Every day thousands of messages are exchanged on BandLab. New songs drafted in rapid volleys of chat. Lyrics shared. Rewritten. Reshared. New bands are formed; old bands reconnect via new technology. Creativity lives. While the Mix Editor is the creative collaboration hub for BandLab. And Creator Connect is where you can find new people to make music with. Chat is where conversations happen, people connect, and musical history begins.
So it matters that we have a strong, reliable chat feature.
In the past, BandLab chat used a third-party provider. At the time, we were focused on our core features, like the Mix Editor, mastering, virtual instruments and collaborative production. But now we’ve developed a new chat – built 100% by the BandLab Team and we are proud to be rolling it out over the coming weeks.
Why are we doing this now?
To start with, we heard you asking for a more stable chat function. And on top of that, earlier this year our third-party provider announced they would be shutting down. So it was time to get serious about in-house chat platform wide.
You’ve already experienced our in-house chat. In the first stage, we built an in-house chat for a real-time collaboration feature. In the second stage, we extended the functionality of the real-time collaboration chat and reused it for BandLab Live streaming pages, which launched last month.
And now finally, we’ve developed our own full-featured in-house chat solution that is ready to roll out platform-wide.
So what’s new?
The main change is that now someone will have to send you a message request to begin a conversation. Giving you more control over your inbox and better focus.
They’ll be quarantined in a separate inbox accessed via the Message Requests field at the top of your inbox. So you can choose when and if you want to review message requests from people you are not yet connected with.
We also give you the choice to accept or delete a message request.
If you’re being spammed, you can choose to block the user.
Once you accept the request, the message will automatically migrate to your main inbox and let the collaboration begin.
If you don’t see BandLab Chat yet – look out for it in the next few weeks, it’ll be rolling out gradually.
As you can see – not much has changed on the face of things, but we’re giving you greater control and promising enhanced stability. We want BandLab to be a creative, supportive environment, and a place to discover new music, but not be spammed with unwanted links or content.
What’s coming next? While you can share links and text on the new BandLab Chat, we can’t yet embed media – that’s what’s next on our to-do list. Soon you’ll be able to share Shouts, videos and images, so watch this space.
Read more: Now you can share the music you love in BandLab Chat
