Ever since the social media app Clubhouse launched back in April 2020, the Internet has been abuzz with speculation about its exclusivity. Similar to real-life social clubs, you have to be invited by a current member, as it’s still in beta testing.
Once inside, you’ll have access to multiple discussion rooms, curated based on your interests and location. Every user is required to use their real name, to avoid some degrees of toxicity hidden behind anonymity. As such, there’s a mix of Clubhouse members–some are from the general public, while others are public figures.
To put it simply, it’s like having a vast network of podcasts at your fingertips, presumably helmed by only those who were hand-selected to have the most engaging and insightful conversations.
As such, it’s not unusual to overhear members rave about events. Most notably, Black creatives have produced audio adaptations of both the Lion King and Dreamgirls musicals. When you add the FOMO (fear-of-missing-out) effect, an invite to Clubhouse becomes so precious that there is a money-based market for it. Because of this, there have already been discussions about alternatives to Clubhouse while applicants wait to be granted access.
Enter Crabhouse
However, one user had a different experience from the app.
On February 7th, Twitter user and Unity programmer @kamibukuro18 tweeted the following:
Kamibukuro was later flooded with tweets not only showing interest in the app, but documenting their experiences as well. While the servers were overwhelmed at first, more people were able to join. According to the extensive Twitter thread, they seem to enjoy the punnery, growing community, and the simple, aesthetics-focused interface.
Though the features of Crabhouse is minimal, it’s a good Unity demo. However, the only part that confuses me personally is the chat segment. It seems the messages are pre-written and randomly generated, and there’s no way to type your own.For now, it seems that Crabhouse is a novelty app with some potential.
