LinkedIn is working on a Clubhouse-like service within its app, the company confirmed through a blog post on its website. LinkedIn said it is reimagining how its users can create a more “expressive and inclusive” profile on the platform. The first step in this direction is a video cover story feature that allows LinkedIn users to introduce themselves with a video. It has also introduced a new creator mode that will allow users to follow others on the platform.
Clubhouse quickly rose to fame over the past few months due to its concept of audio-based socialising and adding members like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. This lead to Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, and Discord developing something on similar lines as Clubhouse. Now, LinkedIn is also doing something similar and has shared some details on its official blog. LinkedIn is coming up with a new way for its users to share their professional story and make their profile more expressive.
The Microsoft-owned professional social network showed off a new feature called video cover story which, as the name suggests, allows LinkedIn users to create a short video introducing themselves and letting employers know they have something to offer. Once a cover story is made, the profile photo will get an orange ring and a preview of the video will play in the frame. LinkedIn is also working on a captioning feature.
Additionally, LinkedIn is also adding a gender pronoun field where users can add their preferred gender pronoun. It will be an optional field that will be displayed next to the user’s name.
The company shared a conceptual UX mockup of its Clubhouse-like audio-only service (running on iOS) with TechCrunch. It has a similar speaker and listener concept with emotes, permission to speak, and more. App reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi shared on Twitter what the feature will look like on Android and while the overall UI looks similar, there are options for joining, leaving, reacting, and requesting at the bottom.
Furthermore, LinkedIn introduced its own creator mode which is a new way for users to connect with others. Creator mode allows users to add hashtags, it replaces the Connect button with a Follow button, and moves Featured and Activity sections to the top of the profile. LinkedIn Live broadcasters will have their Live broadcast streaming on their profile background.
The aforementioned features will start rolling out globally this week with more enhancements coming in the near future.
Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, has a double bill this week: the OnePlus 9 series, and Justice League Snyder Cut (starting at 25:32). Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts.