More than a year after Clubhouse first launched, the live audio platform has exited beta and is no longer invite-only, the company said on Wednesday.
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 beginning on Wednesday morning.
“The invite system has been an important part of our early history,” Clubhouse founders Paul Davison and Rohan Seth said in a blog post. “But we’ve always wanted Clubhouse to be open. Everyone in the world should have access to meaningful conversations. And the best rooms on Clubhouse are the ones where you meet people from far outside your social circle, with very different views and lived experiences, who change your perspective on the world.”
Clubhouse’s exclusivity — users were allowed to join if they were invited from another user already on the app — has, in part, helped bolster interest in the platform, especially with Clubhouse rooms featuring figures like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. But since its iOS-only launch in April 2020, the app has expanded to Android, launched new features like Backchannel, a direct messaging feature and inspired some copycats along the way.
“We know there will be many more ups and downs as we scale, and competition from the large networks will be fierce,” Davison and Seth said in the blog post. “But we believe the future is created by optimists — and we’re excited to keep working to build a different kind of social network. Our plan as always will be to stay heads down on product and focused on the community, making Clubhouse steadily better for them each day.”
