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Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

blog.clubhouse.com

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Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#61

Post by markdown »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #41
markdown wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think the lack of Android app is what caused their popularity to decline over time. They obviously made the right choice by launching what they could (an iOS app) as quickly as possible to seize the moment. Even though the popularity has declined, they now have a large war chest to figure out where to go next. On the contrary, it was a beyond stupid to launch only on iPhone. I'm not sure if it was elitism o…

> On the contrary, it was a beyond stupid to launch only on iPhone. No, like any startup they needed to launch an MVP and iterate. Waiting until everything is available on every platform only makes sense if you have the time and resources, which they didn't. They were a small team with limited resources. Clubhouse wasn’t explosively popular when it launched. The success came a few months later, at which point they ha…

> No, like any startup they needed to launch an MVP and iterate.

I agree, but they didn't. There was no MVP for Android.

> Waiting until everything is available on every platform

Not everything, just an MVP. Wait until you have an MVP on the biggest platform first, and then launch.

> Focusing on getting something minimal out the door and scaling it up is the right choice.

Yup, an MVP on Android and iOS would have been perfect.

> If you’re going to pick one platform to launch an MVP, iOS is almost always the right choice.... Tech enthusiasts and early adopters skew toward ....

Again, this is true for most cases, but not an app like Clubhouse. In most of the world the influencers jumped on it immediately but dropped it like a hot potato when they realised none of the people they wanted to influence could show up to worship them.

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#62

Post by Infinitesimus »

askafriend wrote: post #56
markdown wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think the lack of Android app is what caused their popularity to decline over time. They obviously made the right choice by launching what they could (an iOS app) as quickly as possible to seize the moment. Even though the popularity has declined, they now have a large war chest to figure out where to go next. On the contrary, it was a beyond stupid to launch only on iPhone. I'm not sure if it was elitism o…

This is wrong. If you’re building an early stage consumer startup in the US, you should launch first on iOS period. Use that starting point to iterate rapidly to figure out product-market fit and then launch Android. There is a reason you see the best consumer companies take this route and it’s not because they’re poor at arithmetic.

There is of course, a feedback cycle here.

If you always default to launching on iOS, don't be surprised if user adoption is further limited when you eventually get around to launching on Android since by then, there would be competing products or you'll have difficulty changing the perception of "this company thinks I'm a 2nd class citizen, why would I bother?"

(Snap faced some of this for a while though I'm not sure what their distribution metrics look like now)

There is also a critical window when launching on multiple platforms. If you wait too long, the brand's "xyz OS only" will stick and opens the door for your competitor to say "We're like that other app but we actually work and sync across all your devices".

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#63

Post by smackeyacky »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #42
colesantiago wrote: post #28

I'm very curious if there were any reasons or design decisions on why Clubhouse didn't go for React Native from the start? Would it be fair to say they could have gotten to market quicker had they went with RN? Would love someone from the team to elaborate on this as Agora also has RN SDK's as well as Firebase.

I inherited a React Native initiative at a previous job. It was fine for simple things like login screens and settings pages, but as soon as we had to do anything complex (like audio/video) we ended up writing native platform code anyway. Now instead of benefiting from React Native we were writing platform code anyway and paying the React Native tax to integrate it back into the app.

Xamarin is/was very similar. Want to do bluetooth? Out of luck, native library time.

I haven't looked at React Native, but in Xamarin all the easy stuff (basic layouts, logins etc) were no easier than writing native Android code, and the hard stuff was a lot harder due to having to integrate the native code.

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#64

Post by echelon »

Infinitesimus wrote: post #62
askafriend wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is wrong. If you’re building an early stage consumer startup in the US, you should launch first on iOS period. Use that starting point to iterate rapidly to figure out product-market fit and then launch Android. There is a reason you see the best consumer companies take this route and it’s not because they’re poor at arithmetic.

There is of course, a feedback cycle here. If you always default to launching on iOS, don't be surprised if user adoption is further limited when you eventually get around to launching on Android since by then, there would be competing products or you'll have difficulty changing the perception of "this company thinks I'm a 2nd class citizen, why would I bother?" (Snap faced some of this for a while though I'm not sur…

Every time I see an app that seems novel or popular that is iOS only, I form a prejudice against it. I've never, as far as I can recall, gone back to Android offerings once they were eventually launched.

Apps are cancer. Apple is the company responsible for this mess.

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#65

Post by rainboiboi »

Let's face it - Clubhouse used to be interesting because the "high-value" people they managed to attract at the very beginning. As the hype falters, what's left is a bunch of "normal/man-on-the-street" people who contribute relatively low-value signals. They need to crack the longtail problem before they can take off again.

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#66

Post by raina_rain »

grishka wrote: post #48
taylorhughes wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The rest isn't implemented. In particular you can't create and moderate rooms. There's probably a hundred bugs in the existing functionality too. ...

It would've taken me maybe 2-3 more weeks to add all the missing functionality, handle all edge cases, and polish the UI. There really isn't that much to it. I've participated in Pavel Durov's contests[1] where you had to make a Telegram client in a month given only a networking/database library. (in that particular contest, I skipped the 1st round, so I had to catch up in 2nd) [1] https://vk.com/wall-55882680_74 (in…

Developer speak: 2-3 weeks = 12-13 weeks

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#67

Post by shafyy »

cddotdotslash wrote: post #5

I think they missed the hype train for this one. Anecdotal, but every person I know who used Clubhouse during the height of the pandemic has completely or nearly completely stopped using it in favor of outside or in-person socialization now.

Releasing an Android app earlier wouldn't have changed anything substantial for them.

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#68

Post by dt3ft »

colordrops wrote: post #57
tomComb wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how long it took them to begin the process of creating an Android app one has to wonder whether they were after some sort of exclusivity.

Clubhouse already feels irrelevant.

I tried it a while ago, the content was mostly people selling either themselves or their merchandise (books, courses, schemes). My sample was not just one try, I gave it a whole week. Same faces, same sale schemes. Uninstalled, figured it wasn't for me.

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#69

Post by Doctor_Fegg »

echelon wrote: post #64
Infinitesimus wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is of course, a feedback cycle here. If you always default to launching on iOS, don't be surprised if user adoption is further limited when you eventually get around to launching on Android since by then, there would be competing products or you'll have difficulty changing the perception of "this company thinks I'm a 2nd class citizen, why would I bother?" (Snap faced some of this for a while though I'm not sur…

Every time I see an app that seems novel or popular that is iOS only, I form a prejudice against it. I've never, as far as I can recall, gone back to Android offerings once they were eventually launched. Apps are cancer. Apple is the company responsible for this mess.

That means favouring bigcos vs small indie shops with the resources to only develop one platform at a time. Your call, but I find that a strange prejudice to choose.

Re: Shipping Clubhouse on Android in ten weeks

#70

Post by capableweb »

dt3ft wrote: post #68
colordrops wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clubhouse already feels irrelevant.

I tried it a while ago, the content was mostly people selling either themselves or their merchandise (books, courses, schemes). My sample was not just one try, I gave it a whole week. Same faces, same sale schemes. Uninstalled, figured it wasn't for me.

I think the same is true for all social media. When you initially join, one of two things happen: 1) you find a small niche group of people who are nice and you have something in common with, the platform quickly finds its place in your mind and "Most visited" section of about:newtab OR 2) you get faced with the most generic, get-rich-quick ads/posts/rants and quickly get a sour taste for the entire platform.

Probably HN is the only place I've actually felt (1) while everything else falls into (2) after just a day or two.

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