Clubhouse

If you’ve heard anything about Clubhouse, the new social network, it’s probably that you can’t join it. However, that's no longer the case. Now out of beta, this audio-based app for Android and iPhone no longer requires a rare invitation to join. While this restriction surely made testing easier for the developers, it also gave Clubhouse a sense of exclusivity bordering on pretentious depending on which wealthy users you follow. Even with the doors fully open, that culture remains. That said, if you seek people, groups, and topics that genuinely interest you, Clubhouse fosters truly fascinating conversations.

Joining the Club

You don’t need to sweet talk a bouncer to join Clubhouse; it's free for everyone. First, you need a phone. Previously, Clubhouse was an iOS-exclusive app, but Android users can now access an identical app. I tested Clubhouse using an iPhone 12 mini and Google Pixel 3a XL. You must input your phone number to set up your username and verify your account.

When building your profile, you can either start from scratch or import information from your Instagram and Twitter accounts. You can search your contacts to find other existing Clubhouse members you might know. Clubhouse suggests big-name accounts for you to follow, from actors to activists to venture capitalists. Yes, I will follow Ava DuVernay. No, I won’t follow Jared Leto. Shout out to gaming personality and recent Pop-Off guest Erin Ashley Simon.

Clubhouse is now open to everyone, so you no longer need to horde invites. Clubhouse currently has around 10 million members. For comparison, Twitter has 330 million users, while Facebook has 2.7 billion users. Comparisons to other social networks will only continue as the competition rolls out Clubhouse-like features. Facebook has audio rooms, while Twitter has Spaces, a feature that lets anyone with more than 600 followers set up virtual audio conversations.

Arguably more important than following people is following clubs and topics. This is the quickest way to connect to conversations you’ll want to join. Clubhouse has many topics to explore across different categories. Under Technology, you can enter communities for Music, Movies, and Gaming. Follow conversations about wellness, relationships, and dozens of other rich veins for potential gossip, advice, and general discourse. 

Stop, Collaborate, and Listen

The best way I can describe Clubhouse is “What if Twitter was a podcast you lived inside of?” Instead of a news feed full of posts, the messy main page is full of relevant clubs with live vocal conversations happening at that given moment. You can view a schedule of upcoming talks so you don’t miss anything, but I preferred to float between different discussions already in progress. You can search for other conversations, while ear-deep into a Clubhouse convo.

I listened to some wildly entertaining and occasionally insightful gab sessions by doing this; it's like wandering the halls of a never-ending convention about anything and everything. I heard radical reactions to Trump’s impeachment. I even promoted my Spellbreak review in a club for Black video game live streamers talking about battle royale games. Music Mode makes it easy for underground artists to pipe in high-quality audio for the audience.

Clubhouse is an audio-only experience, and the lack of video removes a surprising amount of awkwardness in interacting with strangers online. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have to worry about unflattering angles and accidental eye contact. 

As someone who doesn’t care at all about chasing clout, I especially appreciate Clubhouse’s strong communities of color. The BIPOC voices on these modern ad-hoc radio stations provide a thoughtful and much-needed counterpoint to all vacuous, wealthy, back-patting, Clubhouse echo chambers that often left me fantasizing about 18th century French guillotines. New age spirituality is for California hippies, not California executives.  

At times, Clubhouse sounds like a cacophony. I used the “leave quietly” to peace out of many talks that just went nowhere or were full of desperate folks looking for more followers. Adding to the chaos, Clubhouse offers no transcriptions, and recording without permission is heavily frowned upon. You’re lucky enough to be among the select few to hear these ephemeral musings from our brightest online minds and most innovative influencers. This makes talks feel more private, privileged and precious, but this system also makes it hard to enforce accountability. There are already reports of celebrities saying irresponsible or outright offensive stuff on Clubhouse since there are few ways to really prove that they said it.

However, hosts can now choose to record audio from their rooms as a Replay. Not only can you save the live discussion, but you can also see useful details, such as who was speaking and pinned links. You can even export the chat to YouTube or a podcast service. It's a major improvement. That said, because this is optional functionality that has to be enabled by creators from the start, it won't automatically fix all of Clubhouse's potential accountability issues.

The app has smart structures in place to keep the experience from devolving into a total mess. Before you join a club, you must read the personalized rules created by the club’s organizers. Community moderation tools let you report toxic users. Featured speakers can talk freely, but for audience members to add to the conversation they must first raise their virtual hand and wait for approval from the speakers and organizers, like standing in a Q&A line during a panel. This prevents hundreds of people from talking over each other. Some discussions don’t let the audience contribute, and force you to stay mute the entire time. 

Speak Up

Clubhouse has more than enough clubs and topics to fill your plate, but if you think it’s missing one you can do something about it. Anyone can now create their own clubs, without needing an approval. They’re community-generated affairs, like Facebook groups, and swing wildly between popular and niche. A Nigerian identity group has more 20,000 members. An Among Us virtual meetup group has about 100 members. Still, they’re both valid within the community. Alternatively, you can create and schedule your own events and add any of your followers as guests and co-speakers. Events can be hosted by clubs, or exist independent of them. 

You don’t need to create or join a themed club to talk on Clubhouse. You can also always start a random room and chat there. You can either open your room to everyone, open it to people you follow, open it up to your clubs, or create a private room and select who gets to join. With the Waves feature, you can casually invite friends to join a room even when they're offline. Once everyone accepts, Clubhouse automatically creates your room.

However, using Clubhouse as just another social chat app with friends feels like missing the point. Houseparty, unfortunately now defunct, provided a far better way to hang out with friends online, with its casual, laid-back chats. To get the most out of Clubhouse, you should engage with its unique events, communities, and famous faces. You could also use Cameo if you want to talk to celebrities...for a price. 

It’s a Big Club, and Now You're In It

Clubhouse is an undeniably eye-rolling Silicon Valley product. No wonder everyone from Mark Cuban to Jack Dorsey is trying to rip it off. Removing the invite requirement is a huge step in the right, democratic direction. You'll still probably encounter plenty of rich people who can’t wait to pitch and sell their next invite-only beta app for millions of dollars they don’t need.

Still, Clubhouse can also guide you toward illuminating conversations, particularly those focused on non-mainstream topics . Those worthwhile conversations will hopefully grow more numerous now that Clubhouse has fully opened its doors. So, if you’ve just finally gotten in, don’t feel like you missed out. Clubhouse already worked out its worst kinks on us extremely entitled guinea pigs. It can only get better from here.

For more, check out our Clubhouse explainer.