Slack reproduces acoustic rooms from the Clubhouse
Slack plans to add a bunch of voice features to all users of the business chat app, including cloning voice chat rooms from the Clubhouse app.
"We're experimenting with voice messaging functionality and are planning to offer video and audio rooms that don't require an initial scheduling or an actual call," said company CEO Stewart Butterfield.
He added: The feature to leave voice messages, similar to the function available in messaging applications, such as Telegram, is available in a beta test.
The Slack platform, which builds a chat room product mainly used by companies, allows users to make voice calls to one another.
The continuing increase in technology companies' reproduction of the advantages of entry-level competitors illustrates a lack of imagination or anti-competitive behavior.
And it might make sense in this case, as Slack and Clubhouse operate in completely different markets (commercial and consumer).
Slack is also planning to catch up with Instagram, Twitter, and many other less important apps to implement its own version of the Stories feature.
This builds on previous news that Slack plans to expand from an internal messaging platform to a company-to-business communications service.
Butterfield also said: Slack is soon getting the well-known ephemeral video messaging feature, similar to the messaging format that Snapchat has built and imitated a lot, from Instagram to LinkedIn.
Butterfield indicated for the first time that these features have been on Slack's road map since October.
The new features come as Slack strives to transform its internal company communications tool into a broader company-to-company messaging service.
The announcement appears to have surprised Salesforce Chief Operating Officer (Bret Taylor) Bret Taylor, whose company plans to buy Slack in a deal that is currently being vetted by antitrust regulators.
Salesforce said in a regulatory filing: it still expects to close the deal by the end of July.
Taylor said via tweet: “Obviously, the way to learn about all of Slack's cool features that haven't been released is to invite Butterfield to a talk via Clubhouse.