the application software, Hotline has many similarities with Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces: when viewed on a computer screen, the left half of the page displays the host’s circular avatar or live broadcast screen, and the right side displays the audience; on a mobile phone screen On the top, the host is displayed at the top and the audience is displayed at the bottom.

But Hotline also has many special features. Currently, users who are trying out Hotline for the first time can log in with one click through their Twitter account. Audiences who enter the chat room will be automatically divided into two parts: those who only watch without asking questions and those who have already asked questions. The questions raised by the audience will also be displayed on the page accordingly. Others can choose to "like" or "dislike" . In this way, the host can check the questions that the audience is interested in and decide the order in which to answer the questions. He can also invite the corresponding audience to the "center stage" to have a real-time conversation with them.

At present, the audience invited to the stage in the center of the screen can only display their avatars and cannot show their true faces like the host. However, the official version of the app should open up the function of real-time video chat for the audience.

During the interaction, Hotline also provides some simple emoji expressions to help viewers express their emotions, including clapping, flames, hearts, laughter, surprise and thumbs up.

Moderators who open chat rooms on Hotline may enjoy greater control over their meetings than other apps. During the chat, the moderator can remove inappropriate questions from the question list, or even directly ask the audience out of the chat room. In a previous test, Facebook employees were able to moderate chat rooms and remove any viewers from group chats who violated Facebook's Community Standards, Terms of Service, Data Policy or NPE Team Supplementary Terms.

In addition, Hotline supports conference recording and video recording. The chat room host will receive the audio and video materials of the event after the meeting. The host can upload these materials to other social media software as short videos or audios. The form continues to spread.

This setting makes the chat room ecology of Hotline and Clubhouse completely different. Clubhouse prefers to create a relaxed and pleasant chat room atmosphere. Unless the name of the chat room indicates that the interaction process will be recorded, users are not encouraged to record the chat in any form. content. In contrast, Hotline may be more suitable for more formal lecture activities, where professionals host and invite the audience to ask questions.

It should be noted that Hotline is only one of the applications developed by Facebook during related attempts, and it may not wait until the day it successfully passes the test and is officially released, but these attempts made by Facebook will Its main platform and services provide more inspiration and experience.

Currently, Facebook is testing software such as Super, which is similar to the personalized video sharing website Cameo, Messenger Rooms, another Clubhouse challenger, Venue, another question and answer product, and video applications Collab and BARS, which are similar to TikTok, respectively. for collaborative music and rap music.

I have to say that these ideas are quite interesting, so let’s wait and see!