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How to Develop a Voice Chat App Like Clubhouse: Features, Cost, & Process

Social media is not only limited to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, there is a new player in town. Clubhouse the voice chat app or audio-social app is now available for Android users too. Clubhouse was an invitation-only app for iOS for more than a year. It was in May 2021 that Clubhouse made its Android debut. 

All it took for the app to go viral was Elon Musk joining the chatroom. The app that made it to the market in March 2020 is valued at 1 billion USD today. However, the success of apps like Clubhouse proves that there still lies an opportunity in the social media app circle.

Your app should add a unique value to a user’s life and it should be intuitive and it will always form its loyal user base. The astounding success of Clubhouse made us write this blog. In the past 6 months, we’ve received so many inquiries to develop an audio chat app that we decided to write a blog on the same. Hence, we bring you the features, costs, and development process that would yield a successful Clubhouse-like app.

What is Clubhouse?

Clubhouse is a social media voice-chat-only app that allows its users to interact with each other by joining chat rooms. You will need an invitation from the current users to access the invitation-only app.

Users have created different communities for you to join. You can join and enjoy an ongoing conversation. All users are muted when they register for the first time while then can unmute themselves while they participate in a conversation. The invitation-only prerequisite gives the app exclusivity.

Why has the Clubhouse App Gained so much Popularity?

There are four prominent reasons why this app has become such a huge hit among consumers. Let’s take a brief look at them.

• Platforms you target
• Easy to Use
• Untapped App Market
• Learning Platform
• Perfect Marketing

Easy to Use

The best and most important thing about any app is its usability. Clubhouse is extremely easy to use with an intuitive and engaging UI/UX. It also has a camera that you can use. It doesn’t matter what clothes you’re in or if you’re going for your evening walk. You can use the app anywhere and anytime.

Untapped App Market

The platform chooses just the correct time to make its debut. When the app was launched there weren’t many apps that excelled in audio-based social media. Timing is the prime reason behind the unprecedented success of Clubhouse. Their reputation is based on their exceptional audio-based interaction experience. Though it isn’t too late yet. You can quickly get in touch with a mobile app development company if you’re planning this as your next venture.

Learning Platform

The world has surely experienced some testing times since the beginning of 2020. Yet, when we were confined to our homes, Clubhouse offered an opportunity to learn new skills, add knowledge to our existing abilities, and broaden our horizons. Various training rooms offering tips, lectures, and discussions between experts and learners. From creating your first design to launching your app, you can find whatever you search for. 

Perfect Marketing

Marketing is the key to get your consumers hooked on your app from the go. Clubhouse used the perfect trick and offered their first invites to tech innovators and celebrities. The app had a storm of users after the interesting news about the conversation between Robinhood’s chief Vladimir Tenev and Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk. For fans and users to be a part of the virtual room with their favorite celebrities is a big thing. This move has hugely contributed to Clubhouses’ success.

Now that you’re aware of why you should invest in a Clubhouse clone app, let’s learn the features you will need for the same. 

Essential Features of a Voice Chat App like Clubhouse

OnBoarding

All an app like Clubhouse demands is your name and photo. You can then directly start using the app and join the conversations you like. As a default setting your microphone will be muted but you unmute it anytime you want to.

Profile

A user profile for an audio chat app will be pretty simple. You can ask for your user’s name, photo, and a short description. When you’re in a room you can learn who the participants are and also see their profiles. In addition to this, you can know which clubs a user is a part of and who has invited them to other conversations.

Feed

There are many chat rooms that you will observe once you reach your feed. You can check out every group and the members that are a part of the same.

Chat Rooms

This is the primary feature of your app. You can become a part of any of the rooms, become a part of the conversations, and create your rooms. The app offers the “raise your hand” feature that you can use to politely ask for your speaking turn. There is a ‘Leave’ button that you can use to leave any conversation. The platform also allows you to invite other speakers to be a part of the discussions. 

Search

There is so much activity that will be going on the platform daily. One can search and look for the live discussions or the ones they want to be a part of through this feature.

Clubs

These clubs are similar to groups you form on WhatsApp or Facebook. It’s a place where you can find other individuals having a similar interest. You can add and view members of each club and they also recommend chat topics.

Interaction History

This area would be a ledger for all the activities you’ve performed since you boarded the app. The members you follow, your followers, clubs you’re a part of, and more. This functionality also shows you the recent new users and the conversations you’ve been a part of.

