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Everything You Need to Know About Clubhouse

The invitation-only social network lets you chat with celebs and join discussions with people from around the world.
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Clubhouse is the new social platform that everyone is talking about. Instead of photo and video, the app functions exclusively on audio, using just profile photos for each user. Imagine a live podcast, which you can be a part of. The iOS app is currently invitation-only, and has quickly caught the attention of the likes of Virgil Abloh and Tiffany Haddish. 

But what is Clubhouse exactly? Can a social network really thrive without images? Here's everything you need to know about the app.

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Photography by Francesco Barion For L'OFFICIEL Paris March 2017.

Launched in March 2020, Clubhouse describes itself as a "social network based on voice—where people around the world come together to talk, listen, and learn from each other in real time." Users can drop into public and private conversation rooms where you can chat with friends, share music, discuss topics, or, if you're lucky, listen to a talk from a celebrity or thought leader. Nothing on the app is recorded, though some users bypass this through their own means of documenting conversations. 

If you do receive an invitation, Clubhouse asks you to register with your real first and last name to have access to the phone book. Each profile corresponds to a phone number, not an email address. You can then choose from a long list of interests, and see who from your contacts also has a profile. After you follow a few users, the app will suggest "rooms" to enter, and you can ask to join a conversation by "raising a hand."

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Photography by Francesco Barion For L'OFFICIEL Paris April 2017.

"Our goal was to build a social experience that felt more human—where instead of posting, you could gather with other people and talk," Clubhouse's founders, Paul Davison and Rohan Seth, wrote on their blog. "Our north star was to create something where you could close the app at the end of the session feeling better than you did when you opened it, because you had deepened friendships, met new people and learned."

Topics include: "Musical Events: Will They be Held in 2021?," "Underrated TV Shows," and “I'm looking for a Physicist Who Makes Me Understand the Big Bang”. Some rooms have fewer than 10 participants, while others have thousands. Rooms can also be scheduled to begin at a certain time.

The app is still in private beta mode, and each user has two invitations to let people in. Clubhouse's founders plan on making the app available to everyone in 2021, and are "working hard to scale Clubhouse as fast as [they] can." 

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