What you need to know
- Clubhouse exploded in popularity earlier during the later months of 2020.
- An Android app was announced earlier this year, and founder Paul Davison clarified it would be landing in months.
- Bigger platforms like Twitter and Telegram have adopted Clubhouse-style features already.
Social media app du jour, Clubhouse, previously published in a blog post that it would be coming to Android. Even though it had exploded in popularity recently, the invite-only, iOS-only app was built with everyone in mind, and so it would be beginning work on its Android app "soon." As per TechCrunch, co-founder Paul Davison recently shared that they would be making the Android app available in a "couple of months." In other words, expect it to land more around the summer than anytime soon.
It's a bit of an unwelcome throwback to old times where Android users had to wait months or years for apps like Instagram to make their debut, but it may very well be a moot point soon. While the concept of Clubhouse is a fun one, one critique it's faced was that it felt more like a feature that belonged on a bigger platform than an emerging platform in itself.
Well, bigger platforms have noticed. Twitter has quickly jumped into the audio-platform space with Spaces. The feature has already gone live on Android, and works just as well. Telegram is also pushing its own Clubhouse-like feature set with recent updates to the app. Even Facebook is working on building in these features to Instagram.
The lack of a Clubhouse app on Android has also left a space for malware, unfortunately, with some bad actors (via ZD Net) using malicious Android apps to steal user credentials. With both Pixels and some of the best Android phones having excellent security, as well as the Play Store, you'd have to try really hard to fall to this. But the risk remains regardless, as Davison warned listeners.
