I have used Clubhouse for a while and love it, but I think it lacks one key feature: a way for the audience to show emotion – and thereby interact with the speaker.

What is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is a new type of social network based on voice. It consists of virtual rooms of speakers (on stage) and an audience. Anyone in the audience can be invited on stage by the room creators/moderators. At the time I’m writing this Clubhouse has approximately ~10 million users.

Perfectly timed launch

Launching Clubhouse now is perfect timing, because of the new self-isolating pandemic world. It feels good to be able to connect to people in a more authentic way – and not feel so alone. Meet new and interesting people, hear their stories and talk about exciting topics with our own voices in real time.

I’m not going to lie, it’s a bit scary too – talking to strangers (mostly in a second language). Especially as an introvert. But connecting to new people is addictive and Clubhouse feels more authentic than the stereotypical social media.

The problem

I’ve been using Clubhouse for a while now and a lot of the times I join as a listener, but sometimes I still wanted to express my emotions to the speaker when something resonates with me. Unfortunately as of now, there is only one-way communication between the speaker and the audience. There is no way for the speaker to know if the content resonates with the audience. And no way for the audience to show emotions (i.e they agree/disagree).

Solution: Clap feature

I suggest adding a clap feature, that lets the listener interact with the speaker (i.e agreement, excitement, etc.) and at the same time add to the feeling of a joint experience. This would help mimic the same experience you get if you are sitting in an audience in a real auditorium listening to a talk.

When a listener presses the clap button an icon will slowly rise and fade out. Similarly to what Facebook live-streams do, but limited to just the one clap-icon. If you don’t see any “claps”, you can assume the audience is not resonating that well with what you are saying.

I made a video showing my concept (since it’s always nice to brush up on my After Effects–skills):

Tip for new Clubhouse users

The most important tip I have for new Clubhouse users is not to give up too soon. You have to – especially in the beginning – actively search up interesting people to get an interesting feed. Not doing so will most likely giving you a bad Clubhouse experience.

Feel free to follow me on Clubhouse.