Clubhouse Adds Clips, Replays & More - New Features!

Clubhouse Announces New Features for Enhanced User Experience

Today, Clubhouse revealed a suite of four new functionalities: Clips, Replay, Universal Search, and spatial audio compatibility for Android devices – a feature already available on iOS. With the exception of Replay, slated for release in October, all additions are launching immediately. These enhancements aim to broaden Clubhouse’s user base by enabling content access beyond live broadcasts, fostering engagement at any time.

Introducing Clips: Shareable Moments from Live Rooms

Clips will empower listeners within public rooms to capture and share the most recent 30 seconds of audio. This allows for the creation of shareable highlights from insightful (or noteworthy) speaker contributions. These snippets can then be disseminated across various social media platforms.

Room hosts retain control, deciding whether or not to permit clip creation within their spaces. When enabled, a scissor icon will become available for users to generate clips.

Addressing Potential Misuse of Clips

Clubhouse recognizes the potential for Clips to be taken out of context. Selective editing could distort a speaker’s intended message – for example, truncating a statement like “the museum is always free on Friday” to simply “the museum is always free.” Concern extends to more serious instances of misrepresentation.

Consequently, Clips are initially being released in beta to a limited group of creators. This cautious approach reflects Clubhouse’s past struggles with content moderation, including recent reports of harassment leading to doctors being removed from the platform.

Enhanced Search and Spatial Audio

Universal Search is being implemented to improve content discoverability. Users will now be able to locate relevant rooms (both live and scheduled), individuals, clubs, and user profiles by entering keywords or names into the search function.

Furthermore, following positive reception from iOS users, Clubhouse is extending Spatial Audio functionality to Android devices. However, the platform continues to lack support for deaf and hard of hearing users through the absence of live captioning.

Replay: A Potential Game Changer

Among these updates, Replay is anticipated to be the most impactful. This feature will allow creators to record rooms, save them to their profiles or associated clubs, or download the audio for external distribution, such as podcasting.

Hosts and moderators will have the option to enable or disable recording for each room.

Competition in the Live Audio Space

Earlier this month, David Sacks, former COO of PayPal, introduced Callin, a “social podcasting” application mirroring Clubhouse’s live audio format, but with integrated recording and editing capabilities for podcast creation. Twitter also announced plans to incorporate recorded Spaces. Clubhouse’s Replay feature positions it to remain competitive.

Attracting and Retaining Creators

Despite efforts to attract live audio creators through the “Creator First” program, reports indicate the initiative did not fully meet expectations. However, providing a streamlined method for saving and sharing audio content could incentivize hosts to remain active on the platform.

While the core appeal of platforms like Clubhouse lies in the immediacy of live interaction, enabling asynchronous listening can facilitate audience growth.