For your average person, there aren’t many places you can interact with your favourite actress or famous people. If you’ve tried to message them on Instagram or Facebook, the possibility of them to read your message is very low. An exclusive app called Clubhouse, though could be that rare chance.
What is Clubhouse?
Clubhouse is an audio-chat app that launched in March 2020 when physical closeness is frowned upon amid the pandemic. Created by Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, the app has brought people together allowing people to listen to or participate in a conversation that is on a specific topic. Clubhouse has virtual rooms where you can enter to listen to or participate whenever you like.
Inside the app, you can listen to other people’s live conversations. including Silicon Valley elite like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah, actor and filmmaker Jared Leto and many more.
Just recently, AirAsia’s big boss Tony Fernandes spent several hours on the app and even held a Q&A session titled “Talks with Tony” together with his daughter, Steph Fernandes. The session lasted for over 2 hours, with several hundred people participating in the session.
How does the chat app work?
On Clubhouse’s main page, you can scroll through all the virtual rooms that are live at the moment and join any you might be interested in. Once you have joined, you can listen or raise your hand by tapping a button if you have something to say. A moderator will then allow you “on stage” – which essentially gives you permission to talk. You can use this opportunity to ask question to the moderator.
Furthermore, you can also form and join Clubs within Clubhouse which the app describes as “interest-based groups.” Called as “Clubs”, you can do things like start rooms within the club and host events. The app even has a calendar showing upcoming events. If you see something interesting, you can set a reminder notification.
But, Clubhouse is an invite-only audio app. So you need to get invited to join it
To join the app, an existing Clubhouse user has to send an invite from their app giving you access to set up an account. Once you are invited, you will see a link texted to your phone number – directing you to sign-up page in the app.
However, clubhouse users can’t just send an invite to anyone who wants to join. Existing users only have two invites available at first.
The app has 2 million users and is considered a Unicorn startup
The app creators have announced that their 2021 goal is to complete the app’s beta stage so they can eventually open up Clubhouse to the whole world. As of February 1, 2021, Clubhouse has 2 million users. The chat-app has announced forthcoming new features like tipping, tickets or subscriptions to directly pay creators on the app. The app is now valued at $1 billion and is considered a Unicorn startup like Airbnb, Uber and SpaceX.
Clubhouse is currently only available on iOS and worries not, for Android users, an Android app is in the works.
