There’s a brand new invite-only app going semi-viral amongst VCs, tech execs and different Silicon Valley personalities. It’s known as Airchat and it’s making an attempt to revive the idea of an audio-first social media app.
The premise is just like Clubhouse, the audio app that had a viral second on the peak of the pandemic in 2021 and impressed copycat options in Fb, Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit earlier than progressively fading into obscurity. However in contrast to the unique model of Clubhouse, Airchat isn’t constructed round reside audio streams that require customers to all tune it directly. It’s extra like Twitter or Threads, besides posts can solely be shared as voice notes.
The app makes use of a timeline format, and robotically performs audio clips as you scroll your feed. You do have the power to pause the playback and skim textual content as a substitute — every submit is accompanied by an AI-generated transcript — however posts and replies can solely be shared by recording an audio clip. There don’t appear to be any time constraints on how lengthy particular person clips might be, I discovered no less than one submit the place a consumer spoke for a full hour simply to see if it might work (it did).
It sounds a bit gimmicky (as a result of it’s), however the app has all of the hallmarks of the type of social apps that briefly go viral amongst a sure phase of extremely-online Silicon Valley nerds. It’s led by a pair of well-connected tech founders: AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant and former Tinder exec Brian Norgard. It’s invitation-only and has drawn various well-known tech personalities amongst its early customers: Y Combinator CEO and San Francisco political provocateur Gary Tan, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, OpenAI founder Sam Altman, VC and Elon Musk confidant Jason Calacanis.
Over on X, Airchat’s high-profile consumer base is constructing hype and creating FOMO for many who haven’t been capable of rating an invitation. (The app needed to briefly shut off invitations over the weekend as a result of “an inflow of recent customers,” in accordance with Ravikant, Airchat’s CEO.)
It’s not clear precisely what number of customers Airchat has simply but, but it surely appears to be within the low tens of 1000’s. The app has been downloaded near 50,000 instances, analysis agency Appfigures instructed Engadget, but it surely’s possible a few of these downloads have come from individuals who don’t but have an invitation. Ravikant, who appears to be one of many most-followed customers, at present has simply over 11,000 followers within the app.
Utilizing Airchat is, effectively, noisy and a bit complicated. Upon becoming a member of, the app asks to faucet your contacts listing to seek out pals who’re already on the app, however discovering folks to comply with past that may be difficult. The app doesn’t have the equal of a “for you” feed with really useful content material so your solely choices are to manually seek for customers or lurk in conversations that do seem in your feed and take a look at different customers’ posts and follows.
After I signed up, there have been 4 folks from my contacts within the app, solely two of whom are precise pals. I {followed} them and the app’s founders and a pair different acquainted names. I then started randomly following different customers as conversations began appearing in my feed. This was a horrible technique as my feed was rapidly dominated by the voices of some particularly lively (however not terribly fascinating) posters. With so many new customers all becoming a member of on the similar time, at one level my feed was only a bunch of individuals speaking about Airchat.
It’s additionally considerably jarring to really hear the voices of individuals you’ve {followed} on social media for ages however haven’t interacted with IRL. The app defaults to enjoying again audio at 2x pace, which tends to make folks’s talking voices sound a bit unnatural, however can be type of vital for long-winded posts.
The larger situation, although, is that it’s not completely clear what Airchat is for. There are a handful of “channels,” smaller teams devoted to chatting about particular subjects like espresso or astrology or AI or battle, however conversations are disjointed and onerous to comply with. There appear to be some corners with spirited dialogue. The “espresso” channel has 755 members and has a number of earnest dialogue of pour-over methods and pictures of latte artwork. The channel can be “moderated closely,” in accordance with Ravikant (Airchat’s moderation coverage is “self moderation,” which implies they count on you to make good use of blocking and muting options, although an FAQ states they may take away customers for “harassment, impersonation, foul habits, and unlawful content material.)
Extra artistic customers are additionally discovering methods to play with the audio-centric format. I discovered an ASMR group that consisted primarily of individuals talking in breathy whispers that type of gave me the ick (one particular person did submit a pleasant clip of their cat purring). I listened to a couple poetry readings within the “poetry” channel, however didn’t have the endurance, even at 2x pace. There’s additionally a variety of speak of in-app karaoke, although I’ve but to see it truly occur.
Some would possibly see these sorts of gimmicks as the beginning of some new paradigm, the place folks use their voices to unlock new methods of interacting. However all I can take into consideration is how Clubhouse, at its peak, had related gimmicks: in-app recreation reveals, open mic nights and (very NSFW) “moan rooms.” It was new and fascinating at a time when most individuals had been caught at residence with nothing to do, however the novelty wore off rapidly.
Whereas Clubhouse’s preliminary success sparked copycat options from nearly each different main social media firm, lots of these have since shut down as a result of lack of curiosity. Even Clubhouse itself is a shell of what it as soon as was. Whereas the app nonetheless exists, it’s a completely totally different service than the one which briefly captured the eye of bored tech staff. The corporate laid off half its workers in 2023 and has since pivoted to audio-centric group chats.
