There’s no secret password to get past the virtual bouncer, but having a friend in the club lets you skip the waitlist
Audio-only hangout app Clubhouse exploded in popularity this year, in part by telling people they couldn’t use it until a friend invited them. While downloads have dipped somewhat in recent months, plenty of people still want to get past the metaphorical bouncer and join the club. Clubhouse is an exclusive hangout app mixed with podcasting and networking tools. It lets you start a conversation with friends or strangers with shared hobbies across the world or listen in on conversations between celebrities or topic experts. You may even be able to chat with those celebrities yourself. There’s no video component to Clubhouse, so it avoids the Zoom fatigue people are struggling with. And since Clubhouse chatroom audio isn’t recorded and stored for later, discussions become limited-time events that you don’t want to miss. Now available on both iOS and Android (in limited countries), Clubhouse can be tricky to access without a guide. We’ll walk you through everything you need to know about Clubhouse, including the best ways to get invited to it. When you download Clubhouse for iOS – or the Clubhouse for Android beta – it will ask you whether or not you have an invite. Assuming you don’t, it will prompt you to provide your real name, phone number and account username. After that, it will promise to text you if a friend invites you, but there isn’t anything else you can do to get access. At that point, the ball is entirely in your friends’ court. You see, when you join Clubhouse officially, you have the option to let the app see your phone contacts. It uses them to see if anyone you know is already on the app so you can follow them. But it will also notify you if a contact’s phone number is on the waitlist for Clubhouse, at which point you can tell the app to ‘Let them in!’. So the easiest way to get invited is to create a preliminary account and hope someone (A) has your number in their address book and (B) thinks you’re hip enough to invite to an ‘exclusive’ club. In my case, my hip partner dragged my nerdy self along to the cool kids’ table with her.
