Clubhouse now lets hosts record conversations for later listening

One of Clubhouse’s defining characteristics was that all of the audio chats that happened on its platform were live. Once the conversation was over, it was over. That helped build an air of exclusivity around Clubhouse’s audio chat rooms, especially in the earlier days where only influencers and celebrities had access to the app.

But now, the company seems to have changed its tune. Clubhouse has just announced a new feature called Replay, where users can choose to record the audio chat and then save it to a club or profile. They can be downloaded and shared externally too, just in case someone wants to use it as a podcast or a TikTok soundtrack.

Replay will also support pinned links, a recent feature that allows chat moderators to link out to different sites during a conversation. Those links will remain fully interactive to those who are listening to the recording later on as well.

Listeners to a recorded conversation can skip to the next speaker, pause, scrub, or make a 30-second clip. They can also listen to it at 1.5 or 2x speed. However, be aware that creators will be able to see who’s listening to their Replays. They’ll also be able to have a “total room count” to see how many people in total — both live and recorded — listened to the room. Starting next week, Replays will appear on Clubhouse’s discovery pages, which includes search.

As TechCrunch points out, Replay is obviously great for those who don’t have time to catch a live audio event, which in turn makes Clubhouse more appealing to those with busy schedules. As Clubhouse gets more competition such as Twitter Spaces and Facebook’s Live Audio Rooms, it’ll likely need even more features to help differentiate itself from its rivals.