Clubhouse: Drop In and Speak Your Mind 

What Is Clubhouse?  

Clubhouse is an audio-based social app, originally built like an exclusive club, accessible on an iPhone by invite only. Today, by simply downloading the app on a mobile device and creating a free account, users can mix and mingle as they choose.  

After beginning as a small start-up platform for podcasts, Clubhouse made its landfall in March of 2020 as a channel to speak your mind and gained almost immediate popularity. At that time, COVID gripped the globe, and hundreds of thousands shifted to the new audio-based social channel for real-time conversations.  

Since then, Clubhouse is not the only app accommodating folks who want to use their voice. Twitter Spaces, Reddit Talk, and Telegram Voice Chats are just a few players in the audio social field.  

How to Use Clubhouse 

When you set up your Clubhouse profile, you will be asked to verify your email address. You will be prompted initially to connect your account to your Twitter and/or Instagram accounts.  Clubhouse will prompt you to specify your interests so that it can recommend Clubs, or user communities, to you. Depending on whether the Clubs are public or private, you can simply click to join (while also accepting applicable Club rules and guidelines). You also have the ability to start your own Club.  

Over 700k Rooms are created every day on Clubhouse, either spontaneously or through a schedule. You can use the search feature in your Clubhouse feed, or Hallway, to find Rooms that are of interest to you. As a member of a Club, you will be notified in your Hallway whenever a Room is opened or scheduled.  

Starting a Room as the moderator is quick and easy, requiring just one click on the app’s home page. You have three types of Rooms to choose from: Open, Social, and Closed. The types vary by who is permitted to join the Room. Open Rooms have no restrictions. Social Rooms are only accessible by people you follow. Only invited users can join Closed Rooms. 

After creating a Room, you have the option to invite Clubhouse friends and people who aren’t Clubhouse users yet. You can do so by either providing them with the link or sharing a Tweet with your Twitter friends. A chat feature called Backchannel allows you to privately message any Clubhouse user.  

Rooms offer three zones: “the stage,” “followed by the speakers,” and “others in the room.” Each user will be represented in the Room by their name and profile picture. The moderator holds the power to control the stage, enabling users to unmute and speak. Users can come and go as they please, entering and leaving Rooms quietly. However, just as your Hallway will provide you with notifications when your connections are engaging on the platform, your activity will be notified to others as well. 

Get Real About the Risks 

Social media users must be aware of what is being shared publicly about them. But they often don’t spend time adjusting the seemingly complicated default settings to the most private selections.  

If you allow Clubhouse to sync with your device when you first download the app, then it will have access to your contacts. Once that permission is granted, the app can make the connections between the phone numbers on your phone and users that have the same contacts. Further, if anyone who has you on their contact list syncs their device to the app, then you are already in Clubhouse’s database. 

When you connect your other social media apps to Clubhouse, any information collected by one of them is collected by all of them. Once you start navigating and engaging on the app, your usage will be tracked. Your activity, use of features, and engagement in clubs, rooms, and with other users are all collected. Clubhouse’s claims that it doesn’t sell this user data to third parties has been under investigation. 

Bad actors also leverage social audio, or drop-in audio, because the platform providers don’t have the resources to adequately moderate Rooms at scale, leaving hate rallies and disinformation to thrive. Clubhouse responds to incident reports by eventually warning, suspending, or removing users who share hate-centered viewpoints. 

Operate Safely in Clubhouse 

Free speech can quickly become hateful with calls to violence whether you are online or offline. Harassment and misinformation in online platforms can spill over to other social media apps. Staying safe within the internal web of social media depends on educating yourself and using reliable tools. 

Related Article: Twitter Spaces: Make Room for Audio Chats