Clubhouse, less than a year old, is the app that everyone is talking about. If 2020 was the year of TikTok, 2021 is surely for App Clubhouse. Advertising, celebrities, exclusivity have been the perfect breeding ground for Clubhouse. Clubhouse has no video, no photos, only audio and also in real time, because everything happens live. Will it be the new unicorn even if it does not yet have a euro of income?
Its creators, Paul Davidson and Rohan Seth, describe Clubhouse on the AppStore as “a space for informal and direct audio conversations with friends and other interesting people from around the world. Go online at any time to chat with the people you follow, or participate as a listener and hear what others are saying ”. There is no text, users share only sounds, mainly voice.
The success of Clubhouse has already surrendered celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Drake and Kanye West or Elon Mask, who had a conversation with 5,000 people, the maximum number of users in a room, about technology.
Clubhouse App only for iOS and with invitation
You can only enter Clubhouse by invitation, something that Facebook and Gmail did in the beginning. If you can’t find anyone you know, don’t be discouraged, the application will allow you to pre-register so that, when possible, Clubhouse can send you a code to join. Each user has two invitations and, at the moment it is only available for iOS, although it is expected that it will also arrive for Android users shortly.
As a user, you can start the conversation in a virtual room or join another in which other people are speaking. If you join a talk, you can “raise your hand” and the owner of the room, if he considers it appropriate, will allow you to speak, if not you only have the option of listening. The conversations are only available live, the app is not configured to record and save the content for later. But so as not to miss the conversations of your interest, you can select the topics on which you would like to deepen and the application will send you notifications when another user begins to talk about the chosen topics.
The success of App Clubhouse is that it is something different in the great world of social media platforms. It is a mix of Twitch in podcast format, based on ephemeral content such as Instagram, LinkedIn or Snapchat stories and with a touch of traditional chats, but only to be consumed with the ears. The audio chat format is unique. A communication format that draws directly from conventional radio. As there are no images, no text, or emoticons, which we are used to, expressive nuances are achieved with intonation, voice inflections or effects that provide emotion and differentiation in each of the conversations. Imagination is key in human emotions.
In Clubhouse they talk about everything
You can find broadcasts of all the topics you can imagine. In the Clubhouse rooms they talk about history, lifestyle, geopolitics and also technology. You meet rock singers, piano soloists or a soprano singing opera. Even if you have a bad day and need to relax, you can still enjoy audio meditation or self-help sessions.
Scientific debates, due to the current Covid-19 moment, are numerous, as are the political ones. But do not be afraid that the discussions will end badly, because there are administrators with the ability to block, silence and even close the rooms in case they do not comply with the rules of the application. Clubhouse condemns bigotry, racism, and hate speech, so conversations that lead to inappropriate behavior can be shut down by administrators.
As a user, the experience is very similar to listening to your favorite podcasts or live radio, but it brings some closeness and spontaneity that make App Clubhouse a different format.
