LinkedIn confirms Audio Rooms plans

We reported yesterday that reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi has discovered that LinkedIn is joining the party call revolution, with its own version of Clubhouse’s audio rooms, following in the footsteps of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Telegram.

Today Techcrunch reports that the Microsoft-owned company has confirmed the plans for a “social audio experience” designed to let creators connect with their community. LinkedIn says their version is different from others because it will be connected with users’ professional identity, not just a social profile.

“We’re seeing nearly 50% growth in conversations on LinkedIn reflected in stories, video shares, and posts on the platform,” Suzi Owens, a spokesperson for LinkedIn, said when confirming its audio feature’s development. “We’re doing some early tests to create a unique audio experience connected to your professional identity. And, we’re looking at how we can bring audio to other parts of LinkedIn such as events and groups, to give our members even more ways to connect to their community,” she said.

LinkedIn believes users will be more comfortable to engage with content as part of their professional role and identity and that it would be able to benefit from its existing moderation tools used in LinkedIn Live for example.

“Our priority is to build a trusted community where people feel safe and can be productive,” Owens noted. “Our members come to LinkedIn to have respectful and constructive conversations with real people and we’re focused on ensuring they have a safe environment to do just that,” she said.

LinkedIn has 740 million global users and says 21 million people attended an event on LinkedIn in 2020, up 30% year on year.

The new Audio Rooms feature is in testing at present, and the company did not share when it expects to launch, though it is likely to enter beta testing soon.