Airchat is a new social media app that encourages users to “just talk”.
An earlier version of Airchat was released last year, but the team — led by AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and former Tinder product exec Brian Norgard — rebuilt the app and relaunched it on iOS and Android yesterday. Currently invite-only, Airchat is already ranked #27 in social networking on Apple’s App Store.
Visually, Airchat should feel pretty familiar and intuitive, with the ability to follow other users, scroll through a stream of posts, and then reply, like, and share those posts. The difference is that posts and replies are recordings, which the app then transcribes.
When you open Airchat, messages automatically start playing and you quickly scroll through them by swiping up and down. If you’re so inclined, you can actually mute the audio and just read text. Users can also share photos and videos. But audio seems to be what everyone is focusing on, and what Ravikant describes as transforming the dynamic compared to text-based social apps.
After logging into Airchat this morning, most of the posts I saw were about the app itself, with Ravikant and Norgard answering questions and asking for feedback.
“All people are meant to get along with other people, it just takes the natural voice,” Ravikant said. “Text-only online media has given us this delusion that people can’t get along, but actually everyone can.”
It’s not the first time tech startups have bet on voice as the next big thing in social media. But Airchat’s asynchronous threaded posts create a very different experience than the live chat rooms that briefly flourished in Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces. Norgaard argued that this approach removes the barrier of stage fright because “you can take as many passes to write a message here as you want, and nobody knows.”
In fact, he said that in conversations with early adopters, the team found that “most of the people using AirChat today are very introverted and shy.”
I personally haven’t convinced myself to post anything yet. I was more interested in seeing how others used the app — plus, I have a love-hate relationship with the sound of my voice.
However, there is something to be said for hearing Ravikant and Norgard explain their vision, rather than just reading the transcripts, which can miss nuances of enthusiasm, emphasis, etc. no) to the sound.
I’m also having a bit of trouble with speed. The app defaults to 2x audio playback, which I thought sounded unnatural, especially if the whole idea is to enhance the human connection. You can reset the speed by holding down the pause button, but on the 1x, I noticed that I started skimming when listening to longer posts and then usually moved on before I heard the full audio. But maybe it’s fine.
Meanwhile, Ravikant’s belief in the power of voice to reduce acrimony doesn’t necessarily eliminate the need for content moderation functions. He said the feed is powered by “some complicated rules about hiding spam and trolls and people you or they might not want to hear from,” but as of publication he had not responded to a follow-up user question about moderation. content.
Asked about monetization — that is, when we might start seeing ads, audio or otherwise — Ravikant said “there’s no monetization pressure on the company.” (He described himself as “not the only investor” but a “major investor” in the company.)
“I could care less about monetization,” he said. “We’ll run it on a shoestring if we have to.”
