After blowing up on the iPhone, Clubhouse is now on Android.
In Summary
- Clubhouse is now available in beta on Android.
- It’s only available in the U.S. at the moment, with a UK release in the coming days.
- The invite-only system will remain for the near future.
After more than a year of operating only on iOS and gaining a significant user base on iOS, Clubhouse finally started work on its Android app earlier this year in January.
After an earlier private beta teased last week, Clubhouse today announced that it would be making its debut on Android after an earlier announcement this year. The app had taken off in the heyday of the pandemic and spawned many imitators, but had neglected the Android market for a while. There are a few caveats. This is still a beta, it’s still invite-only, and you’ll need to be in the U.S. to use it (though an expansion to other English-speaking markets has been promised.)
An increasing number of Android users have shown interest in the app over the last few months. The app’s popularity has prompted several rival platforms, including Facebook, Telegram, Twitter and Instagram, to develop their own Clubhouse alternatives.
Therefore, it only makes sense for Clubhouse to release its Android app as soon as possible, or it may lose a significant chunk of its potential user base to Twitter’s Spaces or Telegram’s Voice Chat 2.0, which are already live for several users on Android.
The Android app, which the company says has been the top request from its community by far, will roll out to other English-speaking markets and the rest of the world in the days and weeks ahead, the company said.
Users outside the US will be able to pre-register for access via the Clubhouse page in the Google Play store, to be notified when the Android app is available in their area.
However, Clubhouse says the platform will remain invite-only for now, meaning it’s still not open to just anyone, “as part of the effort to keep the growth measured,” the company said in a statement.
Over the summer, the company plans to begin migrating what it says are millions of iOS users who have been waitlisted while the company built the app’s infrastructure.
Writing over on the Clubhouse blog, the team said:
Our plan over the next few weeks is to collect feedback from the community, fix any issues we see and work to add a few final features like payments and club creation before rolling it out more broadly. […]As a part of the effort to keep the growth measured, we will be continuing the waitlist and invite system, ensuring that each new community member can bring along a few close friends.
You’ll also be able to use Clubhouse only on Android 8.0 and above, though that shouldn’t be an issue for any of the best Android phones.
You can download Clubhouse from the Google Play Store here if you’re in the U.S. Clubhouse says the app will debut in the UK and other english-speaking countries in “the coming days”, and you can already pre-register if you’re in the UK.
Source: Android Central
