Clubhouse App Development: A complete guide to create an app like Clubhouse in 2022

The drop-in audio chat application Clubhouse has driven a storm in the social media market where users can interact, discuss, speak or listen to thousands of people globally via voice chat rooms. This application comes as an ideal platform in the social media application market that lets people chat with their buddies and connect with new individuals innovatively. Its unique approach is one of the significant reasons that it has gone viral in a short time, and now, many companies are looking to create an app like Clubhouse.

Launched in April 2020, the Clubhouse application is only available for iPhone users. But on May 09, 2021, it rolled out its Android version in beta use. It will begin gradually, with the U.S., followed by other English-speaking countries, and then the rest of the world. A statement from the Clubhouse team shows how enormous the application has become in today’s market.

According to Paul Davison, the Co-founder, and CEO of the Clubhouse team-
“The Clubhouse started overgrowing as people worldwide began inviting their friends faster than we had ever expected.”

Today celebrities and other high-profile venture capitalists are promoting this application to a great extent. Hence, if you are looking for a clubhouse like app development, you are on the right post.

This post will guide you on how to make a voice chat application like Clubhouse and its development cost. So, let’s get started-

Before digging into deep, let’s take an overview of the Clubhouse application, its market size, features, and tech stacks it includes. It will help you to understand the components you require for your Clubhouse App Development.

What is Clubhouse?

The Clubhouse is an invitation-only social media application developed to enhance communication among the people in their community and outside. Alpha Exploration Co. developed the application back in 2020 to let people talk, tell stories, share ideas, deepen their friendships, and expand their social community by meeting new people all across the globe.

This application comes with a voice chat room in which people are required to send invitations to the individuals they want to interact with. It allows its users to create and join “rooms” and connect with their friends via chat, video call, and audio call. Moreover, users can also share media, including photos, videos, and even text with their colleagues, new friends, and partners.

The “invite-only feature” of this application is a unique and excellent factor that makes it highly popular among users quickly. According to the leading platforms like New York Times, Forbes, CNBC, and Vogue, this feature is the sole reason behind the boom and increasing demand for the Clubhouse application. The exclusivity, simple interface, personal optimization, and an unlimited selection of rooms make this app famous worldwide.

In a nutshell, Clubhouse is a perfect blend of the conference call and social media apps that let people connect via voice chat rooms.

Moving on, let’s look at its statistics-

Clubhouse key statistics:

According to businessofapps.com – Clubhouse has had no trouble with funds, as it has already raised $110 million in two rounds, both led by Andreessen Horowitz. Even before it launched, it was valued at $100 million, which has been boosted to $1 billion in December 2020.

• Back in Nov 2020, the application had registered only 0.2 million; in Jan 2021, it was 2 million, and by March 2021, it reached 10 million.
• Over 18 million people have downloaded the app.
• The Clubhouse has been valued at $4 billion in a Series C round in April 2021
• Celebs like Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Drake, Kevin Hart, and Chris Rock have all hosted conversations on the app.
• In Dec 2020, the Clubhouse received funding of $100 million.
• The Clubhouse download has also surpassed 15 million total downloads.

So, what features have made Clubhouse a dominant platform for the users? Let’s take a look:

Features of Clubhouse App

The Clubhouse comes up with a comprehensive range of features that draw millions of users all across the globe. Here we have mentioned the best features that help you build a clubhouse clone.

1. Onboarding:

When the users download the app and access it, this is the first screen that welcomes them and navigates to set up their profile. This feature comes with two options- the first is “Get your username”, and the second one is “Sign in”. The app allows them to enter their names and pick a clubhouse username manually, or if they come via an invitation, they can click on that invite and get the code or sign in with their social media profiles Instagram and Twitter. After putting the code or linking social media accounts successfully, the users move to another page to complete their profile.

2. Clubhouse Invitation:

The popularity of Clubhouse has made its invitation demanding and pricey. Usually, the users can join Clubhouse via registration on virtual waiting lists, getting an invitation from an already registered user, or buy an invite. According to NYTimes, on eBay, the users can get or sell the clubhouse invitation in a price range between $30-$20000.

