A Complete Guide On Developing an Audio Chat App Like Clubhouse

Clubhouse is an audio chat app that has revolutionized the world of mobile app development. Even in a supersaturated reality, there is still a place for such unique things that are of interest even to Elon Musk. 

Launched in March 2020, Clubhouse Voice Chat is valued at $ 1 billion today. It is still only available for iOS, and the number of downloads has long exceeded 2 million.  So what is the Clubhouse phenomenon and can an equally impressive analogue be created?

Audio-Chat Social Networking Apps: Market Overview

Users love the comfort of communication, which is why the audio messaging function has gained immense popularity. This demand has led to the need to create an audio-chat social networking app.

Clubhouse can be compared to friends' gatherings in a bar. But at the same time, apps have become a new word in the business environment, which has moved online amid a pandemic.

According to eMarketer, 2% of adults in the US now use the Clubhouse for different purposes, and while this is a small percentage compared to mastodons like Facebook, it is very high growth.

The market for analogs is likely to grow, but it is difficult to say yet whether it will be able to compete with the market for "traditional" communication applications with an added similar function.

What Is the Clubhouse App?

Clubhouse is a voice-based app. Here users create and join rooms where communication takes place in the format of voice chats. To start communication, you need to register, indicating your basic data. Then you will see the available list of chat rooms.

Each room is a community with a creator administrator. By default, you are inactive after registering, but if you want to say something, you must join the conversation.

You can get to the Clubhouse only after receiving the invitation link, which emphasizes the exclusivity of the application.

One of the main reasons for this popularity is the search for alternatives during isolation. It doesn't matter how you look (like in the TikTok video app), you just talk to like-minded people. The app could combine the pursuit of fame, privacy, and free speech in one place.

Live audio continues to evolve as a manifestation format, for example, the incredible interest in podcasts. In addition, at the Clubhouse you can meet and talk with world-famous businessmen.

How Does Clubhouse Work?

Among other things, Clubhouse has become so popular because of its ease of use. Here you cannot share pictures, videos, or text, and the meaning of visiting the room is only during the time when the conversation lasts. You can join and leave the conversation whenever you want. All active rooms are collected in a list upon entering the application, as is the list of participants. To join, you must press the corresponding button. You enter the chat muted, and to speak, you have to "raise your hand" and the speakers "will give you the floor." Each chat has its own audience, but there may be invited, speakers. People like Musk or Zuckerberg went into chat rooms and caused a boom. Sometime later, after the start of work, Clubhouse hired moderators, since, in addition to freedom of speech, the application promotes healthy dialogue.

A few Clubhouse social app rules:

• participants are divided into speakers and listeners, to ask a question and get the right to speak, you need to "raise your hand";
• only after the user has organized meetings in the "rooms" 3 times, he can create his own club;
• in addition, to create a hobby club, the approval of the network moderators is required;
• you need to monitor the quality of the content - 5 complaints from users lead to a shadow ban for a couple of weeks;
• for recording and spreading the conversation outside the social network, an eternal ban awaits.

Key Features for Apps Like Clubhouse

Clubhouse audio social media app attracted the attention of many users, and this was largely due to the non-standard approach to the implementation of many of the application's functions.

To use the functions and communicate, you need to receive an invitation from existing members, each of which is given 2 invites, which he can dispose of at his discretion (gift to friends or sell).

• To get started, just upload a profile photo and enter a name, immediately after that you can start choosing a room. You can also add a short description of yourself.
• For the convenience of users, all available rooms are displayed as a list.
• There is a concept of clubs - these are interest groups that unite people.
• You have access to a search where you can ask personalities and topics.
• Upcoming for you - here you can find lists of discussions that are planned for the near future, and set up alerts for them.
• You can also view your account activity, from your followers to current Clubhouse events.
• You can set up notifications for a wide variety of events, such as the start of a new conversation or new participants in the room.

6 Steps to Developing an App Like Clubhouse

You can create an application like Clubhouse media mobile app yourself. But for this, you need to do a little work, like every social networking app development needs.

Step 1. Research the market

If you do not want to be branded as a bad copy, you must understand the pains and needs of the market. In addition to being unique, it should solve real user problems.

You must thoroughly study your competitors and identify their weaknesses and the strategies that helped them popularize.

Step 2. Research your target audience

When you understand who you are dealing with, it’s easier for you to create a relevant product that will pay off. You can also interview a specific sample and analyze its requests. If you don't have the required budgets, start with a prototype by collecting feedback.

