Patreon launches new Community Chat feature for enhanced creator-audience interaction

Patreon has announced that is introducing a new community chats feature to enhance interaction between content creators and their audience. This feature allows creators to set up group chats for their followers, with the ability to manage access based on subscription tiers, all within the platform. The chat feature, which initially will be available on mobile with a desktop version in development, allow creators to host up to four 'community chats' with different settings and permissions simultaneously.

The platform seeks to enhance fan profiles, allowing subscribers to personalize their profiles with pictures, names, bios, and social media links, with the promise that in the future, they will be able to showcase their role and their community contributions on their profile as well. Patreon's chat function includes moderation tools, enabling creators to enforce community guidelines and take action against violations.

Certainly, for many users, this brings to mind platforms like Discord, and while some might think that this new feature aims to directly compete with the well-known Group Chat App, this is not entirely accurate (or at least not for now). While this new feature aligns with Patreon's goal to reduce reliance on third-party apps for content delivery, it should be noted that it is limited to quickly sharing photos, text, and emojis, offering an oversimplified version of what is found on Discord. Moreover, the strong integration between both services should be also considered, such as the authentication system to grant a Patreon user access to a Discord server based on their subscription status. Something similar to what was recently announced in the Patreon and Spotify partnership.