Clubhouse, as soon as the Silicon Valley darling of pandemic-era social media, introduced earlier this 12 months that it was half its workers as its founders pivoted to constructing “Clubhouse 2.0.” Now, the corporate is sharing the outcomes of its large reset, with a redesign meant to make Clubhouse “extra like a messaging app.”
The audio app is pivoting from its signature “drop-in” audio conversations to friend-centric voice chats, the corporate mentioned in . As a substitute of sprawling rooms the place customers host live-streamed conversations open to any and all the app’s customers, the brand new Clubhouse will as a substitute encourage customers to hitch teams with individuals they know.
The teams are, considerably confusingly, referred to as “chats,” and permit buddies and friends-of-friends to trade voice messages. There’s nonetheless a “drop-in” component, but it surely’s much less targeted on real-time speaking and geared extra towards one thing like an Instagram Story — a vacation spot for checking in and sharing fast updates. The app can be text-based direct messages in favor of personal audio messages which, sure, it’s calling voicemails or VMs.
The most important shift, nevertheless, isn’t simply the format of the conversations however that Clubhouse is now positioning itself as extra of a Snapchat, the place smaller teams of buddies talk privately or semi-privately, than a Twitter, the place all of the app’s customers are shouting into the void. “It’s not about passively listening to individuals talking,” the corporate wrote in . “You’ll be able to take heed to nice conversations on podcasts, YouTube, TikTok, and a number of different platforms. It’s about speaking with individuals … and turning into real-life buddies with your pals’ buddies, and folks you by no means would have met in any other case.”
Whereas the pivot to messaging app could make extra sense given the steep decline in engagement Clubhouse noticed after pandemic restrictions eased, it’s unclear if the corporate will be capable to return to the identical of 2021, when it attracted tens of millions of customers and a multibillion-dollar valuation. Clubhouse, whose founders claimed earlier this 12 months that that they had “years of runway remaining,” appear to be they aren’t taking success with no consideration their second time round.
They ended their announcement of the redesign with a little bit of warning. “It’s an enormous wager, and we hope we’re proper…”