Clubhouse

For years, gamers have sworn up and down that Discord—not Slack—is the best desktop chat app. But like with any great thing, there’s room for improvement. Enter BetterDiscord.BetterDiscord allows users to tailor Discord’s desktop app to their own personal aesthetic and UX preferences, and introduces other quality-of-life improvements major and minor. Just download and install the free software, and then pick and choose plug-ins and skins from BetterDiscord’s database. Other changes automatically appear, like a button for perusing a list of user-submitted servers and a new emote layout. (The software doesn’t work with the mobile app or in the browser.) Your Discord window background can be the face of your favorite anime waifu, and you can delete that pesky Gift button to the right of the text box. You can make Discord look like it did three years ago or add in a Google Translate option.The experience recalls an earlier internet era, when black-and-green terminal-style Winamp skins were popular, and everything downloaded online was customizable—officially or not. BetterDiscord is not an officially sanctioned app;  » Read More

Clubhouse, the real-time audio app that saw a growth of users during the pandemic and was recently valued at $4 billion, on the other hand, was less ...  » Read More

Image Credit: Dmitry Mashkin Audio-only app Clubhouse has seen downloads decline. Is Clubhouse over? And where does that leave the Clubhouse clones from other tech companies? Has the Clubhouse bubble burst? Even as other tech companies hurry to copy the business model, downloads of the original app have tanked. Clubhouse appeared in March last year – an invite-only audio app where users drop in and out of “Rooms” containing groups of speakers. Now, halfway through 2021, you can’t move for Clubhouse competitors. Spotify has Greenroom; Facebook launched Live Audio Rooms; Reddit has Talk. Twitter not only developed Spaces, but also just announced monetisation for creators within its new Ticketed Spaces feature. Meanwhile the original source of all the hype, Clubhouse itself, is quietly shedding download figures. The addition of Android devices in May 2021 prompted an uptick in users, but that looks to be a damp squib. So, what’s the reason for the drop in interest?  » Read More

Clubhouse single-handedly put live audio chats on the map, but can it survive an industry with cut-throat competition and platform hurdles? 2020 witnessed the rise of a new social media phenomenon, Clubhouse. The startup, which attained the coveted unicorn status only in January of this year, is all about audio interactions. Now, voice-based communication is nothing new for social media platforms, but Clubhouse almost single-handedly popularized the idea of live audio conversations. More simply, voice chatrooms. Clubhouse has remained notoriously closed when it comes to ease of access, but the buzz was loud enough to catalyze the birth of a new battleground for social media dominance that witnessed everyone from Facebook and Twitter to even LinkedIn aping the formula. Clubhouse created a whole new market, and the competition turned white-hot at lightspeed, but the premise is really simple — Clubhouse provides a platform where a bunch of people gather, one (or a few) of them talks while others listen. Unlike a regular fireside chat or in group voice calls, not all participants get to speak.  » Read More

The latest research report on the Global Bug Tracking Platforms Market provides the cumulative study on the COVID-19 outbreak to provide the latest information on the key features of the Bug Tracking Platforms market. This intelligence report contains investigations based on current scenarios, historical records and future forecasts. The report contains various market forecasts related to market size, revenue, production, CAGR, consumption, gross margin in the form of charts, graphs, pie charts, tables and more. While emphasizing the main driving and restraining forces in this market, the report also offers a comprehensive study of future trends and developments in the market. It also examines the role of the major market players involved in the industry, including their business overview, financial summary and SWOT analysis. It provides a 360-degree overview of the industries’ competitive landscape. Bug Tracking Platforms Market shows steady growth and CAGR is expected to improve during the forecast period. The Global Bug Tracking Platforms Market Report gives you in-depth information, industry knowledge, market forecast and analysis. The global Bug Tracking Platforms industry report also clarifies financial risks and environmental compliance.  » Read More

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re also a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a combined $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. In 2020, investors poured $73 billion in capital into mobile companies — a figure that’s up 27% year-over-year. This week, there’s big news with the expansion of Android apps to Windows.  » Read More

The popular audio-chat social platform Clubhouse was initially available only for iPhone users. Later, it arrived on Android. However, we still don’t have an official desktop version of the Clubhouse app, which might disappoint people who want to access the platform on their laptops or desktop. But that doesn’t make it impossible. Here are three easy ways to use the Clubhouse app on your Mac or Windows PC. Related | Enable Dark Mode in Clubhouse App (Android, iOS) Download, Install and Use Clubhouse Audio-Chat App On Mac or Windows PC With hundreds and thousands of listeners joining, it gets difficult for moderators to manage the rooms, especially on the small screens of mobile devices. And hence, they prefer using Clubhouse on the larger screen of their PC. At the same time, some people prefer listening or speaking in the rooms directly from their PC. And thankfully, it’s very much possible. Below are three different methods to use Clubhouse on your computer’s large screen. Method 1- Using Clubdeck Clubdeck is an unofficial desktop client for the Clubhouse app.  » Read More

The Clubhouse app features often-interactive live audio discussions in a variety of different topic- or personality-focused rooms, and it’s starting to see more and more of those focused on sports. Plenty of individual sports personalities have been holding Clubhouse discussions, and some leagues have gotten in on the act as well, including the NFL around this year’s draft. Now, the NHL has partnered with Clubhouse and with analysts from NBC (Anson Carter) and Sportsnet (Kris Versteeg) to give fans some access to the upcoming Stanley Cup Final Media Day. Here’s the release on that: The National Hockey League (NHL) and Clubhouse, the social audio app, have teamed up to bring the world closer than ever to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. This marks the first time that a major sports league and Clubhouse have collaborated on a Championship. The collaboration commences with Stanley Cup Final Media Day which will bring the global community of hockey fans, players, and insiders closer than ever before — only on Clubhouse. For the first time ever,  » Read More

Many journalists who cover technology have no idea what Marc Andreessen, one of the most powerful investors in Silicon Valley, has tweeted lately. That's because the co-founder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz loves blocking journalists, along with critics of the tech industry and anyone else who might be seen as an antagonist. "It's become a badge of honor to get blocked by him," said Sara M. Watson, technology critic and senior analyst at data firm Insider Intelligence. As tech reporting has shifted from being dazzled by the latest gadgets and apps to concerned over its impact on people and institutions, Silicon Valley's elite have searched for a way to bypass the critical eye of journalists altogether. Now companies and investors are trying to regain control of the narrative by launching their own media publications, with rah-rah stories that they hope will compete directly with news coverage of technology. The most recent entrant into this trend is Andreessen Horowitz's Future,  » Read More

by David Ciccarelli , Op-Ed Contributor, 2 hours ago What’s the hottest way to share news these days or throw an event? This spring, the NFL chose to use the social media platform Clubhouse to introduce the future stars of football as part of the annual NFL draft. The league partnered with Clubhouse to provide exclusive content to users in the days leading up to the draft. Whether this platform becomes a viable marketing tool remains to be seen, but the partnership should spark everyone’s interest. Clubhouse, which was launched in April 2020, differs from other social platforms in that members interact exclusively through voice. Beyond a user profile picture, there are no photos, videos, or even text messages exchanged. Instead, users engage in active listening in rooms run by clubs and facilitated by moderators. You raise your hand when you want to speak, wait to be called upon, and then unmute your microphone to share your thoughts or ask questions. Right now, only a few hundred thousand users have received an invite to the app (which is only available on iOS),  » Read More