New Clubhouse Wave Expands Social Audio Chat Options
Social audio app Clubhouse has added a new method for starting conversations by inviting individuals called Wave. The feature lets users select friends to invite to an audio chat room more casually than the more rigidly scheduled meetings common to the platform.
Waving
Clubhouse users can use Wave by going to their friend list from the main page or by tapping on the dots on the bottom of the screen. They then just tap the waving hand emoji next to the names of the people they want to invite to a room. After getting an invitation, those selected can jump into the new room. The room opens as soon as someone accepts, but if they’re busy, they can tap “maybe later” so the host won’t expect them.
“Here on Clubhouse, more than 700,000 rooms are created every single day. Many of these are the communal moments you know and love, like coming together to give flowers or stopping by a regular morning news show. But it’s often the smaller private moments amongst friends that put smiles on faces,” Clubhouse wrote in a blog post introducing the feature. “To help you create more of these small, special moments, we’re introducing Wave!”
Audibly Social
Clubhouse has been busy building up its more formal, conference and event-style attractions. New partnerships with TED Talks and the NHL are bringing big names to the platform, while as well as homegrown shows produced through the expanding Creator First programs offer hosts a chance to build a following on the app. These events are also supported by new features like spatial audio and Backchannel texting. The direct messaging service enables users to text with each other while on the app, either one-to-one or in a group chat, without interrupting the audio discussion or requiring a different communications tool.
The event-focused version of social audio is central to plenty of Clubhouse’s competitors. Spotify is funneling resources into new shows and projects for its social audio app, Greenroom, while Discord has made its Stage Channels platform a showcase of celebrities and events. Facebook’s new Live Audio Rooms and the rumored Amazon social audio platform seem to be heading in the same direction, although Twitter Spaces has so far taken more of Clubhouse’s wide brush approach so far. The sheer speed that social audio grew over the last year and worries about a cliff plummeting user numbers down give Clubhouse and the others plenty of incentive to find one or more angles that have some staying power as the novelty fades.
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