Welcome to Clubhouse Where Talk is King

A new, audio-exclusive app is about to breach the horizon of the social networking world.

Meet Clubhouse. It was launched in March of 2020 by Rohan Seth and Paul Davidson – two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. The app is purely driven by audio chat, where users can listen to topics of interest, such as business, health, technology, books, ad infinitum.

Besides just listening, users have an option to participate in the ‘room’ of their choice by tapping on said room from the list of current rooms at that particular time. They then join as an ‘audience member’. Once part of the ‘audience’, the user can then ‘raise their hand’ if they wish to talk (which involves tapping on another button in the app), and the room’s host can then decide to invite the interested party to speak in the conversation.

Basically, the audio room is likened to a conference call or talk radio, where some of the people talk, while most are merely listening. Unlike other apps out there that run live events or streams with the ability to remain on the app to be replayed indefinitely, once Clubhouse ‘conversations’ are through, the room is closed and the conversations are over – much like hanging up after a telephone call. There is also no sharing of files, text or videos – it’s purely audio communication, so there’s no need to worry eye contact or your surroundings or appearance – no one will see either one, or much less care.

As intriguing as it sounds, Clubhouse is only available as an iOS app – at the moment. Also at the moment, the only way one can become a member is by invitation only, which means you have to be invited by someone who has an existing account already; think country-club membership.

However, don’t fret; Clubhouse – which is already valued at one-billion dollars – is still in Beta-testing mode. Its CEO, Paul Davidson, states that the app will eventually become available to everyone to enjoy, including Android users.

Facebook has countered with its own audio-only product – Live Audio Rooms – which is set to launch this summer.