To create anticipation, the invite-only network is employing a well-known strategy.
There is a new app that is only accessible to tech executives, venture capitalists, and other Silicon Valley figures that is getting semi-viral. Airchat is an application that is attempting to bring back the idea of a social media platform that focuses mostly on audio.
The premise is comparable to that of Clubhouse, an audio application that saw a moment of virality during the height of the epidemic in 2021 and inspired copycat features on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Reddit before eventually drifting into obscurity. On the other hand, in contrast to the first version of Clubhouse, Airchat is not based on live audio broadcasts that require users to simultaneously tune it. It is more comparable to Twitter or Threads, with the exception that posts can only be forwarded as voice notes.
In addition to utilizing a timeline style, the application will automatically play audio samples as you navigate through your feed. You do have the ability to pause the playback and read text instead; each post is accompanied with an artificial intelligence-generated transcript; but, the only way to share messages and answers is to record an audio clip. Despite the fact that there does not appear to be any time limit on the length of individual clips, I discovered at least one post in which a user spoke for an entire hour in order to test whether or not it would be successful (it was).
The app has all the characteristics of the kind of social apps that quickly get viral among a specific group of heavily online Silicon Valley nerds. Although it may appear a little bit gimmicky from the outside, it actually has all of these characteristics. A pair of well-connected software founders, Naval Ravikant, co-founder of AngelList, and Brian Norgard, a former executive at Tinder, respectively, are in charge of the company. By invitation only, it has attracted a number of well-known figures in the technology industry, including Gary Tan, CEO of Y Combinator and a political agitator in San Francisco; Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify; Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI; and Jason Calacanis, a venture capitalist and a confidant of Elon Musk.
On X, the high-profile user base of Airchat is generating excitement and causing fear of missing out (FOMO) for those individuals who have not been able to obtain an invitation. As a result of “an influx of new users,” the service had to temporarily disable invites over the weekend, as stated by Ravikant, the CEO of Airchat.)
The precise number of users that Airchat has at the moment is not entirely obvious; nevertheless, it appears to be in the low tens of thousands already. According to estimates provided by research firm Appfigures to Engadget, the application has been downloaded close to 50,000 times. However, it is quite probable that some of those downloads have been made by those who do not yet possess an invitation. A little more than 11,000 people are currently following Ravikant within the app, making him one of the persons who appears to have the most followers.
You may say that using Airchat is noisy and a little bit confusing. The app will ask you to tap your contacts list when you first sign up for it so that you may identify friends who are already using the app. However, it may be difficult to find individuals to follow beyond those friends. Because the app does not offer a feed that is similar to a “for you” feed that has content that is recommended to you, your only alternatives are to manually search for users, lurk in conversations that do appear in your feed, and check out the posts and followers of other users.
There were four people from my contacts in the app when I joined up for it, but only two of them considered themselves to be my true friends. I followed them, as well as the founders of the app, and a few other names that were recognizable to me. After that, I started following other users at random as conversations started to show up in my feed. This was a horrible tactic because my feed was quickly dominated by the voices of a few posters who were particularly active but not particularly fascinating. Unfortunately, this was the case. My feed was filled with nothing but people talking about Airchat at one point since there were so many new users who all joined at the same time.
The experience of actually hearing the voices of individuals you have followed on social media for a long time but have never actually connected with in real life is also quite disorienting. The app’s default setting is to play back audio at a speed of two times, which has the effect of making people’s voices seem a little bit odd. However, this is something that is kind of necessary for entries that are really lengthy.
The more significant problem, on the other hand, is that it is not crystal apparent what Airchat is used for. There are a few “channels,” which are smaller groups that are dedicated to conducting conversations about particular subjects such as coffee, astrology, artificial intelligence, or war; nevertheless, the conversations are disconnected and difficult to follow. It would appear that there are some areas where lively debate is taking place. The channel titled “coffee” has 755 subscribers and features a significant amount of sincere conversation regarding pour-over techniques as well as photographs of latte art. In addition, Ravikant claims that the channel is “moderated heavily.” The moderation policy of Airchat is known as “self moderation,” which implies that the company expects you to make effective use of the blocking and muting capabilities. However, according to a frequently asked questions section, the company will remove users for “harassment, impersonation, foul behavior, and illegal content.”
Users who are more creative are also discovering new methods to experiment with the format that is centered on audio. I discovered an ASMR community that was primarily comprised of individuals speaking in breathy whispers that kind of gave me the creeps (however one person did submit a wonderful tape of their cat purring and it was very entertaining). Even at a speed of two times, I was unable to maintain my patience while listening to a few poetry readings that were broadcast on the “poetry” channel. Karaoke within the app is another topic that has received a lot of attention, although I have not yet witnessed it being implemented.
It is possible that some people would view these kinds of gimmicks as the beginning of a new paradigm, in which individuals will utilize their voices to open new methods of connecting with one another. However, all that comes to mind is how Clubhouse, when it was at its pinnacle, featured similar gimmicks. These included in-app game shows, open mic nights, and “moan rooms,” which are quite offensive. The novelty of it quickly wore off, despite the fact that it was innovative and exciting during a time when the majority of people were confined to their homes with nothing to do.
In spite of the fact that Clubhouse’s initial popularity prompted nearly all of the other big social media companies to launch their own versions of the platform, many of those companies have since shut down owing to a lack of interest. In fact, the Clubhouse itself is a mere shadow of what it was in the past. Despite the fact that the app is still available, it is a completely different service than the one that temporarily attracted the attention of computer workers who were bored that time. In 2023, the company made the decision to lay off half of its workforce and has since shifted its focus to audio-centric group conversations.