Clubhouse: anyone got an invite?

Getting a Clubhouse invitation was an odd sort of achievement. You had found somebody who could give you access to an app whose main activity was listening to other people talk. Now came the part you might not have thought through: choosing a room.

There is something about being told you can’t join yet that makes an app more interesting. You could be perfectly happy with the conversations already available on your phone and still wonder what you were missing in this one. Having to ask around gave even a tentative interest a bit of momentum.

In 2021, Clubhouse had that going for it before you had heard a single person speak.

All that fuss, and you could leave the camera off

Clubhouse launched on iOS in 2020. The global Android rollout followed in May 2021 (opens in a new tab), opening up access beyond iPhone owners. You still needed an invitation at first. In July, the company removed that requirement too.

Once inside, you joined live audio rooms. Speakers talked, listeners listened, and a listener could be invited up to speak. For anyone whose social life already involved enough video calls, the absence of a camera had an obvious appeal. You could take an interest in a conversation without also taking an interest in the state of your room.

Listening was the easy role. If the subject caught your attention, you stayed. If it didn’t, you could leave without the awkward business of visibly gathering your things halfway through somebody’s panel discussion.

Speaking took a little more nerve. There was an audience, after all, even if you couldn’t see anyone’s expression. Think of raising your hand to make one quick point, then realising you have to make it aloud to a roomful of strangers. Audio could be casual without feeling entirely pressure-free.

Somebody had to have something worth saying

The best reason to return was a room you actually liked. Mint’s September 2021 report (opens in a new tab) described Bengaluru PR professional Saina Jayapal co-hosting a morning newspaper round-up, with headlines from Kerala, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Anirudh Deshmukh co-hosted the music room Late Night Jam.

Those are more useful details than the vague promise that interesting people were somewhere on the app. A morning news room gives you a time to show up and a reason to listen. Music gives a host something to offer beyond keeping a discussion going. You could start recognising the people you came to hear, without ever having met them.

But hosting regularly meant finding the energy to do it again. Jayapal told Mint that sustaining rooms and interesting conversations was difficult, and reported a smaller audience. Deshmukh had also seen a dip, which he put down to users getting familiar with the app and forming smaller clubs.

A smaller room needn’t be a disappointing one. It might even be easier to join the conversation. That is rather different, though, from the excitement of arriving at a new app and wondering who else might turn up.

By September, the question had changed

Mint reported falling Indian downloads and engagement, using third-party data. Clubhouse disputed those figures: it acknowledged a June surge from waiting Android users but said engagement continued to grow. Hosts interviewed for the report described spending less time on the app. The company was talking about growth while some of the people running its conversations were cutting back.

Live conversation also asks you to be available when somebody else is talking. The ease of opening a room doesn’t make an evening spent listening any shorter. Once you have a few favourite hosts, you still have to find the time.

Clubhouse still offers an app download (opens in a new tab). Its invitation chase belongs to 2021. If you remember wanting one, try remembering the next bit too: the first room you stayed in long enough to stop looking for a better one.