Scheduled Discussions

You may be a part of several clubs and so have to attend many group meetings and discussions. This feature would keep a list of all the scheduled discussions with the names of all the members of the group and the name of the chat. 

Push Notifications

Push notifications have become an essential part of all the apps that we use today. Similarly, Clubhouse makes use of the same to inform users regarding their upcoming events and keeping the user engaged. 

Maintaining Quality of the Clubs or Rooms

Your app shouldn’t become a platform that is used to spread hatred or promote racist, sexist, or abusive talks. Your app must have this feature where such participants can be reported in case of angry, disrespectful, or hateful behavior.

Once such events soil your app’s reputation it will become a product of controversy. If this happens your app will lose its purpose and the trust your consumers had in your services.

Clubhouse App Development Process

There are many different approaches that you can try for developing your application but here are the most prominent ones.

• Do it Yourself
• Hire a Freelancer
• Hire Mobile App Development Services

Let’s have a look at each of the above in brief.

Do it Yourself

This is the best way to go if you already have some programming skills. It isn’t that you can’t learn them from scratch but you would have to invest a lot of time and resources. But the process would be a huge learning curve for you. Being your application, you will know the in’s and out’s of your application. 

Hire a Freelancer

Choosing this option is like buying yourself the time to concentrate on other important things related to your app development. Freelancers who are hungry to make a name in the market can help you create magnificent applications. However, you should run a thorough background check as at times the individual you hire can overcommit and underdeliver. 

Hire Mobile App Development Company

This option offers you certainty about the app you want to develop. The sole reason behind the same is that an app development service has the necessary workforce and experience to complete a project of this huge scope on a dedicated timeline.

To run a background check on an IT service company, you can check their prior projects. You can observe the case posted by the company on its website. Along with this, you can also check out the testimonials shared by the clients describing their experience with the company on channels like YouTube or Facebook. 

Remember, an IT service company would start building your project from scratch if you decide to quit working with a freelancer between your ongoing project. 

Cost of Developing an App like Clubhouse

There is a wide range of technology available for creating web and mobile applications. Along with this every IT service company has an hourly development rate. This rate multiplied by the total number of hours taken for developing your app + other service charges yields your final amount. 

Elaborating on the preceding process, your app development hours would be invested in creating the features that offer your services at their best. You have to decide on which features you want to include. 

Apart from this, the cost also depends on the type of application you want to create. Whether you want to develop an MVP or a fully functional application. If you’re on a tight budget or you feel like testing the waters first, we recommend you opt for an MVP. 

As you can see so many variables account for giving you a final quotation. So, it’s almost impossible to do so from the start of the project. Yet, being an on-demand app development service we’ve managed to offer you a tentative price range for creating your web and mobile apps using different tech stacks.

PWA Development: 5,000 USD – 30,000 USD

Android App Development:  6,000 USD – 50,000 USD

iOS App Development: 5,000 USD – 45,000 USD

Flutter app development: 7,000 USD – 40,000 USD

React Native app development:  7,000 USD – 40,000 USD

The above mentioned price ranges are dependent on many variables. There can be a change in the same with change in the scope of your project. 

AfterWord

We hope our blog offers you some perception of how you can explore the voice chat app development world. To create a web and mobile app for the same you can get in touch with us anytime you like. Just sign up for a free consultation form on our website and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you for reading!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Which are some similar apps to Clubhouse?

Similar Apps to Clubhouse include Leher, Twitter Spaces, Spoon, Riffr, and Discord Voice Channel.

Do I have to develop apps for both Android and iOS?

If you want to target more users you can opt for Android but if your goal is to earn by generating more in-app revenue you can go for iOS.

Can mobile app development be extremely costly?

If you try developing an MVP first, that too for a single platform, you can develop the same with a tight budget.

How can I monetize an audio app?

You can offer a freemium version and offer advanced features for your premium users. You can also earn using the advertising model and by in-app purchases.

Is cross-platform app development cheaper than using native techs?

Yes! Using cross-platform techs you can create two apps (Android/iOS)  using a single code base. Native apps have their unique codebase. And so double development time accounts for a higher price. Your apps will be budget-friendly and quicker to market with cross-platform techs such as Flutter and React Native.