Anyone still remembers the app called Clubhouse? Once upon a time, it was the hottest thing in the mobile app space, but other major players in the social media spaces have cooked up their own equivalents since. Now, after quite some time away from the limelight, the social media platform has announced a change that will make it a bit more like a conventional messaging app.
In a recent blog post, Clubhouse says that it is introducing voice-only group chats called, well, “Chats”. As the company explains it, the idea here is to emulate the old Clubhouse room, “but it takes place asynchronously, so you can drop by and chime in on your own time”. So, imagine your conventional group chats, just with all the text bubbles replaced with voice messages. This does mean that in addition to actual conversations, these Chats would also allow members to just drop off updates about themselves and call it a day.
Some features that come alongside these Chats include the ability to listen at 2x speed, tap to skip, and swipe to the next Chat. Based on the update post, it looks like direct messages are also being replaced with voice messages.
Since this change requires a more personal relationship that just dropping into a live room with thousands of strangers, Clubhouse is also converting all the one-way follows into friend request. From there, users can join groups that their friends belong to. Though the platform says that the live rooms are not going away, and that Chats will allow nearly the same experience without all he pre-planning and moderation required.
Which sounds about as contradictory as it is a harsh swing in the opposite direction. Even the people behind Clubhouse sound unsure about their own direction, as the blog post ends with “It’s a big bet, and we hope we’re right…”.
(Source: Clubhouse)
