The fast rise and epic fall of Clubhouse

Podcasts Tech Apps The fast rise and epic fall of Clubhouse On Version History: How audio social networking came to be the next big thing, and why it never really was. On Version History: How audio social networking came to be the next big thing, and why it never really was. by David Pierce Mar 15, 2026, 12:24 PM UTC David Pierce is editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host with over a decade of experience covering consumer tech. Previously, at Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired. In 2020 and 2021, the social media world seemed to be on the verge of complete change. A new app called TikTok was ascendant, bringing a whole new kind of vertical video to phones everywhere. And another app — not as popular, but growing fast, and already hugely influential among the tech set — looked like it might have an entirely new social idea on its hands. It was called Clubhouse, and it was a huge bet that audio might be the future. It was the next big thing, until it wasn’t. On this episode of Version History , we tell the story of the early days of Clubhouse, and how a simple audio group chat app turned into a booming entertainment and creator platform. Platformer’s Casey Newton and Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman join David Pierce to talk about how the app worked, why tech folks gravitated to it so much, and ultimately the ways in which timing was the best and worst thing that ever happened to Clubhouse. What would the app have been without a global pandemic, and months of lockdown that left people scrambling for any kind of connection? We’ll never know. But it would have been different. This is the second episode of the third season of Version History . Here’s how to get every episode, and all our other fun stuff, as soon as it drops: The Version History podcast feed The new Version History YouTube channel Our new TikTok and Instagram accounts If you’re a Verge subscriber, you can also get access to Version History (and all our other podcasts) with no ads. All you have to do is vi...