Clubhouse launches on Android in India on 21 May

“Our plan over the next few weeks is to collect feedback from the community, fix any issues we see and work to add a few final features like payments and club creation before rolling it out more broadly,” the company said in a blog post on 9 May. It had also said that the platform’s invite-only model will continue for the time being. “As we head into the summer and continue to scale out the backend, we plan to begin opening up even further, welcoming millions more people in from the iOS waitlist, expanding language support, and adding more accessibility features, so that people worldwide can experience Clubhouse in a way that feels native to them,” the company said.

Clubhouse’s Android version has been in the works for over a year now, with the platform having been exclusive to iOS so far. However, the pressure would have mounted with rival Twitter bringing its competing Spaces platform to Android in March, and Facebook announcing a host of audio-focused features that it will be adding over the rest of the year. Clubhouse’s model is also being copied in India, with homegrown short video platform Chingari launching its own Fireside app that replicates Clubhouse.

Clubhouse’s popularity has also fueled overall interest in the audio space, with the company rising to a billion dollar valuation last year. Clubhouse raised a Series C funding round last month, which took its valuation to $4 billion, tripling the company’s value from its Series B round back in January.