This invite-only, audio-based app is like listening in on someone else's phone call, legally. Here's what you need to know about Clubhouse for iPhone and Android, including how Elon Musk figures into its popularity.
Wondering why you're hearing a lot about Clubhouse lately? Much like the "Gamestonk" controversy, we can partially blame Elon Musk. By popping up in a Clubhouse room in January, the world's richest man (for now) brought the service a lot of attention. Bill Gates did the same, and it has steamrolled since then. Here's what you need to know about the exclusive chat app everyone is talking about.
Okay, so what is it?
Here's the gist: Imagine you have an app on your phone that lets you listen in on other people's live conversations. But not in a creepy way; these people want to be heard. They may even be famous, or at least interesting or knowledgeable (no guarantee, however). And you may be given the opportunity to join the chat. Think of it as an audio-chat social network. Or as PCMag's Jordan Minor says in our review, "What if Twitter was a podcast you lived inside of?"
When did it launch?
Clubhouse launched (along with COVID in the US!) in March 2020. It became a big deal to a select few in part because of its invite-only exclusivity, much like a real-world club membership. In those early days, it was a tiny community, mainly consisting of venture capitalists. After all, the company behind Clubhouse—Alpha Exploration Co.—received a $12 million investment from Andreessen Horowitz after two months of existence. It was quickly worth $100 million—and it only had 1,500 users at the time. (Valuation for Clubhouse as of April 2021: $4 billion.)
So there are no pictures or videos?
No. Only profile pics for each user.
Photo by Christoph Dernbach/picture alliance via Getty Images
Where can I get the Clubhouse app?
Clubhouse is currently available on iOS and Android. It launched on iOS last year, and the company started a US-only Android rollout in early May. As of May 21, it's available on Android worldwide, and downloads of the Android version crossed 1 million in less than two weeks.
Can I use Clubhouse on the iPad?
Sure, but it's not optimized for iPadOS. So you'll be using the app in a small window, or looking at it in a weird, zoomed-in 2x size. It should be okay on an Android tablet, however.
Cool, so I can just sign up, right?
Nope. At the time of this writing, you still need an invitation from an existing Clubhouse user to get access. Every new user gets two invites, and they earn more as they use the app. Ask your friends if they have one. You could buy an invite on eBay or try a "pay-it-forward" invite chains, but be wary of invite scams.
Credit: AppFigures
Why did it take so long to make an Android app?
The developers wanted to scale up slowly. There are more Android users than iPhone users worldwide. Starting on Android might have killed the Clubhouse servers after a publicity stunt (like, say, having Musk in a room). Still, hitting 3 million users in the short time it did on iOS alone—see the chart above—is a lot of growth. (One million downloads on Android doesn't necessarily equate to one million new users.)
Clubhouse for Android
Naturally, there are scumbags who will take advantage of this growth and popularity. A fake website at joinclubhouse[.]mobi circulated a Trojan program pretending to be Clubhouse for Android. It tried to steal your login credentials for almost 500 online services. Be very wary.
The barebones joinclubhouse.com.
So all I need is the app? There's no website?
The only website the company has is joinclubhouse.com, and it's simply a pointer to the Apple App Store and Google Play. (Don’t confuse this service with clubhouse.io, either. That's a project manager.) The app is the only way to listen to or participate in audio conversations.
Image via Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
What's with the app icon?
Clubhouse doesn't have an official logo icon. It has opted for an ever-rotating black-and-white portrait of a person as its icon that appears on a smartphone screen. Each person is a real-life user of Clubhouse. Usually, it's someone who has had an important impact on the platform, or is at least someone Clubhouse believes has a deep understanding of what it is doing. Each icon lasts a few weeks and gets changed with a major app update.
Some have praised Clubhouse for this design choice as breaking up the monotony, but others think it just makes it hard to find the app on your phone when the icon changes.
To date, Clubhouse is on its eighth iconic person—social activist and visual artist Drue Kataoka. Previous icons include musicians Axel Mansoor and Bomani X (pictured above), startup promoter Erika Batista, and tech podcaster Espree Devora.
How much of my data does Clubhouse want for a registration?
You have to give Clubhouse your phone number and your real name (in theory). You can register the eventual username you want for the service before you even get an invite. The person inviting you simply needs your phone number. You'll get a link via SMS text, telling you to visit joinclubhouse.com/app and sign in with that number.
Link your Twitter account to Clubhouse if you don't want to set up a profile from scratch; it'll even pull in your existing Twitter profile pic. Clubhouse also pushes you to link your contacts, in the name of making it easier to find people to follow. Don't bother if you don't have a contact list full of influencers. Once you're logged in, verify your email address with the service so you have it as a method for reconnecting if there's an issue.
Clubhouse topicsWhat am I supposed to listen to on Clubhouse?
When you finally get access, the app offers a page full of conversational topics to follow, from sports to tech to world affairs to faith to "hustle" and on and on. In each, you'll find people interested in the same thing, and you can follow them. The more topics and people you follow, the more likely you are to get suggestions for a room that fits your desires.\
The conversations aren't permanent?
Conversation rooms come and go as people launch or end them. Clubhouse says it records conversations as they happen, but only retains them if someone files a complaint while the room is live. If no one reports an incident during the chat, Clubhouse says it discards the recording as soon as the host closes the discussion. Users, of course, are finding many ways to record chats for their own purposes. The internet is still forever.https://youtu.be/wF2TrKF6HEY
How many people can be in a conversation?
The current limit is 5,000 people per Clubhouse room—which Musk busted through, of course. Users in that room started live-streaming the conversation on YouTube (which is a clever workaround for recording what's said). That 5K person limit can be turned off, however, at Clubhouse's discretion.
