Hah, wait, so Clubhouse is currently iPhone only? I've been hearing a lot about it but haven't been tempted to join, but now I'm learning that I couldn't even join if I wanted to??
There's also a huge variance in microphone quality for Android devices. The engineering focus to ensure uniform sound quality could take away from the team's focus in its early stages.
> I wonder if it was intentional or just a matter of priorisation.
I assume both? Intentionally prioritise iPhone over Android, because thats still (rightly or wrongly) considered the higher value platform to target. Instagram did this back when they launched in 2010 too.
It’s literally called clubhouse, they decided to start a company with the most transparently petty toxic name. You’re not allowed in the clubhouse you’re not part of our cool club! Said Andreesen Horowitz, either a massive VC firm or a 12 year old boy not sure which.
Sure, you might be able to go around a lot of regulation, but keeping the reactors cool would be complicated, unless in space means some non-Earth planetary body. Titans atmosphere or the oceans on Europa are pretty cold. Of course that way the bitcoin transaction processing time would get even longer due to light speed delay.
It will have to make money somehow won’t it. It will either need to do advertising or get people to pay. Getting people to pay is easier if they have more money. Getting well-paying advertisers is also easier if your audience has more money.
The main thing I was commenting on though was iPhone being much easier to develop for. This is indisputable.
WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter these are the general social media platforms that Clubhouse comes in the category of. How many of them would rather be better off with only rich users and iPhone users? 'social media' app clones are available for a few hundred bucks with all features.. the billions valuations of these companies doesn't come from technology, it comes from user reach and numbers.. for social, the app with the bigger userbase takes all.. unless it's marketed specifical for a niche sector..
Iphone being easier to develop for is indisputable. Lolz!
Lots of "poor guys", a lot of them with money, in this world that look at apple and think overpriced hardware...
Can you develop for android on mac? Yes. Can you develop for android on Linux, yes, windows yes. Can you use a common language that is very easy to find devs for, yes.
To make an iphone app, You need a mac laptop and a paid developer account. Unlike java, swift is barely used for anything else than apple products, so devs for apple products are more expensive.
I mean, agree personal views and preferences may determine peoples choices and in many ways the apple store experience is much better than android, but "indisputable" is stretching the meaning of the word too far.
That points to the problem of open source: a hostility towards growth and product as critical team roles. It makes sense - OSS is an opportunity to do great engineering without constraints of a workplace. But without prioritizing product, growth, and design, OSS consumer products stagnate and suck as an end user.
Shifting from GitHub Issues as the default project management is a good prime candidate for starting to move the needle. Public-facing Clubhouse-the-project-management-app would be easier for non-eng contributions, holding open OKR processes, and having some clear ways for non developers to contribute.
Fwiw I tried to help on growth / product on one consumer OSS product I love- there just wasn’t a mechanism for someone to say yes, and there was a need for centralization to do some of the obvious next practices any startup would do. It’s easy for engineers to contribute, but ambient hostility and concern about marketing / growth / product tactics make it tough to turn rock solid OSS technology into competitive OSS products.
Suppose you had met the original author at the very beginning of the project and convinced them that marketing/growth/etc. is important. Let's suppose they only write some single facile sentence in the README about, "marketers/growth experts welcome" in response.
I would hold that just having that single, facile sentence buried in the README from the outset is more powerful and persuasive to the project's developer base than the most detailed proposal that a marketing/growth expert could possibly write after the fact.
Maybe another way to say this: if you showed up to a consumer OSS product that had this facile sentence in it there, the entire developer base would welcome you make a marketing pitch to them. Without it, they would interpret it as noise.
As new hyped up social networks come along with missing things we have this. I can only see this unofficial app eventually withering away as soon as the Android app is ready. (Whenever that is)
The main concern is the private API. With this, individuals can abuse the API very easily. If the invite system is phased out, it creates an opportunity for bots to ruin the app.
> If the invite system is phased out, it creates an opportunity for bots to ruin the app.
If someone can make bots do convincing voice chat with groups of the glitterati, heckling Elon with persuasive counter arguments, that would be quite impressive.
the product is essential reinventing conference calls by adding tracking and gamification to voice calls. who are these people who voluntarily sign up and have their data stolen just so they can listen to Dunning-Kruger types who love nothing more than hearing the sound of their own voice. people who think they're genuine but aren't because they build their opinions based on what their audience wants to hear.
it kills authenticity same as all the other services that create humans that consider themselves "influencers". it's not too different from the CCP's SCS only that we are too propagandized into thinking that this won't create a society of digital slaves who bow to the one with the highest karma.
