Add to your topics of interestWith Houses, Clubhouse appears to be encouraging friendlier social interaction within private user groups.Clubhouse, the voice chat app that caught the attention of Hollywood and Silicon Valley early in the pandemic, is experimenting with a new feature that allows users to join private groups.Testing of the tool has expanded in recent weeks, around the same time that Clubhouse has cut staff and embarked on a change in strategy.The feature, formerly called Social Clubs and now known as Houses, has appeared on some users' phones in recent weeks, said people who shared screenshots of its apps with Bloomberg.A Bloomberg reporter also used an in-app version of the feature.On Wednesday, the functionality appeared to be removed from some phones after Bloomberg solicited comment from Clubhouse, but it remained active for other users.Here's how the Houses feature works: In addition to the main "lobby" of Clubhouse rooms, which anyone can join as a listener, members of a House can view an additional set of active conversations not available to general users.In those rooms, all participants can mute and speak, whereas in most standard rooms, a moderator must give someone permission to speak.With Houses, Clubhouse appears to be encouraging friendlier social interaction within private user groups.Instead of just ephemeral, live audio rooms, members of a House can post to a typed group chat, where messages remain visible for a week before disappearing.New members are encouraged to write a post introducing themselves."Homes are private hallways where you can see more of your favorite people and meet friends of friends," according to a description of the feature within the app.It's unclear how integral the feature is to what Clubhouse is billing internally as an upcoming change in strategy.A company spokeswoman declined to comment.Clubhouse was created in 2020 and saw a sudden boom in popularity that coincided with the Covid-19 lockdowns.The app allows people to host informal live audio discussions and became a home for conference-type chats and celebrity visits, as well as some conversations that got out of hand and led to hateful content.Investors valued the business at $4 billion last year, but downloads soon began to decline.And finally found new audiences abroad.Clubhouse monthly downloads peaked in February 2021 for iOS users at 9.6 million and peaked in June 2021 for Android users at 6.8 million.Last month, those download rates were less than 300,000 each, according to mobile app analytics firm SensorTower Inc.Paul Davison, co-founder and CEO, said last year that the app grew "too fast" in its first few months.Davison, who has a background in creating trendy social apps, has a constant drive to experiment, as well as a belief that bringing people together with digital tools will create good in the world, former colleagues said.He has spoken in the past about the possibility of Clubhouse providing a platform for human gatherings of many kinds, including company staff meetings and political rallies.Clubhouse is still trying to establish what exactly it is at this point.Last month's job cuts were a pushback from general-interest programming such as international news and sports, Bloomberg reported.The latest experiment highlights the company's interest in social media.The initial Clubhouse trend sparked several competing products from established tech companies such as Twitter Inc., Spotify Technology SA, Meta Platforms Inc., and Microsoft Corp's LinkedIn. Meta's product, Live Audio Rooms, is available for Facebook groups, which allows creators to stream audio to a pre-existing group, similar to the Clubhouse quiz feature.Personalized news, according to your topics of interestCompilation of the top 10,000 companies in sales in ColombiaRelive in the front row all the forums and chairs of La RepúblicaMore than 300 books and magazines, in alliance with OverDriveSelect and keep your favorite itemsAccess our printed publications in digital formatReceive the news selected by our editorial teamThe health association that was presented on Wednesday will create stronger and more resilient health systems in Latin AmericaPowell tacitly admitted that the Fed has failed to do his job and said it would be difficult to engineer a soft landing.The only non-European or Canadian cities to break into the top 10 were Osaka in Japan and Melbourne in Australia.© 2022, Editorial La República SAS All rights reserved.Cr. 13a 37-32, Bogota (+57) 1 4227600Ardila Lülle Organization - oal.com.co