What you need to know
- Clubhouse, an audio-only social network, is coming to Android soon.
- The highly sought after app has been iPhone exclusive since launch.
- Rival social media apps, Twitter and Telegram, have dabbled with Clubhouse's premier selling point as feature add-ons.
Clubhouse, a hot new social network that blew up during the pandemic, is launching its own Android app, after months of being an iPhone-exclusive experience.
For the unaware, Clubhouse is a social media network with a twist — it's audio-only. This means no stories, no fleets, no photos. It's more natural 'feeling' than a group-chat, and it's a lot more ephemeral and private due to its very nature.
In a story run by the New York Times when the app just launched, users described the experience as a highly addictive and engaging experience that replicated a real-world environment.
"It's like walking into a party where you know people are ready to mingle," said Sonia Baschez, 33, a digital marketing consultant in San Francisco who was invited to use Clubhouse. Since joining the app a week and a half ago, Ms. Baschez said, she has spent three to five hours a day on it. "Sure, you could be talking to people on the phone, but that just seems so weird," she said. "You're not forced to be part of the conversation the entire time on Clubhouse. You can just listen to other people talking about interesting subjects and jump in when you want."
While Clubhouse has been around for almost a year now, it's been highly limited, with the app being iOS only and users needing to request invites just to take part. That's going to end soon.
Writing on their official blog, the Clubhouse team said:
From the earliest days, we've wanted to build Clubhouse for everyone. With this in mind, we are thrilled to begin work on our Android app soon, and to add more accessibility and localization features so that people all over the world can experience Clubhouse in a way that feels native to them.
Some may question whether Clubhouse is too late for an Android launch. Twitter and Telegram have launched their own takes on the app's audio-chat room feature — and they already have a large cross-platform userbase.
On the other hand (and at the risk of being redundant), Clubhouse users are on Clubhouse. Sure, Twitter's Spaces may copy Clubhouse's features, but until Clubhouse communities and the conversations that they engage in migrate to Twitter, the platform is unlikely to be in any danger. Feature parity is no match for one of the most modern ailments: FOMO.
