Clubhouse – the popular social audio chat app – announced Friday that anyone can now listen to conversations taking place on the platform over the internet. The experience is initially rolling out to Clubhouse users in the US and will work for both replays and live rooms with replays enabled. It does not require listeners to have the Clubhouse app installed on their devices or signed in to the platform. Separately, Clubhouse brings an option to let users share sessions they attend on the app with any social media network or via a messaging app.
Since its debut in March 2020, Clubhouse requires users to sign up to participate in a conversation taking place on the platform. The app also initially started its journey as an invite-only solution. However, it changes the existing model by introducing ‘Web Listening’ that allows people to listen to conversations taking place in Clubhouse rooms from their phone or laptop, without having to download the app or log in.
To allow users to listen to their content using a web browser, creators must have replays enabled in their virtual rooms. The replays feature is designed to allow users to listen to the recording of a live conversation in the app at a later stage.
Clubhouse noted that “Web Listening” is being rolled out as an experiment, meaning you may notice some bugs in the early stages. Also, the experience is currently limited to the US, though the team is open to expanding it to more countries and room types over time.
In November, Twitter took a similar step and allowed users without an account to listen to conversations taking place through the audio-only Spaces feature.
In addition to the ability to listen to conversations over the web, Clubhouse allows users to share conversations via a social network or copy the link to share via a messaging app. Dedicated Share via… and Copy link options appear as soon as you tap the Part button in a room to share the specific conversation with a wider audience.
today we are introducing an easy new way to spread the word about great rooms. It’s called…drum roll….SHARE! we invented this and no one has thought of it before.
even better, if you share, people now have the ability to listen on the desktop – no need to login ? pic.twitter.com/Gw2rFkMQcs
— Clubhouse (@Clubhouse) January 6, 2022
There also is a Share on Clubhouse option you can use to share the virtual room with your followers in the app. You can also add a comment along with access to the room when you select the appropriate option.
Clubhouse is also launching Share and Clip counts at the bottom of the room to help creators understand how often their rooms are shared. It will also bring a new Room Insights page where creators will get more insights in the future, the company said.
The updated sharing experience on Clubhouse starts rolling out this week for both Android and iOS users.
Overall, Clubhouse’s effort with the new features is to go beyond the app and make conversations on the platform more widely accessible. However, it seems to have lost some of the steam it had gathered with celebrities like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg taking part in Clubhouse rooms. The app has also been criticized for poor moderation practices and a growing number of adult rooms.
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