Clubhouse, a social audio-based invite-only app, is now on Google Play Store for Android users in the US

The audio-based social network Clubhouse is at long last bringing its app to Android after more than a year of iOS exclusivity, the organization announced Sunday. The beta is only available for U.S. users, and, similarly likewise with Clubhouse’s iOS version, it remains invite-only for the present. So not simply anybody can sign up and join in the app’s audio-only chatrooms.

After more than a year of iOS exclusivity, social audio platform Clubhouse is releasing its Android app. It will be accessible in beta on Google’s mobile OS today in the US, permitting clients to sign up and participate in its audio-only chat rooms.

Android clients in the U.S. will actually want to download the app beginning May 9. Clients throughout the world will actually want to pre-register through the Clubhouse page in the Google Play Store to be advised when the app is available in their area.

Clubhouse will keep on applying its invitation-only system — which permits existing community members to invite a handful of contacts — for Android clients “as part of the effort to keep the growth measured,” as indicated by a statement on the Android launch.

Downloads of the app have purportedly been diving in recent months, so it’s possible Clubhouse trusts that inviting clients on the biggest cell phone OS in the world users will save it from spiraling further. The app outperformed 9.5 million downloads in February yet dipped to about 2.7 million in March and fell to only 900,000 in April, as per the analytics firm Sensor Tower.

In a Sunday blog post, Clubhouse said it plans to steadily roll out the Android version to other English-speaking markets and afterward the rest of the world. For those external the U.S., you can pre-register for access on the Clubhouse page in the Google Play store to be alarmed once the app becomes available close to you.

“Our plan over the next few weeks is to collect feedback from the community, fix any issues we see, and work to add a few final features like payments and club creation before rolling it out more broadly,” the company said.

The Android app, which the organization says has been the top request from its community by far, will carry out to other English-speaking markets and the rest of the world in the days and weeks ahead, the organization said. Clients outside the US will actually want to pre-register for access through the Clubhouse page in the Google Play store, to be informed when the Android application is available in their area.

Notwithstanding, Clubhouse says the platform will remain invite-only for now, which means it’s as yet not open to only anybody, “as part of the effort to keep the growth measured,” the organization said in a statement. Over the summer, the organization intends to start relocating what it says are a great many iOS clients who have been waitlisted while the organization built the app’s infrastructure.

Over the summer, Clubhouse likewise plans to invite a great many iOS clients who have been stuck on the iOS waitlist as it improves the application’s foundation, which incorporates growing language support and adding more accessibility features.

Clubhouse’s download rates could be declining for any number of reasons. A few specialists have theorized that the audio-only social media rage may have been a pandemic-era fad that assisted individuals with the feeling associated while stuck in their homes.

With vaccines carrying out and numerous regions across the U.S. opening up once more, it very well may be that individuals are essentially connecting in person more nowadays, leaving Clubhouse in the dust. It’s additionally conceivable that interest is waning because every other tech giant has either carried out or is cooking up a copycat app to get in on the social audio hype train.

Another possible factor: Two high-profile security messes hit the organization in February in the midst of a surge of hype and celebrity sign-ups, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. In Sunday’s blog post, Clubhouse recognized that it has battled to stay aware of its platform’s ballooning development earlier this year.

Regardless of limited access Clubhouse has produced significant buzz, thanks partially to its early popularity with the venture-capital crowd dotted around Silicon Valley. The organization was recently esteemed at $4 billion after a new funding round.

In any case, this early excitement has implied numerous big tech firms are interested in launching comparable audio features of their own. Twitter has effectively carried out its own Spaces feature, Discord has added Stage Channels, and Facebook, Spotify, Slack, LinkedIn, and Reddit are all at different phases of adding comparable audio-only features to their services.

The organization recognized in its post declaring the Android app that the platform had become quicker than anticipated. “This had its downsides, as the load stressed our systems—causing widespread server outages and notification failures, and surpassing the limits of our early discovery algorithms,” the post stated. “It made us shift our focus to hiring, fixing, and company building, rather than the community meetups and product feature that we normally like to focus on.”

Clubhouse’s beta Android app at present does not have various features like the ability to follow a theme, in-app translations, localization, ability to make or manage a club, link Twitter and Instagram profiles, payments, as well as the ability to change the profile name or user name.

With over a year added to its belt, Clubhouse has directed its concentration toward attracting makers to its platform and recently declared the results of an accelerator program which will see it fund 50 audio shows on the platform. Presently, with its release on Android, Clubhouse is finally letting US clients with an invite on the biggest smartphone OS in the world get included.

Clubhouse is progressively seeming as though the flash in the pan experts speculated it very well may be, however, who knows, possibly this eagerly awaited launch on Android will turn things around. We’ll need to keep a watch out.

Following this, it will arrive at more “English-speaking” countries and afterward every one of the nations. This will begin in the next few weeks after gathering users’ feedback and fixing issues if any.

The application will not leave its essence will in any case remain invite-only, similar to what happens right now for iOS users. Clubhouse’s Android version is additionally expected to get features, for example, payments and club creation before it contacts a more extensive audience.

Aside from this, the app comes up short on a few more features. As uncovered through a different FAQ section, Clubhouse for Android is yet to get features like the ability to follow subjects, in-app translations, creation of clubs, and Twitter/Instagram account linking. The list additionally incorporates name/username updates in the app, a sidebar, and the ability to report somebody.

Moreover, Clubhouse for iOS is required to get hold of new features, for example, opening the app to more people, enhanced accessibility features, and more. The aim is to additionally grow the club.

For the uninitiated, Clubhouse is an interactive platform for voice-only chats on different subjects of changing interests. The app rose to popularity a year ago and as of now has different apps copying it. This incorporates Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and more.