Step 3. Take care of usability and design

Everything should be designed with user experience and intuition in mind. Also, consider the mood of the audience and their age. Check all the app development services to find examples of great work.

Step 4. Start with MVP

It is not possible to create an application that contains all the desired functions from the beginning. In addition to cost, this can significantly delay the release of the device.

Start with building an MVP in your media app development, to understand the potential of an app with a set of core features. The main thing here is to immediately identify the key functions. 

Step 5. Pay attention to your marketing campaign

It is optimal to do this before the release of the app. Strategic marketing will whet your audience's interest and may even give you clues about what to include in your app, and you can use stakeholders as a focus group.

Step 6. Collect Feedback

Start this right after the MVP is released, further development should take into account the opinion of the users. Start improving your social media application early on.

Developing Alternatives to Clubhouse

Developing social media that supports voice chat is a complex project. In this case, you can't do without MVP and work with the audience in test mode. 

The most important part here is ensuring quality audio streaming.

In short, the Clubhouse work scheme looks like this:

1. The user creates a space for communication and then the audio stream is sent to the server.
2. The server forwards this audio stream to all visitors to the room.
3. The server acts as a distributor as Clubhouse does not record or store the audio streams that pass through it. This is a kind of economy, but on the other hand, servers can provide fast and clear audio transmission.

One option is to use a CDN, which is widely used by streaming services like Netflix. There are a large number of analogs, the differences are in the price and additional functions.

Further work with the application will concern its UX / UI. You should make it as simple and convenient as registering in it.

Factors That Affect the Final Price

As with any app, there are several major factors that will affect the final cost.

First of all, the price depends on who will develop the application: your internal resources, outsourcing, freelancers, etc. These are completely different rates.

It is also important to understand the development platform and whether it is native or cross-platform. Cross-platform may be cheaper, but you will face limitations, for example, you will not be able to connect geofencing, which is of great importance in the formation of strategy and advertising budgets.

Two more factors are design and integration. The more complex the first and more the second, the higher the cost.

Tech Stack For the Clubhouse App

In order for a voice message to broadcast good sound, a reliable server must be used. It's good if it's implemented in Elixir, .NET, and C ++. As far as frameworks go, Node.js or Spark is great.

To implement the client-side, decide on the platform. For Android, this is Kotlin or Java, and for iOS, it is Swift or Objective-C. It is better to give preference to native development since cross-platform is not always reliable and does not scale well.

Technologies used for creation Clubhouse:

• AWS services (EB/EC2, RDS, S3, SES, SQS, etc)
• React Native
• Node.js
• Mediasoup service
• MySQL
• Jenkins
• WebSocket connection
• Firebase push notifications
• Docker + Docker Compose

How Much Does a Clubhouse-Like App Costs

Clubhouse app has a fairly well thought out creative UI and UX design. In addition, additional costs were required to install and maintain an internal server, as well as sponsor an advertising campaign. Such a media app costs a lot, but it depends on some factors.

Probably, the development of such an application could range from $ 3,000 (at the initial stage) to $ 20,000 (when the application became popular and more specialists were required to develop and support it).

The decisive factor in the final price is always the media app developers’ hourly rate. And this factor is greatly influenced by the localization of the team to indicate the rate of money for the Clubhouse application development process.

Which Industries Are Benefiting From Audio Chat Apps?

The goal of the Clubhouse application is to give a voice to people. Clubhouse can now become another important platform for businesses to demonstrate their expertise and specific professional knowledge.

At the same time, of course, in order to collect greater coverage, the business must learn to collaborate with other experts, which will increase the audience and increase the value of the content. Creating an app Clubhouse-like isn’t easy, because you need to know the app development backend perfectly and be ready for great competition on the market of social network apps.

You can also work on customer loyalty by interacting with your audience of users in profile rooms. For example, as a car dealership owner, you can chat with car enthusiasts. The main thing is to carefully plan what to say to the audience and get on the air regularly, not chaotically.

All of the existing social networking apps have basic tasks, for example, on Facebook, you can find out news and communicate with friends. Clubhouse is a social media platform for learning and "immersion" in specific topics in which one would like to "pump" as a specialist or share knowledge with others as a specialist.

Conclusions

With its exceptional example, Clubhouse social media has proved that new applications can appear and take an audience from the most popular instant messengers. The main secret of success is a good understanding of the market and its needs.

The TopDevs portfolio also contains many examples of how the right approach and competitor research can help develop and implement a unique concept. Our app development company is ready to help you!