Clubhouse App Everything You Need To Know About The Social Media Phenomenon

What if we told you that you could be in the same room as some of the most prominent personalities you follow in your life? That you could be part of an elite group, where you're all hanging out virtually from the comforts of wherever you are and you are listening to some of the cream of the population from the world of tech, business, finance, intellects and more sharing insights and trends. Simply imagining the amount of knowledge one could gain from a session that could last hardly a few minutes is exciting. Well, that's what the latest social media trend or phenomenon called Clubhouse is all about.

If you have been hearing a lot about this platform, specifically from after Elon Musk tweeted about it, you would probably be wondering what it is. As far as Clubhouse is concerned, the curiosity surrounding is a little more because it's not like other social media platforms, where you could download and check it out. With an invite-only model, the platform is carving a unique niche for itself in the market (and in the clutter).

So, to help you get an idea of what the app is all about, we have dedicated this entire write up. In this post, you will understand what Clubhouse is all about, how it is different, what happens in the rooms, its future and more. Lastly, we will also give you an idea on what you need to do if you intend to get an app like Clubhouse developed.

So, let's get started.

However, before we get to understanding the app and its features, we need to answer a very important question in the social media spectrum.

Is Clubhouse changing the dynamics of social media with its approach to connecting people?

Well, let's delve into this a little deeper.

Remember the initial few years after the advent of social media platforms like Orkut, Google+ and the likes? Facebook was relatively new and the world was questioning online safety and credibility of users and social media platforms at the time. The foundational idea of these social media channels was simple – to connect people from across the world and bring back people who lost touch with their friends and family. There was nothing super-ambitious about the channels and all people did was ask others how they were, how their life turned out to be, reminiscing on good old days.

But less than a decade later, a phenomenon happened that brought in a paradigm shift in the way social media platforms functioned. This phenomenon is as relevant as it gets even today and we know it by the name Instagram. From merely connecting people, the platform made it possible for people to showcase their talents, use the platform as a portfolio for their projects, become influencers and even start online businesses with Instagram as the only operational platform.

Soon, connection was no longer a luxury but an essential. What was more important was engagement. The more people liked your work, the better it was for you on the platform. Instagram quickly became this powerhouse of human activity and soon businesses and brands flocked to the platform to promote their products or services, nail their online presence and do more.

In a way, Instagram used photos or images as a fundamental element and brought people into the spectrum, where all activities happened over an image or a carousel of them.

With the launch of Clubhouse, we need to ask ourselves the question again – is this the beginning of an audio-centric social space? Is Clubhouse all set to pull off an Instagram but for audio?

Well, the chances are highly likely and we are quoting this because of our increasingly changing online behaviour. Reports reveal that our attention spans have decreased drastically over the years. We now have a collective attention span that is less than that of a goldfish. From 12 seconds, it has decreased to mere 8 seconds. If you think, some of the major contributing factors include bombardment of texts, notifications and content. Instagram has been a major propellant in this with its byte-sized content.

As a major chunk of the population becomes aware of this phenomenon, they would want to gradually shift from less-taxing social channels where they could be less distracted and experience less screen fatigue.

And Clubhouse checks all the boxes.

Being an audio-only platform, Clubhouse can be accessed from anywhere and users never have to look at their screens unless required. We have explained this later in the article but just understand that you could be using this app even when you're driving to work. Also, people are increasingly eyeing for takeaways, learnings, insights, and enriching sessions after their screen time and Clubhouse ticks those boxes, too.

What Is Clubhouse App?

In a world where users are actively passive online, Clubhouse arrives to rewrite conventions. Take any social media app platform currently – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more. You go online, you post something, you wait for people to like, share or comment and then the cycle ends there. You then initiate another post to keep the wheel spinning again. If you think, engagement is the only metric in these platforms and there is hardly any experience or learning happening.

Well, that's what Clubhouse is changing in the market. Launched in 2020, Clubhouse app rolled out as an invite-only app that allowed people to enter rooms and have audio discussions. Imagine a group chat on WhatsApp but the differences are the chats are audio and the people you are chatting with are top-tier business tycoons, celebrities, influencers, sports stars, tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and more.

The topics in discussion could be anything from lifestyle or wines to Bitcoins and climate change. To further refine the concept for comprehension, understand it's a live podcast, where you can interact with hosts and other participants as well.

So, Who Launched Clubhouse?

Anything that's becoming a trend or a phenomenon these days can be traced back to one tweet of our very own fluctuating billionaire Elon Musk. Hardcore tech enthusists would know who the founders are. For the uninitiated, however, Clubhouse was launched by a former Google and Pinterest Employee Paul Davidson and a former Google engineer Rohan Seth. The founders share that the social media platform was launched after a series of iterations in terms of usability and user experience, specifically in the audio spectrum.

They share that they wanted to roll out something, where people could join, talk and interact with others. They wanted to give their users a social experience and a more human way to connect with others online, where after a session when they closed their app, they could feel enriched.

How Does The App Work?

Similar to other social media platforms, Clubhouse also requires you to follow people, topics and Rooms based on your preferences, tastes and likes. You can open the app and walk into a Room to listen to live discussions and walk out anytime you want. You can connect with other people and talk to them on the platform, discuss topics and trends in your niche or interests, ask questions in a session and even start a Room for discussion.

As you continue to use the app, Clubhouse's algorithm will understand you better and recommend you Rooms and topics you are most likely to be interested in. With the app being relatively young and less cluttered, now is the most ideal time to build a network and followers before it blows up like Instagram or Snapchat.