I cannot fathom how they haven't made an official Android Clubhouse app. Is the Android base so disgusting, or what?
It might even be understandable if you are an underdog while bootstrapping while not having enough resources, but Clubhouse should have more than enough resource to make a simplified wannabe Discord app on Android.
Any semi-competent mobile dev should be able to do it.
Reading now other's comments makes kind of sense, Clubhouse is positioning itself as an elitist app, so of course they are trying to build exclusivity.
Good luck to them, but I personally go out of my way to not use apps or services like that.
I know this might come as a shocker, but some people don't like the Apple "Stockholm syndrome" ecosystem.
I prefer my Android phone over an iPhone, even though I have and use an iPad, and I still prefer my Windows PC over a Mac for developing, even though I have a Mac ( I only use it for signing apps for iOS).
Looks like having a different taste and preferring a choice is unpopular in this decade.
Repost: can I ask how you use PubNub with Agora? As in what specific thing does PubNub do to help you communicate state information that you can't do by writing to a (say firebase) backend.
They do different things. Agora is an RTC platform. PubNub is, as I understood it, a glorified websocket, which is used for realtime updates, like people joining and leaving a room. I have no idea why they chose this particular stack.
Yeah I'm using Agora for my project, as for real time update I find updating a state in firebase on one end and adding a listener on the other end to be "realtime" enough. So i'm trying to figure out what I'm missing, and the PubNub website is not very elucidating.
How do you get your initial take on API? I tried to do the mitm and observe the API calls but did not succeed. Do not have JB iphone, so I am curious how did you get the URIs
who in their right minds would want to listen to footage of what are essentially meeting recordings. I get why people who are enchanted by their own voice, and want to get on it to hear themselves talk, but why on earth would anyone else want to listen to boring audio of people dialogue. it sounds flippant but it's an honest question. the ratio of those who derive utility from this is skewed tremendously toward the speaker (not the listener)
why no ADA compliance?
why the unenforcable ToS?
why no sane way for users to unsubscribe from the service? (not compliant with GDPR)
Completely OT but might as well ask here. Does anyone know of a good replacement for Turntable.fm/Plug.dj? Social music playing/DJing experience with avatars and a chat is basically what I am after. I have a group of friends that I think might enjoy this type of thing but Turntable.fm pivoted years ago and Plug.dj, while being able to link to YouTube seems to require an API key which these non-tech folks won’t be able to figure out.
I think the kinds of shared digital experiences is what is helping keep people sane while we are all isolating so I welcome all new attempts at new social platforms.
Very cool. I think one of the main things I miss about Turntable is the avatar experience, but I can see using JQBX for another purpose that I think would work super well.
There used to be AuxParty (a clone) but I think what comes close now is Campfire.gg — watching YouTube/FB/Twitch videos together and/or listening to Soundcloud tracks with friends (which is how I use it)
AuxParty looks amazing but the fact that it requires a premium Spotify subscription and doesn't seem to work well on mobile is going to be super difficult I think for some of my friends. Campfire doesn't have the avatars but no Spotify requirement is super nice.
I was invited to Clubhouse by a friend a while back. I think it’s a neat concept. It’s also a bit “dangerous” though in the sense that you jump into a room intending to listen for a little while, but if the room is right then you may find it too interesting to leave and they just never stop talking :p
If the author is here, can I ask how you use PubNub with Agora? As in what specific thing does PubNub do to help you communicate state information that you can't do by writing to a (say firebase) backend.
It is, the hook is that it's on a "invite only" basis so it has the whole exclusivity. Imagine an actual club where celebs hang out, and that's hard to get in, so people line up to try to join in on the party, yet the "cool people" cut the line and have access to it.
So you're cool if you're already in, you know?
It got hyped up when Elon Musk joined and roasted Vlad from Robinhood, and suddenly everyone wanted an invite.
It's a interesting concept, but it was driven by celebrities hype and exclusivity ... but what isn't like that currently? Stocks, Crypto, you name it.