While the original idea of Clubhouse is for listeners to enjoy live audio chats, it looks like they realized that not everyone has the time to listen to scheduled events. The social audio app is now introducing a new feature called Replay which is pretty self-explanatory. It allows creators to record an audio chat and save it to a club or profile so others will be able to listen to it on demand. They’re branding this as “the best of live but later”.
The Replay feature lets creators and moderators record the audio room as they happen and they can choose to save it either on their club or user profile. It can also be downloaded and can be shared externally either as a podcast, a clip on YouTube, an Instagram story, a TikTok video, or any other place on the Internet. It can be useful for those who couldn’t catch the full audio chat live or would just need to hear parts of it on other platforms.
Replays can also support another recently introduced feature called pinned links which lets moderators feature a link at the top of the room. For those who are listening to the recorded audio, they can also do things like skip to the next speaker, choose the speed they want to listen to (1.5x or 2x or just regular speed), pause whenever they want, and make 30-second clips of parts that you would like to save and share.
Creators can also have access to analytics of the Replays like who’s listening to the replays and get a “total room count” of how many people listened with both the live and recorded chats. They can connect with the other users who were not there live but who may be interested in the other content that they are offering. Replays will also begin showing up in Clubhouse’s discovery features including search starting next week.
While the “exclusivity” factor of Clubhouse’s live audio chats will probably disappear with this Replay feature, it can also open up new audiences for these creators. It will also extend the lifespan of the audio chats so it is a win-win for audience and creators.
