Clubhouse, the once-popular live audio app, announced today that users can now text their friends and will hear those texts in the sender’s custom voice.
To stay relevant amid user churn, Clubhouse debuted group voice chats where members can send asynchronous voice messages to each other and will appear in a format similar to Instagram Stories.
With today’s announcement, the company acknowledges that you may not be able to send voice messages to each other. So you can train your custom voice, send messages and have your friends hear the message with the recreated voice. The app displays an indication to your friends when the AI voice reads a message.
Image Credits: Club
In a blog postthe company said this feature still maintains the feeling of chatting in real time with a friend.
“Imagine you’re texting a friend, but on the other end they hear your words as if you actually said them. Your custom voice makes speaking and typing or reading and listening feel seamless, so you never lose that sense of being in a live conversation,” the company said.
Clubhouse claims its AI is able to recreate your voice close to the original, even when you train it by reading just a few sentences. The company said the AI can’t recreate your laugh well (so don’t type hahaha?).
Image Credits: Club
The company can too produce voice by itself if you don’t feel comfortable recording your voice. The startup didn’t specify details, but it would likely be a text-to-speech model.
Currently, this feature is only available in the US at this time.
Use of the app has declined in recent years. It recently raised a round at a $4 billion valuation. In recent years he had several layoffs. But last year, the company claimed it was a few years off the runway. Now it’s experimenting with AI-powered features to facilitate conversations between friends, hoping users will stick around.
In particular, last year, Apple released a feature called Personal Voice, which creates a voice that sounds like you. This is especially useful for people who may be at risk of losing their ability to speak vocally from conditions such as ALS.