What do you really mean by a conversation? Isn't it like a podcast?
It depends on your podcast preferences, but remember—all the people involved are speaking via their iPhones, not fancy audio setups. They don't see each other, so it really is like listening in on a phone call. There's no professional editing, no sound effects, no transitions, and no advertising (at least not officially). That said, the "style" of the conversation is flexible: one room might be a casual one-on-one between friends, while another is a more formal talk-show-style interview, a big group discussion, or even a music-sharing session. If someone interesting drops into a room—like a billionaire—the room creator/moderator can put them on the "stage" as a speaker.
So I can only listen in?
Not necessarily. Anyone listening in can virtually "raise a hand." It's up to the room's creator/moderator if they want to let you talk.
So, is this really like 'Medium for Podcasts?'
To the extent that it lets anyone create a room on the fly, without any promise of future conversations, it is. Unlike Medium, there's no official record of it. The conversations, AKA "clubs," are not recorded or stored for future listeners.
Sounds more like Zoom without video.
In some ways, sure...or you could always do a Zoom or Google Meet without the video on. But Zoom meetings aren't open to the general public by default. Clubs are open to any member who can find it, not a select few. The virtual dais is limited, which hopefully gives the floor to people with something important or interesting to say. Also, not having to look at the screen while you're talking is a nice change from today's daily video calls.
Can I make money?
Yes. Clubhouse is rolling out a monetization scheme for creators on iOS in the US to start, in partnership with payment processing firm Stripe. It's not ad-based. Users can send an in-app payment to creators, and 100% of the money goes to them, with a processing fee going to Stripe; Clubhouse says it isn't skimming any of the dough.
The company had also launched a Creator First accelerator program to help the people really driving the traffic, providing everything from equipment to special guests to promotion. A winner will be announced soon.
Any Clubhouse user (also still on iOS in the US still) can send or receive payments. Find it in the app under your profile, then click the gear icon to enter Settings > Payments. It also requires a Stripe account.
Who's really using Clubhouse?
Right now, Clubhouse is arguably best for people who like to talk and miss having an audience—like needy celebrities—or lurkers who want to be the fly-on-the-wall near interesting conversations. It may be a new medium we all have to keep an eye on (or not).
https://youtu.be/TyCeGwq0_LU
That said, it's also being hailed as a possible place for healing rifts, as evidenced by the room named Meet Palestinians and Israelis, where people from both sides of that conflict, from around the world, are coming together to talk. As of this writing, the room has been open for eight days straight. It had close to 160,000 listeners at one time and received 380,000 visitors overall.
Wait, wait wait. There are celebrities?
Yeah, Kevin Hart, Drake, Tiffany Haddish, and a handful of others are using it. In fact, the app is becoming popular in the Black entertainment community, in particular. Haddish was the first person to break 1 million followers on Clubhouse. But that may play into the "pretentious, clout-chasing atmosphere" we noted in our review.
I feel like I can do this somewhere else...
Clubhouse knock-offs—I mean competitors—are already rolling out. Because, like everything else in tech, when there's blood in the water, the big sharks come swimming. (Remember when everyone wanted to be TikTok?)
Shark Tank's Mark Cuban, an early Clubhouse user, is involved in one called Fireside, a sort-of mix of Clubhouse and Spotify's podcast software, Anchor. Twitter's Spaces is now open to anyone with 600 or more followers; select users will get access soon to the monetized Ticketed Spaces option. The Telegram messaging app now has a Voice Chat feature. Instagram has already improved its group live-streaming feature called Live Rooms to allow more than two users to stream together (but with video). Reddit has a sneak peek of Reddit Talk, for hosting live audio conversations in a community.
And of course, Facebook refuses to be left out. It is launching a bunch of audio tools for the creation of Soundbites for posting, podcasts, and of course, Live Audio Rooms—its answer to Clubhouse. (Facebook also has a thing called Hotline to do recorded public conversations with video options, much like Instagram Live Rooms.) It'll only get worse.
GetHostNotes.com allows easy setup and sharing of Clubhouse events.
Are third parties making any Clubhouse add-ons?
Yes, but it's not easy as there's no application programming interface (API) for developers to actually tie things into the Clubhouse experience. For example, Direcon wants to help you with analytics for Clubhouse conversations (for $50 per month) but initially, that meant a little too much exposure to user info. There are a few other tools like soundboards (every conversation benefits from sound effects), a Telegram-based conversation recorder, audience Q&A boards, Clubhouse-specific link shorteners, and a bunch of apps for adding a ring of color on your Clubhouse avatar. This all shows that Clubhouse needs to decide soon about an API.
What are the downsides of Clubhouse?
The service has had some issues already with hate speech and abuse, so it had to institute community moderation guidelines in October. It made a common mistake—believing it could trust users to not be jerks. There are always jerks.
It's been blocked in China as of February 8, 2021, as it offers a little too much freedom of expression for the government there. That's only a downside if you live in China.
Also bad: the service has already suffered a data breach after a third-party developer in China tried to create an Android version of Clubhouse that wouldn't require an invite.
Privacy could also be a problem. As Inc.com reports, Clubhouse doesn't spell out how long it retains those complaint-related recordings ("when the investigation is complete," is all it says), or who at the company has access to them. Clubhouse is also scooping up other info about you, not only from what you share (your contacts and social media) but what others share (their contacts and social media). It's always tracking you with all the usual tricks, like cookies.
What if I want to quit this club?
Previously, you had to email "support@alphaexplorationco.com" to ditch Clubhouse, but following user complaints, you can now deactivate your account by going to Settings > Account > Deactivate Account.
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