As chaos at Twitter continues to unfold, new alternatives to the social media giant appear every day. While Clubhouse isn’t technically new, it has received greater attention following the Twitter rapture and subsequent exodus.
Clubhouse took off during the lockdowns of 2020. You could say that the now popular iPhone and Android app was the answer to some people’s desire to socialize and interact.
The invite-based audio-only app allowed people to feel like they were out and about again, engaging with others just as they would have had the lockdowns never occurred. It imitated conference calls, audio calls, and even podcasts in a sense.
It didn’t take long for Twitter to pick up on the rampant success that was Clubhouse, at least for a short while. Soon after, the social media giant announced its take on Clubhouse’s audio-only goodness called Twitter Spaces.
Twitter called it "a small experiment focused on the intimacy of the human voice" when it launched Spaces in December 2021. The social media company told CNET they would be unrolling Spaces to all users globally the following month.
“The in-app feature lets users create their own rooms, also known as a Space for others to join, as well as share audio clips via tweets and direct messages,” CNET reported.
Initially, only iOS users could host Spaces, or in other words, create rooms. Today, both Android and iOS users can create, join and listen in Spaces.
That’s the story of how Twitter jumped on the live audio bandwagon, only a far more inclusive bandwagon than Clubhouse ever was. Since then, Clubhouse remained in the shadow of Twitter Spaces... until now.
With Twitter’s seemingly never-ending chaos consuming the once-great social media network (although, never that great according to some), Clubhouse and many other alternatives to Twitter have stepped out of the darkness. Mastodon and Hive Social have also seen a resurgence in user numbers.
While Twitter is struggling with layoffs, verification issues, bugs and advertisers pulling out of the platform, its alternatives seem to be thriving.
It is too early to say if Elon Musk will manage to take Twitter in a whole new direction or if the platform’s time is nearing its end. For now, other social media networks are having their day in the sun and should make the most of it.