The Features Of Clubhouse

Without giving away too much, we have compiled some of the features and tools of the app for you to understand better. Let's explore them individually.

1. The homepage of the app highlights all ongoing Rooms depending on what users choose to follow. Apart from the highlights, what the users would find also include -
1. notifications
2. a calendar
3. an inbox
4. and a search bar
2. Very much similar to Instagram, the search bar or the Explore tab compiles and curates feed, content and Rooms from other similar genres or topics users are most likely to follow based on their tastes, likes, dislikes, following and other user-defined parameters.
3. Users can join a Room when they appear on the homepage of the app. When a Room is on, it means a discussion is happening in it and you are free to walk in for an immersive session.
4. Users can also ask questions like in a Zoom call. All they have to do is use the Raise Hand feature to notify session moderators about their request to interact.
5. Apart from joining a Room, users can also create a Room. These Rooms could be Closed Rooms, Social Rooms for all followers or Open Rooms for anyone to drop by. If users intend to have a personal interaction with another person or user, they can also initiate a personal audio-chat facility (similar to a phone call) with a feature provided by the app.
6. Every Room has a moderator assigned and the Room or discussion can be closed only after the last moderator leaves the Room.
7. When a user enters a Room, they can view the entire list of participants in the session apart from the details on the speakers and moderators of the session.

How Does Clubhouse Maintain Sanity In Discussion Rooms?

Like any social media platform, Clubhouse is also subjected to live criticisms, comments, opinions and more that sometimes could end up being harsh or rude to fellow participants, moderators and speakers as well. However, one of the most effective precautionary measures taken by the app includes the power of moderators to instantly kick out users from a Room when they make offensive comments or put others in an awkward situation.

How Clubhouse Can Benefit Brands, Businesses And Entrepreneurs

From what you've read, it is a giveaway that the mobile app is designed for interactions and networking. It's Disneyland for entrepreneurs who love to discuss ideas, trends and intellectual topics. From that perspective, Clubhouse offers tons of tremendous benefits. Let's quickly look at some of them.

Clubhouse is the most ideal platform currently to build a credible community of like-minded people and professionals. Interactivity is key in any community and with Clubhouse offering real-time interactivity and close-knit connection with influencers and stakeholders, this app is nothing less than revolutionary.

Clubhouse is a credible place and source of information. This is primarily because there are no middlemen or powerhouses that could distort information in the process. Speakers and listeners are together on a single platform and the knowledge transfer is happening instantaneously.

Clubhouse is designed for diversity. If you think, the app could be used for anything and not just serious topics reserved for the Silicon Valley crowd. From gerdening and carpentry to art, people can create stable communities on Clubhouse and interact. Besides, this is an avenue for thought leaders to directly share their opinions and thoughts.

One of the major benefits of the app is that it does not require a user to consistently look at the screen to have an immersive experience. Since this is audio-only, a user could be driving to work on their car, be in a library, cooking, working in a cafe or be doing anything else and still be learning new things uninterrupted.

Are There Any Downsides To The App?

No social media platform is perfect. When people are involved, there would be tons of shortcomings, loopholes and concerns. Clubhouse was also subjected to criticisms involving hate speech and even instances of blaming like the app is majorly built for men or the 'bros' of the community.

Besides, there's no guarantee that all the sessions would be enriching. Consider them as podcasts that haven't been edited. This means you will get to hear non-verbal vocabularies, ideas that would be irrelevant, obsolete concepts and more. Though these could happen at negligible rates, there are still possibilities.

The Arrival Of Clubhouse Marks The Rise Of Selective Access Behavior

Now, this might sound out of the blue but in psychology, there is a theory that explains the tendency of people to favor insights, opinions or information that reinstigate or reinforce their preexisting perspectives. What this means is there are no contradictory opinions or views in this space. With the arrival of Clubhouse, we are witnessing the rise of this phenomenon among the masses.

So far, all the social media platforms existing today are closed communities, where there is no restrictions or bias in terms of opinions, thought processes, ideologies and more. Information and educational transactions happen between contradicting ideologies online. But with Clubhouse, things are starting to become a little different. We are gradually moving towards secluded or confined spaces where we select our tribes or groups and dwell with people who share thoughts similar to that of ours. Reddit sort of introduced this with its subreddits concepts but since it was an open app, there was a healthy mix of diverse thoughts processes.

Because Clubhous is closed and works on an invite-only model, the clutter is less and the power to select Rooms based on views and opinions is more. While experts might point out shortcomings of this concept in the future, what it does from a user retention standpoint is that it allows people to keep coming back to access the app whenever an involuntary validation, confirmation or reiteration is required. With stalwarts and experts leading panels in Rooms, the power of such validation is much higher and impactful.

If this operational model emerges successful, we could see more such social media platforms moving towards selective access behavior by tweaks in algorithms and strategies.

While it is too early to comment on anything, this is really a refreshing move from the app developers.

How This Is The Right Time To Reinvent The Social Media Wheel

So, like you can see, the concept is brilliant and game-changing. But there's one golden opportunity for tech entrepreneurs out there – it's that the app is still not available on Android. Further, it's on an invite-only basis.

We say, now is the best time to develop an app like Clubhouse and launch it in the market. The world currently requires unrestricted access to content, knowledge and people. Your app could be the one to offer that to the majority of the world. What we have explained so far were all about the Clubhouse app. With more brainstorming and additional features, you could roll out a revolutionary app in the market that is unique in its own distinct ways.

Sounds interesting?

Get in touch with us today to find out how you can go about converting your idea into a full-fledged app like Clubhouse. Connect with us today.