Clubhouse for iOS has added spatial audio

By: Yuriy Stanislavskiy | 30.08.2021, 16:30

The company announced the feature in a Sunday tweet that offered a brief demonstration and explained that spatial audio is "like surround sound, but with your own headphones." 

In the example given, individual speakers during a Clubhouse call can be heard as if their voices are in different locations in three-dimensional space around the listener. This gives the impression that everyone is in different places in the same room. Clubhouse explained that users will not hear spatial audio when they are "on stage" but only "in the audience".

In addition, Android support is promised to arrive soon. However, what is "imminent support for Android" in Clubhouse style, everyone remembers from the long-suffering launch of the application for this platform.

To be clear, it's not Apple's version of spatial audio, which includes head tracking to make it seem like the sound is coming from your iPhone or iPad. However, the emergence of the analog demonstrates just how popular spatial audio has become since Apple started promoting the concept. 

Implemented in AirPods Pro or Max and based on Dolby Atmos, Apple's system uses the gyroscope and accelerometer in your headphones and iOS device to track your head movement and device position, then compares the motion data and realigns the sound field so that it stays attached to your device even as your head moves. 

Source: Clubhouse

Illustration: Alexander Shatov