During the COVID-19 pandemic, internet-based communication has taken precedence as the best method to keep our daily lives running; and we have heavily been depending on social media to keep in touch with each other and express ourselves in times when we cannot do so in person. This has led to many social media developments, including the rapid rise of an almost unheard-of app known as Clubhouse.
Clubhouse is a nearly one-year-old app available on iOS only, taking the internet by storm in recent times. Developed by Paul Davison, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and Rohan Seth, previously an employee at Google, the app can be described as a conference call mixed with a talkback radio, and is also somewhat reminiscent of a podcast, except here, the listeners can interact with the host as well, via conversation rooms acting as spaces for discussion related to various topics. Clubhouse was, until very recently, a somewhat niche app, but has risen to borderline mainstream status after a huge number of users began tuning in to a conversation between Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, causing the app to reach its maximum user limit. The app, as of February 2021, has 2 million users worldwide.
The application currently has a minimalistic interface with a beige background. Users can choose from a variety of topics of interest, and the app recommends more topics or conversation rooms the user can join based on the information they provide to it. Upon joining a conversation room, the user can either just listen to the live audio conversation going on in the room, or join in. Once the live conversation ends, it disappears and cannot be saved onto the app, unlike platforms like YouTube and Twitch where options to watch livestreams post-broadcast are available. There have, however, been instances of many users recording the conversations on the applications and uploading them on YouTube.
One certain feature of Clubhouse leading to the buzz around it is that the app is invitation-only. While most social networking apps are mostly free and easily downloadable at will, Clubhouse requires users to be invited by an existing user via SMS in order to access the app. The fact that each user can only give out two invitations means that the app maintains a sort of exclusivity. However, the app is still in its beta stage and the developers have mentioned that plans of releasing Clubhouse widely are underway.
While the app provides a space for productive discussion on various topics such as politics, art, and LGBTQ+ rights (and also a musical conducted by black singers!), the app is not free from trolling, racism and sexism, with many people facing harassment and feeling excluded. Each room has a moderator for this, and while users can be reported for abuse, with the harassment taking place real-time, it can get difficult to control. Clubhouse also is facing direct competition from Twitter, which has launched a similar feature called Spaces, albeit still in the beta stage and only available to few users.
Clubhouse is spreading among the general public fast these days, by word-of-mouth and via invitations. It is an interesting way of communication, providing a networking method different from what has been seen in existing social media. A lot of the general public is eager to be a part of it, and it shall be interesting to see how the app fares once it is available to everyone.
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