Clubhouse app review?

Hi all, wondering if you guys have tried this app?
It bills itself as

“Clubhouse is a space for casual, drop-in audio conversations—with friends and other interesting people around the world. Go online anytime to chat with the people you follow, or hop in as a listener and hear what others are talking about.”

Anyone using it? What do you think? I am still awaiting my invite code. If BTW you have code to spare I will appreciate it :slightly_smiling_face:

Maybe just use Discord?

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I don’t think the world needs more social media platforms, especially those that make themselves seem valuable by being hard to join by design. Like the others that came before it, this exclusivity must degrade over time as people join, the platform will experience context collapse, and then the next one will come along.

I’m with @anon41602260. Stick to cultivating small, healthy communities on platforms like Discord and Discourse where anyone can join but not everyone will want to, keeping it engaging.

PS:

:point_up_2:Is this the real reason for this thread?

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I’ve listened to a couple product design conversations on there. There doesn’t seem to be anything especially worthwhile about Clubhouse itself other than that some interesting people are currently using it for what are, essentially, live podcasts. The design looks similar to Basecamp, which may be a social network first.

Ben Evans, former a16z partner, has this to say

In Silicon Valley tech, Clubhouse, an app for live group audio chats, is the white-hot social app of the moment. My old colleagues at a16z invested at a $100m valuation 10 months ago and now just did a round at (reportedly) $1bn. It’s still invite-only, and the a16z media machine is trying to add even more momentum. Sriram Krishnan, a new a16z GP, has built up a popular show and had as guest first a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen (rematerialising from his social media exile like a fast-talking Luke Skywalker), then Elon Musk - who interviewed the CEO of Robinhood (another a16z investment) - and then Mark Zuckerberg (Marc is on the board of Facebook). :popcorn:.

Insider gossip apart, is Clubhouse interesting? Live audio chat is older than the web, but social mechanics and networks matter. Clubhouse has some of the appeal of early Twitter - spontaneous conversations amongst interesting people that anyone can listen to and perhaps join. And it tries to solve a lot of the problems of podcasts: it’s an integrated system, not an MP3 on a server somewhere, so it removes barriers to creation and distribution, brings an actual network, and can also innovate in features and revenue, adding tips, tickets, paid subscriptions, recording and metrics, where podcasts struggle since the UX is spread across is a dozen different clients. On the other hand, being live limits your reach (does live work better in China because everyone’s on the same timezone?), adding recording would change the vibe, and it will have to solve discovery at scale and the inevitable waves of abuse (not to mention the equally inevitable Instagram clone). But yes, it’s interesting. Links: Funding and plans, the Elon episode

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Partly :man_shrugging:

In regards to Clubhouse, having never used it, it seems like a radio station/podcast but live and anyone can participate? I see lots of chatter on Twitter about it but the rollout seems be very slow for now.