Clubhouse has finally launched the Android version of its app. The drop-in audio chat app has been available for iOS users since April last year and has seen explosive growth, but Android users have been unable to join the party until now. The new Android app can be downloaded from the Google Play store but, like on iOS, prospective users need an invite to gain access.
It was announced in January that work on an Android version of the app would begin soon and, in an update in April, Clubhouse said it had "readied Android for launch." That was further reinforced at the start of May when release notes for the platform indicated that "a rough beta version" of the Android app had begun being used by a "handful of friendly testers." The notes also said: "We cannot wait to welcome more Android users to Clubhouse over the coming weeks."
A week later, and the Clubhouse app for Android is indeed available to download. Accompanying blurb promises that the company is working hard to add users quickly but that, in the meantime, anyone can sign up to the waitlist for an invite or get one from an existing user. The best bets for getting one are via the Clubhouse subreddit invites thread, searching for invites on Twitter, or looking around elsewhere on social media. A blog post welcomed Android users to the platform and thanked them for their patience. It's being made available in the US first, followed by other English-speaking countries, and then the rest of the world.
More Clubhouse Updates
In its blog post, Clubhouse noted that it had started growing very quickly earlier this year and again acknowledged that its systems had struggled, unsuccessfully at times, to handle the load. As a result, it said it had shifted its focus to hiring, "fixing, and company building," rather than community meetups and product features. This, it says, has proved a valuable move and has laid a more stable foundation for future growth — like that driven by an influx of Android users.
The company says it plans to gather feedback over the coming weeks and address any issues that arise with the roll-out, as well as to "add a few final features like payments and club creation before rolling it out more broadly." In addition, those on the iOS waitlist will start gaining access more rapidly as the summer approaches, while expanded language support and more accessibility features will be also added.
Clubhouse says the period of growth it has experienced "has shown us how universal voice is as a medium," with communities on the platform now including farmers in rural Georgia, entrepreneurs in Tanzania, Film clubs in India, German debate rooms, Italian singalongs, and Middle Eastern quiz shows. These will soon be joined by a host of original Clubhouse content seeded by its accelerator program.
Source: Clubhouse/Google Play, Clubhouse