Ever since Clubhouse announced its unique invitation-only audio platform, everyone has been clamoring to get in on the action; Facebook has been working to develop a competitor to Clubhouse and is currently testing its newest competitor: Hotline.

While Clubhouse will not remain invitation-only forever, the inability of social media users to jump in and try out Clubhouse has opened the door for alternatives to it. Twitter Spaces, LinkedIn Live Audio Rooms, Instagram Live Rooms, and others are popping up all the time with their own take on the clubhouse formula.

Hotline is trying to stand out, described as a mashup of Clubhouse and Instagram Live. Yes, it is more than just audio.

Unlike Clubhouse, Hotline can be downloaded on both mobile devices and desktops. The interface differs slightly depending on whether it is a mobile or desktop app, but at a quick glance it looks quite similar to Clubhouse.

Hotline has a speaker section that highlights hosts and another section that lists listeners. Listeners are divided into passive and audience, with those who wish to ask questions.

The host can view the questions and downvote/upvote them. Listeners can join the host on stage if their question is selected. Audience members can also react with emojis to increase engagement. Of course, the host can control the room, scrapping questions or ejecting audience members from the room.

The website allows you to sign up for a waiting list if the test is available in your area. Registration requires a Twitter account, after which the ID is confirmed by SMS.

One of the main differences is that Clubhouse does not record room discussions, while Hotline does. Clubhouse states that it temporarily records sessions only for the purpose of investigating potential incidents. If nothing is reported, the recording will be deleted when the room is closed. Users are not allowed to record events in the room.

Hotline automatically generates a recording and sends the host an mp4 and mp3 file of the session. These can be edited for posting on other social media platforms. While Clubhouse's approach is in favor of encouraging speech without fear of speaking freely, Hotline takes the opposite line. For more formal Q&A purposes, the approach makes sense.

Currently, Hotline does not set a cap on the number of rooms. The clubhouse has a cap of 8,000 people, which should not be a problem as there is plenty of room.

Before Elon Musk's appearance on the app earlier this year, the cap was 5,000. His sessions easily exceeded the cap, leading to an "overflow" room and a cap increase. If he were able to assemble a dreamy guest list that included Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kanye West, no doubt we would see similar numbers.

Clubhouse uses an audio-only format, a feature that rival apps all over the place have adopted; Hotline mixes things up a bit with its audio format, but offers users the option to turn on their device's camera if they wish.

TechCrunch reports that when listeners join the host "on stage," they can switch to video, but the toggle is currently disabled in testing.