Clubhouse, the notoriously exclusive audio chat app, has removed the barrier to entry. A beta version of the app is now available on Google Play.

The app has just launched in the U.S. for Android, although Clubhouse promises to expand to other English-speaking countries and beyond.

The difficulty is that Clubhouse adheres to an invitation-only system. The clubhouse is adhering to an invitation-only system.

In other words, the Clubhouse is making sure there is no surge of new users that would overwhelm the service. Since Clubhouse already has a moderation problem, it is likely that they are artificially limiting growth so that moderators can keep track of things.

According to Clubhouse, their next task is to "gather feedback from the community, fix any issues we see, and add some final features like payments and club creation before rolling out more widely."

Missing features include in-app translation, localization features, the ability to create and manage clubs, the option to follow topics, and the ability to change profiles and user names. These are not massive, but they are stacking up. And they need to be sorted out before the service can be made available to the masses.

As part of its broader rollout, Clubhouse will be made available to Android users outside the US. This summer, millions of iOS users who had to be placed on a waiting list while Clubhouse builds its infrastructure will also be migrated.

The question is whether this will mean much for Clubhouse. The app's popularity, partly due to its exclusivity, has waned in recent weeks thanks to copycat services from other social media companies; why sit on Clubhouse's waiting list when you can use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or anywhere else with comparable services? Are they still there?

U.S. readers can go to Google Play right now and download the Clubhouse beta version. Readers in the rest of the world can "pre-register" and sign up when updates are available.