The Clubhouse app hit the headlines once Elon Musk used it. Overnight, the number of users reached over 2 million.
Intrigued how? Let’s start directly with the Clubhouse app insights, followed by its key features.
Buzz Around the Clubhouse App: Why It Became Popular
We’ve checked out the most legendary media buzzing about Clubhouse too. Here’s what they say about the Clubhouse app:
- New York Times: the invite-only app draws attention with exclusivity.
- Forbes: the audio-only app feeds the need for human connection.
- CNBC: celebrities and high-profile venture capitalists are promoting it.
- Vogue: FOMO fuels people to download the latest tech trend.
So, what factors make this social application unique?
- Exclusivity — the invite-only app
- Audio-based unscripted and unrecorded conversations
- Simple interface
- Unlimited selection of rooms
- Personal optimization
Regarding platform support, Clubhouse is an iOS-based app only.
8 Core Features of Clubhouse
Let’s check out the following functionality:
1. Onboarding
Clubhouse creators did their best to make users comfortable with the new app.
- Profile setting
You have two options: “Get your username,” which will add you to the waiting list for the time being, or you can select the “Sign in” option if you have an invite.
In this case, you receive an SMS code. As you enter the code, you pass to a registration page to start with your profile.
If you opt to enter your info manually, you have to add your full name and create a Clubhouse username.
- Interests selection
Your onboarding continues with an overview of your interests.
This step is important for the machine to suggest people or clubs that mirror your interests.
Here’s what the suggestion page looks like:
If you opt to select people individually, you’ll see a slightly different interface and a “Follow no one” option. However, selecting the latter means that your feed will remain empty.
- Clubhouse notifications
The onboarding concludes with your permission for notifications when something interesting comes up:
2. Clubhouse Invitation
As a registered user, you can send invites to two other people:
Generally, there are three ways a person can join Clubhouse:
- Register on a virtual waiting list
- Get a Clubhouse invite from a person already there
- Buy an invite
The rumors say that you can obtain or sell your invites on eBay. The NYTimes states that the price varies from $30 to $20,000. However, now you can receive an invite for as little as $3.
3. Feed — Clubhouse Hallway
Similar to other social networking apps, the feed contains two separate lists: one for upcoming events and one for those that are up in the air.
4. Clubhouse Rooms
To create a room of your own, you have to tap the “Start a room” button.
There are three types of rooms: Open, Social, and Closed; each type determines who can join your conversation.
If a person wants to launch a session, it is possible to start a room with a simple architecture:
- List of speakers participating in the room
- Possibility to search inside a room
- “Raise hand” button
- “Leave quietly” button
As the moderator you can allow or forbid your speakers to raise their hands, mute other speakers’ microphones, and invite people from other audiences to speak.
5. User profile
The user profile is extremely simple. It features a picture and a short description of who the users are.
6. Clubhouse Clubs
What does a club look like? Its structure is as simple as everything else on the Clubhouse app. Each club consist of the following aspects:
- Club name
- Club logo or picture
- Short description
- Categories of interest
- Members
As well, there is a “Follow” button; once you follow a club, you will receive notifications when they host conversations that you can join.
There are three possible roles you can have in a club:
- Admin
- Members
- Followers
7. Search
Within the Clubhouse you can search for people and clubs by their names, and for conversations by some specific topics.
It is also possible to search for people within a room during a conversation:
8. Upcoming for you
This feature, as its name suggests, allows you to see and filter the upcoming events. However, it also lets you join conversations that have already started.
You may filter the upcoming events by three categories: All upcoming, Upcoming for you, and My events.
How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App?
To answer straightforwardly, a simple social networking app can cost you around $60,000, and its development timeline will be 3–6 months. Note that this calculation takes into account an average developer rate of $40 per hour in Eastern Europe (Ukraine).
A complex social media app can cost $230,000 and its development can take more than 9 months.
Here are few of the main factors influencing the final cost:
- Size and location of the IT vendor
- Complexity of functionality
- Back-end infrastructure and connected APIs
- Complexity of UX/UI design
- Branded visuals
- Development approach and number of platforms
These options are: a boutique software development company, a custom software development company, or a freelancer.
1. Hire a freelancer
This option is the cheapest. Today, finding free specialists who know how to build an app is not simple, but possible.
2. Hire a local IT company
This is a great, but costly option. If you are based in Western Europe or North America, development prices can reach $80-$150 per hour.
3. Outsource software development
This option is for those who have a great idea and a moderate budget. Your benefits will include:
- High quality of the end-product
- Corporate-level quality of cooperation and communication
- Effective project management
- Reasonable pricing and rates
When you need to make a Clubhouse app or something similar, it makes sense to outsource your project to Eastern Europe.
We recommend that you pay special attention to Ukraine. This country is home to numerous specialists in Objective C, Swift, Java, and other stacks for iOS app development.
As well, Ukraine takes the 20th position in the A. T. Kearney Global Services Location Index as the most attractive outsourcing destination, and more than 100 companies from the Fortune 500 list outsource software development to Ukraine.
Services & Processes to Build an App
The Discovery stage helps build a common understanding of the future product between the client (product owner) and the IT vendor.
The Discovery stage provides the following benefits:
- Saves time and cost on the development steps
- Validation and fixing of the business and technical requirements
- Documentation of project functionality and task prioritization
- Documentation of potential risks and their coverage
- Allocation of the required tech expertise and programmers
- Sync between the client and the development team
Once the Discovery stage has been completed, the client receives deliverables.
The allocated team may consist of front-end and back-end developers, QA engineers, a Software Architect, and a Project Manager in the Development stage.
8 Key Steps to Create a Clubhouse App
Most start-ups fall into a general pitfall: they want to duplicate the model app’s functionality and success.
Rather you should conduct research and offer something unique, namely:
- Improvement in existing functionality
- Additional features
- Wider choice of platforms (for example, you could create Clubhouse for Android)
- Lower cost for plans, etc.
Specialists foresee a bright future for audio social networks.
This means that there it makes a lot of sense to bring up new ideas in the social network market.
Here are the 6 steps in your journey to create a successful digital project.
1. Research the market
2. Select your target audience
3. Finalize the app concept
4. Decide on app monetization
5. Specify functionality
6. Decide on the supported platforms
7. Ongoing app support and improvement
8. Launch a marketing campaign
