Clubhouse opens to everyone, drops invite requirement

Washington: The audio social networking app Clubhouse is no longer exclusive. The platform has ditched its invite-only policy to grant everyone access to its audio chat rooms.

Things to love about Clubhouse:

✅ Wonderful people
✅ Fascinating conversations
✅ Backchannel
❌ > ✅ Easy to join

After 16 never-boring months of building, we’re thrilled to share that Clubhouse is now out of beta, open to everyone, and ready to begin the next chapter! pic.twitter.com/vC1g2KfhyQ

— Clubhouse (@Clubhouse) July 21, 2021

As per The Verge, the news was announced during Clubhouse’s Town Hall on Wednesday.

Co-founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth announced on Wednesday that the app is no longer invite-only. Around 10 million people are currently on the waitlist, a spokesperson confirmed.

Users on the waitlist will slowly get added to the app in the coming weeks, while new users will automatically be able to sign up. Along with the news, Clubhouse showed off a new logo.

“The invite system has been an important part of our early history,” a blog post about the changes said.

“By adding people in waves, welcoming new faces each week in our Wednesday Orientations, and talking with the community each Sunday in Town Hall, we’ve been able to grow Clubhouse in a measured way, and keep things from breaking as we’ve scaled,” the blog post further read.

This change comes only a week after Clubhouse launched its DM product called Backchannel, which the team said saw 10 million messages sent within the first day of launch, and more than 90 million over the first week.

Of course, the application opening up comes amid increasing competition. As Clubhouse built out its product and acquired a waitlist, other social audio products, like Twitter Spaces, opened to everyone.

Since its iOS-only launch in April 2020, the app has expanded to Android and has launched some new features.