Clubhouse Introduces Spatial Audio and Now Hosts 700k Rooms Per Day

It may seem to have quietened down a bit, and may appear like Twitter's Spaces has now surpassed it in many aspects, but Clubhouse is still advancing, albeit not as rapidly as it was in January.

And this could aid it keep that momentum going. Clubhouse stated that as part of its weekly community update, it is now launching spatial audio, which will offer a new layer of depth to your Clubhouse conversations.

According to Clubhouse:

“Spatial audio replicates how we hear and process voices in the same physical room, spacing individual speakers in the listener’s wired, or Bluetooth headphones (including Airpods) or car stereo system.”

This can make it a more immersive experience, simulating in-person discussion, while also improving differentiation between each voice, for example, that 'John's' voice will come from your left, while 'Jane's' would come from your right during the chat.

Clubhouse's software will now give a clear position to each speaker in a room to simulate audio spacing, "taking care to uniformly arrange speakers for maximum intelligibility." Clubhouse also mentions that music and stereo sources will be positioned in the artificial space and will preserve their designated stereo separation.

The one drawback is that the speakers will not have the same experience - spatial audio will only be available to active audience members. This may provide some management problems, but it may also allow those on stage to better follow up with the dialogue without having to worry about possible changes in audio levels for each co-speaker.

And for the audience, it might open up a world of new creative possibilities:

“Imagine a ghost story where you can hear the evil spirit move around the haunted house or even whisper in your ear. Or a musical performance or comedy show where you can hear applause or laughter coming from every corner of a sold out virtual club.”

It's a nice improvement that should help Clubhouse sustain user engagement – which, as previously stated, appears to be increasing as the app continues to push forward in the face of growing competition.

Matter of fact, Clubhouse states that it is now hosting 700,000 rooms in the app every day, a 130 percent rise from just three months ago.

In fact, more 'Rooms' does not always imply more active app users on the whole, and Clubhouse hasn't published an update on its total user statistics in a long time (the app reported 10m weekly users back in May). Nonetheless, its download rates, while considerably lower than at its heyday, have leveled off slightly since June, with both iOS and Android users continuing to seek out its different Clubs and conversations.

The app's Android app release in May boosted its total numbers even more, with Clubhouse experiencing especially substantial growth in India, where Android is clearly the dominating OS and users have enjoyed the open option of live discussion, along with the more data-friendly audio-only method.

The area has recently become a much greater emphasis for the app, and it will be hoping that the inclusion of spatial audio will help to rekindle interest in all markets and keep it as the finest audio social app.

The area has recently become a much greater emphasis for the app, and it will be hoping that the inclusion of spatial audio will help to rekindle interest in all markets and keep it as the finest audio social app.

However, with Twitter about to take the next major step with its Spaces option and Facebook progressively ramping up the implementation of its audio rooms, Clubhouse faces a huge challenge.

Still, innovation is essential, and spatial audio may represent a significant, daring move in this direction.