3. Feed:

This section allows people to explore the events and activities hosted by communities and individuals they know or follow. The feed incorporates two areas known as upcoming events and ongoing events. People can see detailed lists of events on their screen as per their personalization or preferences.

4. Clubhouse Rooms:

This feature lets people create or join the room to interact with people. Based on the clubhouse app architecture, there are three types of rooms open, social, and closed. Users are allowed to invite or join the rooms based on the kind of conversation. Raise hand, Mute, Leave quietly are the few other options available in the room that users can access while communicating with a large group or session.

5. User Profile:

The user profile is a critical feature that requires more attention to build a voice chat app like Clubhouse. In the original clubhouse application, the user profile comes with a simple architecture. There are options like uploading a profile picture, a short bio of the user and linking the other social media profiles with the clubhouse platform. Users do not require a high profile or fancy introduction to make their profile better; a simple introduction and profile image will work.

6. Clubs:

Clubhouse clubs are an exciting feature that attracts users in a large number. The clubs are formed based on the topics and interest areas, and they can be public or private. The users only require a club name, logo, description, categories of interest, and members to create a club. Community club, Tech talks, Human behaviour, Bitcoin, Marketing club, Movie Club are some of the best Clubhouse clubs people are following.

7. Search:

This feature helps users to find their friends or interested clubs by their names. It also allows them to search for other individuals during a chat within the room. Moreover, the users can explore different topics and categories of interest and join the rooms accordingly. It is one of the innovative features that let people explore the topic of discussions and other individuals sharing similar interests. This feature plays a vital role in enhancing the user’s engagement to a great extent.

8. Upcoming for you:

This feature keeps users updated with upcoming events and activities. It works like a schedule of events in which users can see the upcoming activities, including the name of the event, speaker, session time and a short description that explains what the event is all about. Whenever a new event arrives, users will get prior notifications that help them to join the conversations.

9. Activity:

The “Activity Tab” keeps users updated with all the latest activities and trends of the application. With this feature, users can track their profile activities including, the followers who followed them, new members, or the activities running in various clubs. Moreover, it allows users to review their conversations history with their followers.

10. Notifications:

This feature works like every other social media app, designed to increase users’ engagement with the platform. Whenever a new conversation starts, an event arrives, or a member joins the platform, users will get notified. Whenever a new room or club is created, the users will get notifications about them; if users share a similar interest, they can quickly join it via notifications.

How to make a Voice Chat Application like Clubhouse?

This section has described a straightforward process that helps you create an app like Clubhouse.

1. Determine your business strategy

Discovering the business strategy is one of the critical steps to follow. It gives you an exact idea about your potential audience, market, and competitors that further helps you with spontaneous voice chat app development like Clubhouse. You cannot clone the entire Clubhouse application, as it brings no innovation to your concept. This ultimately results in losing the potential business goals and revenues that you are expecting from the application. Hence, you should design and create a transparent and robust business strategy that gives you a competitive edge over others.

2. Market research

To create an out-of-the-box application that comes with innovative features and functionalities, you need to evaluate what features and functionalities suit your customer’s requirements the best, but how?. To get the users’ expectations, you must perform in-depth market research that gives you information about your potential customers and helps you identify your healthy competitors. Always remember that keeping an eye on your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses will keep you one step ahead in the competition.

3. Know your customers

Customers are the endpoint on which the success of your entire application depends. Hence you need to learn about your customers. The demographics differences, the real-time issues faced by users, language, and other components are the critical factors that usually bring a huge gap between businesses and their customers. Therefore, you must keep in touch with your customers. Interviews, surveys, polls, and discussions, are the best mediums by which you can learn the users’ problems and generate ideas toward solving them.

4. Focus on user-friendliness instead of designs

Visual appearance is not enough to draw customers’ attention. An app with smooth navigation and user-friendliness will always win customers over the applications offering vibrant themes and looks. Hence, it would be best for you to focus on intuitive designs and user experience to eliminate the chances of crashes and user struggling and bring more users to your platform.

5. Selection of Features

Features play a vital role in determining the success of the application. The Clubhouse application is a social media app that comes with innovative features and functionalities. Its unique features are the significant factor that attracts users in millions. To build a clubhouse clone, you must also consider the advanced and excellent features and functionalities that add value to your application. Repetition of features will lead only to an increase in the development cost of the app. Hence, you need to focus on concise, appealing, and innovative features that put your end-users amazed and satisfied with your Clubhouse like application.

