Clubhouse adds support for five Indian languages on Android, iOS coming soon

Social audio app Clubhouse has announced support for 13 languages alongside English for the platform.

The support for new languages include five Indian languages that include Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu, alongside others such as Italian, Japanese and Spanish.

The support is being added to the Clubhouse app for Android first, while support for more localised languages is said to be in works already. A Clubhouse statement also states that support for local languages on its iOS app will also be coming soon.

Aarthi Ramamurthy, head of international operations at Clubhouse, said in a statement, “We’re very happy to say that today, all of that is changing, as we are rolling out our first wave of local language support. We’re starting on Android with thirteen new languages launching immediately — including French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Malayalam, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish, Tamil, and Telugu. We’ll be adding support for iOS and additional languages soon, so that people from Mumbai and Paris to Sao Pãulo and Jakarta can experience Clubhouse in a way that feels a bit more native to them.”

The platform was among the first in global social media space to introduce an audio only format for social interactions. The app ws first launched for iOS devices only, and was subsequently introduced on Android as well. Since then, Clubhouse has expanded to markets including India, and has also shifted from its invite only model of operation to open sign-ups. Its inclusion of new languages, including the five Indian languages, is likely a sign of the company looking to expand to more markets and users – amid reports of the app’s demand flattening across the world.

The move has also signified a clear transition of focus towards newer markets speaking more languages beyond English, suggesting a saturation of interest from users from solely English speaking nations. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if the move helps the app get a boost in terms of user growth on the platform – and if it brings more features aimed at vernacular language markets.