Imagine the chatroom of the 90’s, without the pressure of responding live. Airchat takes your voice notes and uses artificial intelligence to transcribe them into text, creating a feed that blends written content with the warmth and personality of listening to someone speak.
Airchat’s app description simply reads; “A social walkie-talkie”.
The voice-centric social media app was created by AngelList founder Naval Ravikant and former Tinder executive Brian Norgard. This app does have some familiar social networking features, at least when it comes to engaging with content. Users have the ability to follow other users, scroll through post feeds, and engage with posts through replies, likes, and shares.
Unlike other social media apps, however, Airchat focuses on audio recordings within the app. Voice notes are growing in popularity and seem more personal and authentic than a traditional messaging conversation. Users create posts and replies mainly through short audio recordings which the app automatically transcribes into text. When the user opens the app the posts immediately start playing and can be navigated by swiping, like any traditional social media interface.
Voice notes are an up-and-coming trend, especially with younger generations. A 2023 survey by Vox has found that a third of Americans send at least one voice note weekly. Furthermore, in 2022 the popular social networking app, Whatsapp reported that its users sent an average of 7 billion voice memos daily. According to an article on the rising popularity of voice notes by NPR; “Research suggests that you don’t necessarily have to be a fan of voice messages to reap their benefits. There is a fundamental mode of communication that connects human beings and their social needs, and that’s hearing a voice,” Amit Kumar, says an assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Texas-Austin.
Human connection is co-founder Naval Raviknt’s vision, too. “Humans are all meant to get along with other humans; it just requires the natural voice,” Ravikant said. “Online text-only media has given us this delusion that people can’t get along, but actually everybody can get along.” Audio messages help people figure out inflection, meaning, and tone of voice, something that is woefully lacking in text-based messaging.
Airchat isn’t the first to bet on audio to be the next big thing in tech, as audio-based chatrooms on both Twitter and Clubhouse had their moment in the sun. However, Airchat’s asynchronous, threaded posts make for a pretty different experience than the live chat rooms that briefly flourished on Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces. Asynchronous audio notes are a feature available within direct messages on every major social media platform, but until now, social media platforms have not offered this as a main way to create and share content.
As for now, you won’t be seeing any ads interrupting your feed. When asked about monetization and when we might start seeing ads, audio, or otherwise Ravikant said there’s “no monetization pressure on the company whatsoever.” (He described himself as “not the sole investor” but “a big investor” in the company.)
“I couldn’t care less about monetization,” he said. “We’ll run this thing on a shoestring if we have to.”
Airchat, which is by invitation only, has seen a meteoric rise in its popularity. Airchat is currently ranked 27th in Social Networking on Apple’s App Store. Airchat, which was rereleased this year, has grown so quickly that they had to temporarily suspend invitations. For now, the app is filled with tech enthusiasts, early adopters, and journalists.
Will Airchat make social audio cool again?
Nicole is a recent graduate (okay fine, a recent-ish graduate) of Texas State University-San Marcos where she received a BA in Psychology. When she's not doing freelance writing, she's doing freelance Public Relations. When she's not working, she's hanging out with dogs or her friends - in that order. Nicole watches way too much Netflix and is always quoting The Office. She has an obsession with true crime and sloths.
