What is Clubhouse Townhall?
NOTE -Things will change – and as always this is my interpretation of the items shared – or taken in quotes from the transcript which can be found at Otter.ai
~Cyndilu
“Weekly town hall. My name is Paul. I’m one of the cofounders Clubhouse. I am here with my co founder Rohan with our teammate Anu and we do this every Sunday at 9am Pacific time.
And we have a few different goals each week.
- Whats been happening on Clubhouse
- Share whats been amazing happenings in Community
- Product Shipped Last Week
- Product Shipments Planned – coming this week…
Biggest goal of townhall is to answer your questions. Devote most time to answering questions.
Questions are collected throughout the week. Go to Clubhouse.com and scroll the bottom there’s a link to submit your question for town hall. This can be done anytime throughout the week when a question comes to mind. The most asked questions, the most popular questions of the week are compiled every Saturday and answered every Sunday.
You can send questions to the back channel during the townhall and if they have time they will respond. Usually they do not but the questions will still be a part of the compiled thoughts that we the users are having so definitely do that if you think of something in the moment!
Highlights Shared Weekly
Highlights from the previous week are shared by teammate Steph. Here is one of those highlights:
“Small businesses…Certainly in general, but even this during the last year during the pandemic. But they come out sort of stronger at the end and that was really the basis of the conversation that was in the Your Move Club with Natalia Brzezinski, Julia Hartz, who’s the founder of Eventbrite. Gregg Renfrew, who’s the founder of BeautyCounter. Just a great room, they were talking about how women businesses in particular have been impacted by the pandemic.”
This conversation really grew and evolved to the state of small business today. And we had a little surprise from Katie Couric, who popped up on the stage from the audience. Oh, that was so cool.”
There were many more highlights shared by both Steph and Paul who jumped in with a recap of some of what Steph had just shared and a few other club highlights too! You can listen and read all about that over at Otter.ai/ClubhouseTownhalls.
Product Release – Past Week
Localisation into 13 Languages actually happened the week before last. More will be happening this week and next. This is starting with Android and will be rolled out to iOS soon.
Replays rolled out last week and with it many conversations around how to use it and when to use it strategic uses were discussed to. Would love to hear how you are using this feature. Here is the Blog post for Replays on Clubhouse.com it goes through in detail how they work. If you have any questions be sure you come and look for me over on Clubhouse – you can follow me here! OR if you would rather connect on a different platform you can find that info in my Contact Page here on this site.
Live but Later!
Live but Later – Replays of the LIVE rooms – it is an experience that makes you feel like you are in the room while it was actually happening. The phrase “Live but Later” is spot on for how it feels. Of course if you were in the room the first time around it may feel a bit odd to see your image in the “replays listening audience area” in addition to seeing yourself wherever else you were in the room at the time of the recording.
So, You can even watch when you moved to the stage and re-listen to things you had said. The clips are on so you will have the opportunity to get those clips of that exact 30 seconds of greatness that came flowing out of you. Of course that may just be me that hears things coming out as I am answering a question. 😁
To further share from Paul Davison, “And so when we set out to build replays, we wanted to create something that tried to capture that magic and that energy of the live clubhouse room and and this is the first version of it.” And he went on to share why replays are so important.
- amazing moments being created
- amazing conversations
- these moments get to live on with replays!
- can be left on Clubhouse for re-listening
- creates a recording that can also be used off Clubhouse
What is / How to do Replays
- Creators can choose if they are on or off
- Turn on before the room begins
- If turned off during the room – recording is deleted before it posts as a replay.
- Can be removed from app only by the Creator (removes it from everywhere on the app)
- Can be removed from a speakers profile by the speaker. (does not remove it from the app)
- Currently only for Public Open rooms
- Use the Pinned links throughout your room and they are there for the replay too. You will be able to direct people to your links even after the room is closed.
- You can pause, scrub, backup, forward
- Variable speed playback to 2x
- Downloadable Source file for the creator, mp3 audio format
What the Viewers/Listeners will see
- The same elements of the room.
- Speakers
- Audience
- People moving from audience to stage and back
- PTRs Pull to Refresh
- Pinned Links Shared as they were in the original room.
- Leave Quietly button will be there and active.
- Mic taps for clapping, etc.
- Skip Forward Button to Next Speaker too!
And, one last quote on this one, the rest you can get by going to the Otter recording/transcript if you want it.
“You can also see who’s joining so with podcasting it’s hard to know your audience but we clubhouse the people are the experience like the people who are in the room that defines the experience and and it’s the same thing with replays as it is with live rooms. So as a creator you can see the people in the room you can see who’s listening during the room. You can see us listening after the fact you can share that experience with them. You can connect with them.” said Paul during the presentation.
Which brings me to share that I experienced this. It was great to be able to see who was interacting and to write to them also. Truly, the feeling was a bit like I was live at the time even though it was a replay.
Product Release – Coming…
App Translation. The screens will be displayed in the language you choose or via locality.
Distribution of replays will be starting this week – we will watch to see where it’s all going to be offered.
Replays will distributed in different ways:
- added to the global search screen
- carousel for replays
- trending replays may also show up somewhere
- personalised replay lists may also be coming in near future
Under the hood improvements will be rolled out this week too.
Closed Captioning will begin rolling out this week starting on iOS
Adding a pinned link before the room opens is coming.
Language app translation (controls showing up in the language you choose) are continuing to roll out.
