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Title: Airchat is the latest app trying to make 'social audio' cool again

Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2024 14:00:50 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/airchat-is-the-latest-app-trying-to-make-social-audio-cool-again-140050450.html?src=rss

ThereΓÇÖs a new invite-only app going semi-viral among VCs, tech execs and
other Silicon Valley personalities. ItΓÇÖs called Airchat and itΓÇÖs trying
to revive the concept of an audio-first social media app.

The premise is similar to Clubhouse, the audio app that had a viral moment at
the height of the pandemic in 2021 and inspired copycat features in Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn and Reddit before gradually fading into obscurity. But
unlike the original version of Clubhouse, Airchat isnΓÇÖt built around live
audio streams that require users to all tune it at once. ItΓÇÖs more like
Twitter or Threads, except posts can only be shared as voice notes.

The app uses a timeline format, and automatically plays audio clips as you
scroll your feed. You do have the ability to pause the playback and read text
instead ΓÇö each post is accompanied by an AI-generated transcript ΓÇö but
posts and replies can only be shared by recording an audio clip. There
donΓÇÖt seem to be any time constraints on how long individual clips can be,
I found at least one post where a user spoke for a full hour just to see if
it would work (it did).

It sounds a bit gimmicky (because it is), but the app has all the hallmarks
of the kind of social apps that briefly go viral among a certain segment of
extremely-online Silicon Valley nerds. ItΓÇÖs led by a pair of well-connected
tech founders: AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant and former Tinder exec
Brian Norgard. ItΓÇÖs invitation-only and has drawn a number of well-known
tech personalities among its early users: 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, AirchatΓÇÖs high-profile user base is building hype and creating
FOMO for those who havenΓÇÖt been able to score an invite. (The app had to
briefly shut off invites over the weekend due to ΓÇ£an influx of new
users,ΓÇ¥ according to Ravikant, AirchatΓÇÖs CEO.)

ItΓÇÖs not clear exactly how many users Airchat has just yet, but it seems to
be in the low tens of thousands. The app has been downloaded close to 50,000
times, research firm Appfigures told Engadget, but itΓÇÖs likely some of
those downloads have come from people who donΓÇÖt yet have an invite.
Ravikant, who seems to be one of the most-followed users, currently has just
over 11,000 followers in the app.

Using Airchat is, well, noisy and a bit confusing. Upon joining, the app asks
to tap your contacts list to find friends who are already on the app, but
finding people to follow beyond that can be challenging. The app doesnΓÇÖt
have the equivalent of a ΓÇ£for youΓÇ¥ feed with recommended content so your
only options are to manually search for users or lurk in conversations that
do appear in your feed and check out other usersΓÇÖ posts and follows.

When I signed up, there were four people from my contacts in the app, only
two of whom are actual friends. I followed them and the appΓÇÖs founders and
a couple other familiar names. I then began randomly following other users as
conversations began to appear in my feed. This was a terrible strategy as my
feed was quickly dominated by the voices of a few especially active (but not
terribly interesting) posters. With so many new users all joining at the same
time, at one point my feed was just a bunch of people talking about Airchat.

ItΓÇÖs also somewhat jarring to actually hear the voices of people youΓÇÖve
followed on social media for ages but havenΓÇÖt interacted with IRL. The app
defaults to playing back audio at 2x speed, which tends to make peopleΓÇÖs
speaking voices sound a bit unnatural, but is also kind of necessary for long-
winded posts.

The bigger issue, though, is that itΓÇÖs not entirely clear what Airchat is
for. There are a handful of ΓÇ£channels,ΓÇ¥ smaller groups dedicated to
chatting about specific topics like coffee or astrology or AI or war, but
conversations are disjointed and hard to follow. There seem to be some
corners with spirited discussion. The ΓÇ£coffeeΓÇ¥ channel has 755 members
and has lots of earnest discussion of pour-over techniques and photos of
latte art. The channel is also ΓÇ£moderated heavily,ΓÇ¥ according to Ravikant
(AirchatΓÇÖs moderation policy is ΓÇ£self moderation,ΓÇ¥ which means they
expect you to make good use of blocking and muting features, though an FAQ
states they will remove users for ΓÇ£harassment, impersonation, foul
behavior, and illegal content.)

More creative users are also finding ways to play with the audio-centric
format. I found an ASMR group that consisted mainly of people speaking in
breathy whispers that kind of gave me the ick (one person did post a nice
clip of their cat purring). I listened to a few poetry readings in the
ΓÇ£poetryΓÇ¥ channel, but didnΓÇÖt have the patience, even at 2x speed.
ThereΓÇÖs also a lot of talk of in-app karaoke, though I have yet to see it
actually happen.

Some might see these kinds of gimmicks as the start of some new paradigm,
where people use their voices to unlock new ways of interacting. But all I
can think about is how Clubhouse, at its peak, had similar gimmicks: in-app
game shows, open mic nights and (very NSFW) ΓÇ£moan rooms.ΓÇ¥ It was new and
interesting at a time when most people were stuck at home with nothing to do,
but the novelty wore off quickly.

While ClubhouseΓÇÖs initial success sparked copycat features from almost
every other major social media company, many of those have since shut down
due to lack of interest. Even Clubhouse itself is a shell of what it once
was. While the app still exists, itΓÇÖs an entirely different service than
the one that briefly captured the attention of bored tech workers. The
company laid off half its staff in 2023 and has since pivoted to audio-
centric group chats.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/airchat-is-the-latest-app-trying-to-make-social-
audio-cool-again-140050450.html?src=rss

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