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San Francisco (dpa) - The up-and-coming audio app Clubhouse is getting competition from Twitter: The short message service is expanding the test run of its similar offering Spaces to more users.

He sees opportunities to supplement the exchange of information on Twitter with conversations between users, said product manager Kayvon Beykpour on Thursday night in a conversation at Spaces.

At Clubhouse, numerous users can take part in panel discussions.

Only some of them can speak at the same time.

The app quickly gained popularity in recent months after appearances by celebrities, among other things.

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Beykpour also attributes the success of the format to the fact that the hurdle for participating in a conversation is lower without a video image.

While Clubhouse limits the number of listeners to a talk show to 5000, Spaces does not have any restrictions.

Up to ten participants can speak at the same time, but there should be more over time.

Both services are currently only available to a limited extent.

Clubhouse has a waiting list - or you need an invitation from a member.

So far, Spaces has only tested a few thousand users and the conversations are only accessible in the Twitter app on the iPhone.

Beykpour emphasized that many aspects are still in work.

So it has not yet been decided whether there should be a recording function for later listening.

Currently, the conversations expire after the live stream ends.

On the one hand, this makes users more relaxed, and on the other hand, it is usually not worthwhile to listen to conversations in full afterwards.

But he could imagine that it could be a useful function to be able to record interesting fragments of the discussion rounds for later sharing.

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Twitter wants to develop new functions for the control of the conversation - for example the possibility to downgrade speakers who misbehave.

Twitter has the advantage that there is already a network of tens of millions of users who follow each other on the platform.

Meanwhile, Clubhouse was recently criticized for the fact that the app asks for access to users' contacts - so that they can find acquaintances with the app more quickly.

Founder and boss Mark Zuckerberg also commissioned Facebook to develop a competing clubhouse product, the New York Times wrote on Wednesday.

"I'm surprised that it took them so long to do this," Beykpour commented on the message.

Facebook is known to mimic popular features of other social media services in its apps.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210211-99-392737 / 2

Report of the "New York Times" on Facebook