Introduced last spring Clubhouse is a social networking app that lets people gather in audio chat rooms to discuss various topics.  There is no video, not texting and no recording of the content by participants.  The app runs only on your iPhone. There is no desktop version.  Sorry Android users, there is no application for you yet.

Being in the app is like wandering through a networking event, stopping to chat with groups of people in rooms along the way. Rooms are usually divided into two groups: those who are talking and those who are listening (participants can see a list of everyone who is in a conversation, and the numbers sometimes run into the thousands).

Typically the most popular rooms have only a  handful of people presenting to a silent crowd. Some moderators invite questions from the audience others do not.

Similar to Twitter, anyone can jump into a public conversation, but Clubhouse is a closed, hierarchical platform: A moderator (or modreators) manage the discussion.  They can invite someone to chime in or remove people from the conversation. In addition to the “clubs” sorted by topic, two or more users can join together and start their own private chat room.

The Good and The Bad

There is no rating system for speakres or rooms so each conversation has the potential to be interesting or chaotic. Fortunately you can hop in and out at will.

Can I join Clubhouse?

As its name suggests, Clubhouse is built on exclusivity: You have to be invited in by an existing user.  You must have an iPhone to participate.

Find Your Tribe on Clubhouse

The room topics run the gamut from health and wellness to tech, business, spirituality and politics to name a few.  TWhen you create your account, you can pict topics you are interested in and the app will curate your feed, learning over time based on who you follow. In additon the search function allows you to find new topics and people.