Android users have been hearing about how amazing Clubhouse is but have yet to experience it themselves since it was an iOS-exclusive app. Now finally, we’re almost at the point where everyone will be able to listen to the audio-only chat rooms. Clubhouse has announced that it’s now available in beta for Android users in the U.S but users elsewhere will be able to pre-register and be notified when it’s finally available elsewhere. This also means all access to the app will still be invite-only.
Clubhouse has been the buzziest social media app for the past few months even though it has been only available on iOS. The invite-only aspect of it has also probably contributed to its popularity as people sometimes want what they can’t have just yet. But the real draw has probably been that people have been experiencing “Zoom fatigue” but still want an app where they can communicate but need not be camera-ready always.
So now, finally, Android users in the U.S can enjoy the Clubhouse app but it’s still in beta. They plan to roll it out to more English-speaking countries eventually but for the next few weeks, they will be gathering feedback from the community and fix any issues that may arise before rolling it out elsewhere. Non-US Android users can download the app and sign up to receive an alert once it’s fully functional in their area.
They decided to stick with the waitlist and invite-only system to “keep the growth measured”. It’s a good move to manage users and their backend as they might bite off more than they can chew if they just let everybody in. They do plan to eventually welcome the millions of iOS users that are still on the waitlist and add more languages and accessibility features over the summer. And when they expand to more countries, there will be millions of Android users eager to join the chats.
Clubhouse needs to ramp up its expansion as other social media apps have started coming up with their own audio-only chats. Twitter launched Spaces, Facebook is working on Live Rooms while Discord, Spotify, Slack, LinkedIn, and Reddit are working on their own built-in features.
