Audio as a format continues to gain ground, especially live broadcasts. Applications like Clubhouse, although there are already many others, have shown that there is interest in this new way of creating content and connecting with the audience. That's why, Instagram also now offers the possibility to make direct without video, only with audio. So we are going to explain how the whole process is and why it might interest you.
Audio-only broadcasts come to Instagram
Instagram has joined the current trend that is committed to audio as one of the most interesting internet formats right now. And we're not talking about podcasts. These have been with us for many years now and have not only shown that they are very interesting, but also that today it continues to be a very intimate and attractive way to connect with other users.
What Instagram is adding now after seeing how many other services and applications have done in recent months is the possibility of going live where all you will have is streaming audio. No image as until now the platform allowed.
Thus, with this movement and without the need to create any additional application, Instagram is going from offering its traditional live rooms where you could count on the participation of up to three more people to allow a kind of Clubhouse (for being, perhaps, the most popular app right now in this sense) where four people could participate and have as many listeners as users want to sign up to hear what has to be said.
How to create audio-only Lives Rooms on Instagram
The process when creating one of these rooms where you are only going to listen to an audio signal and there is no type of image beyond the host's avatar is as simple as creating a live video of those that you surely already know.
So, although we will give you the steps in a schematic way and in order, basically the creation of an audio Live Room consists of taking advantage of the options that are introduced through two new buttons in the application interface.
These buttons, from what you can see in the images, what they offer is the possibility of independently control both audio and video. Thus, you can touch any of them to mute the microphone input or deactivate the camera and nothing is captured.
Since what you want is only to broadcast audio, the only icon you would have to touch to deactivate is the one that corresponds to the video. From there everything works as usual. That is, you have a text box where you can enter comments and there is also a live chat where the people who are watching or listening to you, as would be the case, could leave their questions, contributions or anything else that occurs to them so that you can interact with them if you find it interesting.
So, as you can see, the process is extremely easy. But if it seems to you, we make a more schematic summary so that you have it even clearer:
- The first thing you have to do, of course, is open the Instagram application
- Once done, swipe from left to right to access the interface that allows you from publishing a story to a Reel or doing a live
- Select the direct option
- Enter the room title and then start the event
- On the right hand side you should see the icons for a microphone and a camera
- If you touch them, they are deactivated, so to broadcast only audio, the only one you have to mark is the video one
- Done, from now on there will only be one audio stream
As you can see, a very simple process.
Why do live with only audio
Video has been in recent years one of the preferred ways of many creators when it comes to sharing content on the internet. As we have already said on occasion, increasingly faster connections, the possibility of doing it even while on the go thanks to generous mobile data rates in gigabytes or even "unlimited", devices with larger screens in the case of smartphones, etc. ., that's how they have propitiated it.
However, just as the radio knew how to stay alive when television arrived, audio has also played an important role on the Internet from the beginning. Now that podcasts are well established, despite the room for growth they still have, it's radio-style live audio that's gaining ground.
And if you wonder what is interesting about it or why it can be more attractive than a video broadcast Through platforms like Twitch the answers are two:
- On the one hand, an audio broadcast requires less complexity since the image factor is discarded. So you don't have to worry about the camera and the quality it can offer, nor about the lighting and much less have to be careful that what you see on the screen is always what you really want to show
- On the other hand, the audio is a bit more intimate and if as the creator it relieves you of certain aspects to control, the user who listens to you frees them from having to pay attention to the screen in case something you can show is lost. So it is also more efficient even as a "company" while doing other activities
This is why doing Instagram live with only audio can be interesting. You continue to maintain contact with your community of followers, you can invite other people and not be violent because they have to see you or see you.
A first step towards new ways of interacting
At the moment, Instagram's proposal to offer direct shows where there is only audio streaming is very basic. The functionality is there and surely they have had to make internal changes regarding the operation of the Lives Room. But in matters of interface can still be improved and there are already hints of what future audio rooms look like.
Therefore, this is only a first step or advance of what is to come. Because it's not going to stay here. Surely if they are also coming to Facebook, in the near future they will be adding new options to give it more value and that when someone considers creating an audio room, they do so on Instagram and not on Twitter, Clubhouse or any other application or service.