It was already evident that Clubhouse will soon have a long list of competitors vying for the new niche of voice based social media interaction apps. With the rise in popularity of Clubhouse over the last couple of weeks, there wasn’t a better time for Spotify to tap-in to the market with their new Spotify Greenroom app.

So, what is this Spotify Greenroom, how is it different from Clubhouse, and what is the prospect for it ahead? Read the article to know it all in brief!

What is Spotify Greenroom

Spotify Greenroom is a social audio app from Spotify to take on the popularly growing Clubhouse app. Both these apps provide rooms for speakers and listeners to interact via voice (only) based on their interests. You can use the app to discuss with your friends, follow other people and join the discussions.

Clubhouse has been a viral rage on the internet with around 18 million downloads. Spotify acquired Betty Labs’s Locker Room app well ahead in March 2021 to build their version of Clubhouse and now have successfully launched this Wednesday. You can download the app from Google Play Store or Apple App Store from almost every country and use it in English.

Do you need a Spotify account to use Spotify Greenroom

It is not mandatory for you to have a Spotify account to use Spotify Greenroom. Just as you use any other app, you can download the app on your Android or iOS device and sign-up with your email address for free.

However, you can also log-in with your Spotify account if you already have one.

What can you do in Spotify Greenroom

Spotify Greenroom allows you to host or participate in live room discussions. You can either join an already existing room as a listener or create a room and invite your friends to join the discussion.

Also, you can view the upcoming discussions and add it to your calendar to remind yourself.

As a host, you can choose to allow text-based discussions along with the voice discussions simultaneously.

As a host, you can get a MP4 version of the recorded discussion to your email.

How is Spotify Greenroom different from Clubhouse

Well it’s too early to call out all the differences clearly since both the apps serve the same purpose. But, with the limited experience we’ve had on the new app now, below are the key differences:

• As a host, you can decide if you want people to share text messages during discussions, GIFs. Clubhouse has been strictly a voice-only app to differentiate itself from other social media. However, Spotify Greenroom provides an edge to discussions this way so that users can share articles, links, comments to make the discussions more interesting.

• Gems! Just like ‘Like’ on Facebook, Spotify Greenroom allows you to like a speaker which shows up on their profile. You can double tap on a speaker and a gem is added to the speaker. This could again be a major influencing factor in deciding the popularity of the app.

• As a host, you can push the recorded MP4 version of the discussion and to a podcast (Anchor is another Spotify app to help creating Podcasts). This could be a gamechanger in the podcast industry considering the wide range of support Spotify can offer.

What we didn’t like so far

• The hand-up option looks same throughout. There’s no indication to know if you’ve already raised your hand or not.

• Except for the host, all the speakers and listeners are all sorted by their last name. It’d have been ideal to sort the users by the recent contribution.

Note: The host is always placed at the top as the first person on the room.

• There can be only one host for a room and no moderators. When the room gets bigger, it’d be impossible for a single host to act as moderator for the whole room.