What is Clubhouse? The Newest Social Media App

So you’ve heard people looking for a way to join Clubhouse and you are out here wondering what is Clubhouse? Well, Clubhouse is the newest social media app but it’s like no other social media platform. It has no likes, no comments, no pictures or videos.

Shocker, right? What can it possibly be so famous for when it’s missing the oh so loved features of other social media platforms?

Clubhouse is the ✨ unique ✨ middle child. Simply said, clubhouse is an audio based social media. The only way of communication is by using you voice, kinda like a podcast but it’s all happening live.

How to get a Clubhouse invite?

For now Clubhouse is only for the CHOSEN, much like the cool kids club in high school. Due to it still being in beta, the only way to get in is either by reserving your username and waiting for them to send you and invite (which takes months) or the better way – if you know someone who is already in, they can invite you if they have any invites left.

I found my invite on Reddit. If you’re reading this, thank you Strange-Speaker-5360

When is clubhouse coming to Android?

Clubhouse is currently available only for IOS devices. No surprise there in my opinion. All new apps star off this way until they see a reason to grow beyond the IOS galaxy.

In the beginning of January, the creators of Clubhouse announced that they are starting to work on the Android version of the app. HOPEFULLY it’s going to be done in about 5-10 months.

What is Clubhouse and how EXACTLY does it work?

Once you’ve received your invite and have entered the exciting new place, you can choose topics of interest that you would like to follow. This helps the algorithm show you more relevant rooms, where people talk about these interests.

One thing is the same as other social medias – you have your own profile page with a profile picture, a bio and the possibility to link your Instagram & Twitter profile. It seems like Clubhouse can be a powerful tool to drive new traffic to your Instagram, much like YouTube & TikTok.

Once your profile is done you can follow people & be notified when they create rooms.

Creating & joining rooms

In order to communicate with other users you can either create a room or join an already existing one. There are 3 main types of rooms: Open, Social & Closed.

Open: everyone can join and participate.

Social: people who you follow can join.

Closed: you can choose who joins.

You can also create rooms that are only for a certain club that you are a member of. A bit later I’ll tell you what a club is and how it can be created.

Inside of each room you join as a listener by default – meaning your microphone is muted and you are in the audience. Imagine a live event – you are part of the crowd that is being seated listening to the ones on stage.

Speaking of the stage – that’s exactly how clubhouse calls it. If you want to get on stage and join the conversations, to be able to speak your mind, you have to “raise your hand”. This way you let the creator of the room and moderators know that you want to participate or ask a question.

What are clubs?

Besides rooms, you can also create the so called clubs. Clubs have 3 types of users: founder, members and followers. If you want to create your own club and become a founder you must have already created and hosted a room three or more times. Currently each user can create only one club.

Once you’ve done that you have to go to your profile > click the gear icon on the top right of the page > then click on the FAQ/Contact Us section. This is going to take you out of the Clubhouse app and open their website.

Then on click the section “How can I start a club” and read through it. On the bottom of the section you can find the link for setting up your club.

Source: Clubhouse Knowledge Center

Being able to listen in the background & multitask

One of the biggest differences of Clubhouse is of course its audio only communication format. Unlike any other social media, Clubhouse give you the option to leave the app in the background while listening or talking. This way you can multitask, scroll other social medias or just use it on your way to work while looking at your phone’s map.

In my opinion this feature was a given since it would have been a very poor decision to keep the users inside the app when clearly all they have to use it their headphones and microphone.

The ability to speak with celebrities & big industry names

One of the most intriguing aspects of the app is that you can pretty much connect with almost anyone. Celebrities and big industry names are joining the app and talking with people in rooms. Some of them are Oprah Winfrey, Drake, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Gary Vee.

Many of them host their own rooms and they fill them up in a matter of minutes. Of course, there are also smaller YouTubers, content creators and influencer with which you can connect way easier due to the ability to get on stage. It’s truly a magical experience to be able to basically have a phone call like experience with your favorite internet people.

The power of voice – getting close & personal

In my opinion Clubhouse has a lot of potential because it’s a very unique communication format compared to other social medias.

I know a lot of people who are shy and going on camera makes them anxious. For them Clubhouse would be the best place to create close relationships with others and establish themselves.

Even a short voice chat creates more trust and connect people better than a written blog post or a tweet for example.

The only con of Clubhouse in this regard is the current inability to save the voice chat after the room closes. Hopefully in the future we can see such an option and the people who couldn’t attend live, get to listen the replay.

How many users does Clubhouse have?

In February 2021 there are currently 6 million registered users, 2 million of which are active weekly users! I mean this is incredible, but as a new thing it’s expected for Clubhouse to create such a big hype. The snowball effect is really paying off.

Souce: Backlinko

Potential challenges for Clubhouse

With the growing interest Clubhouse is starting to face some issues. Some people think that is unfair and that the rules of Clubhouse forbid the users of sharing the conversations outside of the app.

The creator Paul Davison says that if all the people in the room agree on recording the conversation then there is no problem. He also says that they leave the decision to the creators of the rooms. Sometimes there are thousands of people in one room, it’s practically impossible for all of them to say that they agree to the conversation being recorded.

How can they make money in the future?

As a startup Clubhouse is currently testing the ground. Studying how people use the social media app, taking notes and planing ahead. From how Clubhouse its growing there seems to be quite a bit of potential for it to become the next wide spread social media platform.

In the future they might become the go to place for hosting online events with popular and well known speakers. They can integrate a fee for entering these events and people might also be able to pay in order to hop on stage and interact with the speakers, ask questions and network.

Besides that they could also integrate a subscription for being part of certain clubs and joining monthly talks.

Watch the YouTube video about Clubhouse here