What the heck is Clubhouse, and why are all my friends on it?

Another social media platform to occupy your time with.

Feb. 17, 2021

What the heck is Clubhouse, and why are all my friends on it?

Over the past few weeks, we've seen more and more people talk about the new social media kid on the block – Clubhouse.

If you've paid attention to posts by your family, friends, and personalities that you follow online, there's a good chance that you've seen at least a few of them share about how they're now on Clubhouse and having fun listening in to conversations, or if anyone wants some invites to the platform.

But many of us who aren't yet part of this exclusive group might be wondering what exactly is so great about Clubhouse, and why our friends, alongside high-profile celebrities like Oprah, Drake, and even Elon Musk are flocking to it like moths to a flame?

What the heck is Clubhouse?

Essentially, Clubhouse is another social media network. Like Facebook and Instagram, it connects people digitally and allows those on it to share information with one another. But where Clubhouse differs is how the information is shared.

Unlike other platforms, Clubhouse boasts a podcast-style platform that allows a bunch of people to enter a voice chatroom of sorts and begin conversations about particular topics such as technology, healthcare, pop culture, or just about anything you can think of.

Clubhouse was created in May 2020, but has so far grown in popularity incredibly fast (it had over six million users as of mid-February 2021) thanks to its image and all the high-profile personalities that have regularly been seen on the platform hosting or listening in on conversations.

Additionally, it can thank its exclusivity factor for spiking widespread interest. To get onto the platform, you have to first be invited by someone already on it. Similar to how some online services grew thanks to invite-only models, Clubhouse has similarly become something of an online destination that many now want to enter, and will actively search for ways to do so.

How can I get on it?

As previously mentioned, Clubhouse is currently an invite-only platform. If you're lucky enough to have friends already on it, you can ask them for an invite and jump on it as soon as they send you one.

If don't have anyone you know using it just yet, you can also simply join the waiting list by downloading the app on the Apple store and registering your interest inside.

IMAGE: Screenshot from Clubhouse

Also note that Clubhouse is only available on the iOS platform, which means Android users will have to wait just a little while longer to get in on the action. But judging by how these things usually go, we can estimate that the wait won't be very long (hopefully).

I'm already on it, what can I do?

Once you're in, the main attraction is of course, the ability for you to participate in the many ongoing conversation rooms available.

But before you do any of that, Clubhouse will offer you topics that you and other like-minded individuals can follow. Within each topic, you can also follow other individuals that you think are interesting and want to listen to whenever they start a conversation.

IMAGE: PCMag

The conversation rooms are only temporary – think of them like Snapchats but for podcasts – as in they're only there as long as conversations are live, and disappear once they end.

If you missed out on a room, Clubhouse unfortunately doesn't record them. However, if a conversation is really intriguing or popular enough, you can be sure that someone on the internet has already found a way to record and put it up somewhere online.

IMAGE: Keep Up With KP

When you enter a room, you can act as an audience member and just listen in on the ongoing conversation between the "panelists", much like how you would a podcast. But you also have the opportunity to join the conversation by asking for permission to go "up on stage" as a speaker by raising your hand, or by being invited by the room's moderator or admin to join the current panel of speakers.

One of the plus points of Clubhouse is that you hardly need to pay attention to your screen to use it, making it a great app for long drives or commutes, or when you feel like you've just had too much screen time.

Still a new face.

As for who it's targeted towards, Clubhouse ostensibly wants to make itself look like a social platform for the hip crowd, judging by its many celebrity users and aura of exclusivity.

Sooner or later however, the platform could conceivably become a strong gathering avenue for thought leaders with plenty of interesting ideas they want to share, or even for conferences who want to organize virtual events online.

But with the platform still extremely new, there are plenty of things it needs to fix – like moderating bad behavior – and objectives it needs to accomplish – like successfully rolling out the platform on all mobile operating systems – before we can really tell whether or not it'll become a social media platform that will stick around for years to come.

If you're an iPhone user, you can get the Clubhouse app here.