Using a social network is quite simple: you enter, post something, see other people’s posts, give a few likes and leave. But what if there was a social network that proposed something different? Airchat, an app whose development has been led by Naval Ravikant (founder of AngelList), is a new social network that encourages users to “simply talk”.
Airchat was launched last year, but the Woosh Inc team rebuilt the application and relaunched it last week on iOS and Android. Currently ranked 27th in the Apple App Store’s social networking ranking, Airchat is invitation-only, although TechCrunch had access to the application and was able to draw a series of conclusions about it.
According to the media, the visual aspect of Airchat should be quite familiar and intuitive to users who use other social networks, giving us the possibility to follow other users, scroll through a feed of posts, respond to them, like them, and share them. The difference is that the messages and responses are audio recordings that the app transcribes.
When you open Airchat, messages start playing automatically and you can quickly switch from one to another by swiping up or down. You can also pause the audio and simply read the transcribed text, or even share photos and videos, but the main focus of the app is audio, according to its developers.
“All human beings are made to get along with other human beings, we just need the natural voice“, Ravikant states in an audio from Airchat. “Online media with only text has given us this illusion that people can’t get along, but in reality, everyone can get along”.