6. Go for MVP

MVP is always the best option to know the real-time response of your application with potential customers and market on time. Before the final deployment, it will be better for you to launch your app’s MVP first and test it with your potential users. With this practice, you will get an idea about how your application performs in the market after launch and what add-ons you require to make it more productive and successful. Based on your user’s feedback, you can later add more features and advanced functionalities that give your application an advantage before its final launch.

7. Decide your market campaign

App development is not limited to designing and development; it is more than that. To promote your application in the market or with your customers, you are required to determine robust marketing strategies. Before the launch, you also need to spread the word about your app in the market, generating curiosity among your users. But how? You can do it by tie-up with the prominent personalities or influencers who can share the application experience with their followers. Blogs, emailers, and newsletters are the few best marketing elements that help you to advertise your application. These elements add additional stars to your marketing campaign and boost it. Also, you need to optimize your application on the Google and Apple app stores for better visibility.

8. Deploy and get feedback

It’s time to launch your application in the market. After a successful launch, always try to keep an eagle eye on the feedback received. It helps you to improve the performance of the application. Interaction with customers, replies to their feedback, social media response, plays a significant role; it ensures the application’s success to a great extent.

How much will it cost to build an app like Clubhouse?

The cost to build an app like Clubhouse depends upon various factors, including:

• The number of app platforms: Android and iOS are the two prominent platforms on which most businesses plan to make their applications. If we compare these platforms based on their technicalities and features, iOS is costlier than Android. Hence, the selection of app platforms before the development process is necessary to eliminate extra costs.
• The clubhouse app architecture: If your application is data-based, then you’re required to focus on its front-end and back-end architecture. Based on the requirements, you either need to purchase tailor-made APIs or create it from scratch; this will also significantly impact the app development budget.
• The clubhouse app tech stack: The cost depends on which type of voice APIs you use for iOS and Android platforms. Siri API, Pilvo API, Twilio API, Google Cloud Speech API are a few best APIs used for voice chat.
• Features-set and complex functionalities: Features and functionalities also affect the development cost. For example, if your applications incorporate complex functionalities, you require a prototype and test its concept in real-time this ultimately overburdens your cost development budget.
• UI/UX designs: The designing of an application helps attract more customers, but it burdens the pocket. The design price depends on several components, including themes, customizations, animations, vectors, unique screens, elements, and custom illustrations.
• Development approach: The native and hybrid app development are the most popular app development approaches adopted by businesses. The cost depends on which type of approach you will select for your application.
• Team Involved in clubhouse app development: The team you hire for clubhouse app development also plays a significant role in determining the development costs. A team involves a project manager, developers, designers, quality analysts, tester, and business analysts. The fluctuation in the number of hired developers or designers also fluctuates the costs.
• The location of the mobile app development service provider: The cost varies according to the location of the mobile app development company.

On average, the cost to build an app like Clubhouse varies between $50,000 and $60,000, taking approximately 3-6 months.

The price fluctuations depend upon your business requirements; the fewer features and functionalities you want in your application, the lower its costs and vice versa.

Knowing the pricing structure in detail and the development process, it will be best for you to hire affordable mobile app development solutions.

Conclusion

Indeed it is a long post to read, but we hope you like it and understand how you can proceed with your Clubhouse-like app development. The Clubhouse is doing tremendous business in the social media market today, and undoubtedly, the firms who plan to invest in clubhouse app development will earn huge revenues. There are a few things that are required to be considered by the organizations. It includes idea uniqueness, integration of advanced features and technicalities that bring a difference and hiring a dedicated mobile app developer that covers all the essential aspects and helps you with the best app development solution like Clubhouse.

If you are looking for dedicated mobile app developers, we can help you with it. We are a leading mobile app development company with hands-on expertise in creating applications like Clubhouse, both for iOS and Android platforms.

So what are you waiting for? Be it an affordable iPhone app development solution or Android, we develop and deliver all the solutions with best-in-class services. Connect with us at info@suntecindia.com and start your project today.

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