NOTE: This week’s Blog Post from Clubhouse is an interesting read for sure… In their Technically Speaking Category we have, “Calling All Hackers: Introducing Bug Bounties on Clubhouse”
Question & Answer Time
Q. If I schedule an event ahead of time, will I have the option to turn on replays before I start my room? A. Yes, there is a toggle switch on the calendar event creation page. NOTE: Anything put on the calendar before Replays came out will need to be edited to turn replays on. Also the hallway options for replays is for Open Rooms that are Public and not in a club. If you want your event to have replays on – go schedule it on the calendar/bulletin.
Paul also said, “…we’re redoing the composer right now. And we’re shipping out a new version of that, that will let you indicate that you want to have replace on but it’ll also allow you to get your room set up you’ll be able to add a pin link ahead of time and and do some other important things before the room starts.”
Q. How replays will be discoverable – folders or categories from the creator side – user or club centric? A. No. not yet but if the users would find this useful please send in your use case so that Clubhouse understands what is being requested, and how it will be used.
Q. Replays on Club profiles? A. Yes They do show up there. If they are not showing up for you then that is a bug – report that!
Discussion LIVE in Townhall.
What is the main way you would like to organise your replays – ideas – by recency and popularity – by date – by month – ability to pin the event – ability to curate playlists.
Q. How to find replays from other clubs that may be interesting? A. Stay Tuned – there is a lot coming through for discovery for replays. Currently the only way to find it is to click on profile. Adding to search this week – in future have some in the carousels. Clubhouse is watching what is happening. Today. Go to their profile – go to clubs list or search by keyword to find some – and watch replays from the club pages.
More Replay Questions
Q. How much time are replays available on clubs/users profile? A. No Time Limit. Until you choose to remove them. You are able to delete the replay in midstream. You can remove it as the creator whenever you want. As a speaker – you can remove it from your profile.
We are in a new realm of captured time on Clubhouse – comment
Q. When you download is there a plan for the graphics to download with the file. A. V1 is just audio – Other versions may have the ability to download the room view. For now you can get clips.
Q. Is there a way that we will be able to tell if replays are on before you enter the room. A. Great idea – limited real estate to inform the tap.
Discussion: LIVE only is one thing people may want to know about a room.
Pinned Links Questions
Q. A. Pinned link carousel is coming – launch date not yet available. Controlled by the mods? or the audience? flip through or only by the moderators – in the process of figuring that out.
Q. Pinned links for commerce sites? A. Yes, as long as the link does not go against the community guidelines.
Search Related Questions
Q. Universal Search challenge – only at top of the feed – can it be returned to the explore tab? A. We could do better with explore tab – not sure what it is going to be at this moment.
If you have use cases for why you are looking for search in the explore tab please let Clubhouse know.
Q. Clips and Replays are coupled, if one is on the other is on. A. if there is a specific reason please send that feedback in.
Android related questions & more.
Q. The Android feature roll out check in – when will these be available for Android users? A. Some features are rolled out Android or iOS first to quickly learn and have faster cycles of how/what may need adjustments. Replays are on both. +Room is going to a new design of that composer – will go straight to that redesign. Android first for this one. Report Room Title from Hallway, Clubs Member of redesign? for iOS – in the next couple of weeks.
Q. Will Clubhouse making pinging from the club members list? Unable to ping club members if they don’t follow. A. Members should not be able to ping members – if a club admin: not sure since they have been notified by the start of the room showing up in their notifications feed. A good question. Not on the roadmap now. That is not really the best way to get people in the room. If club members are not finding out ahead of time if it is happening.
Notifications / Feedback Qs
Q. Getting notification on replays – will there be a way to be notified of replays of the day? A. Yes there will be ways to know – working on a first version of this now to possibly be released this week. For push notifications – like to use them for time sensitive notices – so likely be used less often for replays.
Q. Audience feedback? In room feedback? A. Thinking about this now – all different forms of feedback. Replays listened, clicked your room, in room feedback, who you follow clicked a room – a lot of feedback we can give. Some public, some private – no specific launchtime.
Q. Short videos to profiles for help to pronounce names or have short intros? A. Like the idea for pronunciation – write at top of bio is one way to do it now. However there may be more ways that people want to use their bios. Not on the roadmap for the next couple of weeks.
Analytics and Updates to LONG Awaited Features
Q. Will you share room analytics with creatives? A. Yes, we will. Last couple of weeks you have seen some of this rolling out. You can see how many total people and how many now and how many clicks through to the pinned links. Want to be sure that the analytics are useful and help you to take action. Also thoughtful of the analytics for topics, time, response to the room, etc.
Q. When will payments itself be available globally? A. Do not know the exact timing. We are currently taking a global lens on this. Sometimes it is regional systems or regulations – will be looking at it country by country or region by region. Pinned links is one way for you to use these and is here first then monetisation on top of that.
NOTE. Clubs on profile changes – is being tested on Android. Report from Hallway should be on both platforms already.
Room Requests – Great to see more of these!
Room Requests: Book Tours. Authors coming on… Reading a chapter a day with replays on. Series of rooms tied to together with replays. AfterParty Use Case – linked the rooms together for a room crawl – club collaborations – use the link share to the secondary club. Link to the next room was shared as a “gift” to your audience by Paul Davison.
If you want to connect with me over on Clubhouse the Club I do most of my teaching about the howtos is the LOL – Live Online Learning Club OR the International Mod Squad.
Rooms in LOL Live Online Learning Club that You may want to attend!
