Explainer | How does Clubhouse work?

As the coronavirus forced people indoors, instantly forcing people to work from home and ending all forms of social interaction, a new social media app emerged as if to deal with these disruptions.

Clubhouse's increasing popularity rather relies on its exclusivity. Apart from being an audio-only platform, it is also on-invite only. It was valued at over $1 billion with 2.4 million global downloads and about 8,000 in India. It is currently available for iOS users.

Billionaire Elon Musk was among those who popularised the app for the world. In India, startup founders are currently dominating the Clubhouse space. Cred's Kunal Shah is among the influential personalities part of the platform.

How does it work?

A Clubhouse user, after getting an invite, would enter various chatrooms and see who is speaking or listening. All profiles in these rooms are accessible and can be followed. The company defines itself as a product which "allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet interesting new people around the world."

Users have reportedly defined the experience as a podcast where the audience also has a chance to pitch in thoughts and ideas.

Clubhouse, founded by Paul Davison with Rohan Seth, a former Google engineer, is supposed to bring the spontaneity and conversations of real life, which were muzzled due to the ongoing pandemic.

But unlike other social media platforms, on Clubhouse, the audio content disappears after the rooms are closed. The users are not forced to take part in interactions, they can, however, listen to the discussions as long as they want.

The user has to provide a phone number, through which the invite link will be sent, and a name for creating an account. A username can be reserved even before getting an invite.

Even though the app is still not available for all users, Clubhouse vows that it is building a community and soon anybody will be able to join the platform.

As for the ones who are currently on Clubhouse, they claim it is very addictive. A user tweeted about the "embarrassing amount" of time spent on the app way back in April.