One of the biggest downsides to Clubhouse is the lack of access for Android users—or “exclusive” access for iOS users, depending on how you look at it. Regardless, with folks like Twitter coming out with their own audio-only discussion rooms such as Spaces, the company has finally decided to roll out access for Android devices.
However, there’s a catch: availability is limited by “invite-only”, just like on iOS. According to Clubhouse, this is so that the team can manage growth on the platform, with a view to opening up official public access for Android “soon(ish)”.
This basically means that Clubhouse for Android is rolling out in beta mode for now, with Android users in the U.S. first getting availability, followed by other English-speaking countries. And finally, a rollout for the rest of the world will happen in the third phase. Over the next couple of weeks, the creators of Clubhouse will continue to work on any potential bugs and issues, collect feedback, and develop a couple of “final features” such as payments.
“As a part of the effort to keep the growth measured, we will be continuing the waitlist and invite system, ensuring that each new community member can bring along a few close friends.”
If you want to be among the first (Android) users on Clubhouse, download the app and sign up to be alerted once it’s available by clicking here. Android versions 8.0 and above will be supported, although there will be a couple of features missing relative to the iOS version:
- Topic following
- Localization and in-app translations
- Club creation or club management
- Twitter account or Instagram account linking
- Update name or update username in-app
- Sidebar
- Payments (currently U.S. only for iOS)
- You can report someone from their profile but reporting via the recent speaker choice will be coming soon
To find out more about that, head over to Clubhouse’s FAQ section here.
