Clubhouse is rolling out a feature that will allow you to create your own curated “house” within the app, Clubhouse co-founder and CEO Paul Davison said in a series of tweets Thursday.
To accommodate the current size and diversity of the community using the audio-based social networking platform, Davison said, the app is evolving from what was originally a single “room” to allowing people to create their own communities in their own individual houses.
“Not everyone wants to talk about the same things! People have different styles and ways of coming together,” Davison tweeted. “A single community just doesn’t work beyond a certain size. Communities need to be able to undergo mitosis as they grow — so they can split into new ones and the intimacy can scale.”
Each house can have its own personality, culture and content moderation rules, Davison said. He added that house member lists will be public, and many rooms on the app will remain public to allow users to discover “new people and cultures from around the world.” House rooms will be private, however.
The beta version of the feature is available for people who want to sign up and create their own house on the platform. Clubhouse will be approving new house applications slowly as the company gathers feedback and makes improvements to the experience along the way.
Clubhouse was originally launched in 2020 as an invite-only app where people could get together virtually and talk about (or listen to talks on) various topics. The exclusivity of the app, along with the allure of potentially being in the same “room” with celebrities like Tiffany Haddish, Jared Leto, Oprah, Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk created a significant amount of buzz after it launched. The app left beta in July last year, meaning anyone could join without needing an invitation.
Other social networks, including Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, soon launched audio spaces to compete with Clubhouse.
Clubhouse generated its share of controversy in the months after launching as it grappled with content moderation concerns along with an investigation by a French privacy watchdog group that questioned the app’s compliance with the EU’s GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation. The app was also reportedly banned in China last year.
