Airchat Could Be The Next Big Thing In Social Media. Here’s What You Should Know.

It started out as an small-scale, invitation-only platform, but cofounder Naval Ravikant said the exponential growth of Airchat forced an abrupt cancellation of pending invites. Of course, if you weren’t among those who received an elusive invitation, you probably have no idea what Airchat is. That might be changing soon.

Lasting trend or passing fad?

Silicon Valley has unleashed countless social media platforms over the past couple of decades … but with the exception of a few household names, most of them have been largely forgotten. So why does Ravikant think Airchat will be more than just a flash in the pan?

In a word: audio.

The app utilizes voice notes in a unique way that its founders and early adopters believe will change the social media landscape for the better. It’s not the first platform to attempt such a gambit, but if the initial buzz is any indication, Airchat could be the first one to find widespread success.

Here’s an overview of what you can expect:

• Upon creating an account, you can follow some other Airchat users
• Then you’ll find blocks of text that are actually transcribed voice notes
• Play and pause buttons allow you to control what you listen to
• You can also record video notes, but audio is by far the early favorite

You can think of Airchat like Twitter, with one major difference: There’s no option for typing any content. Transcription can put your words into text, but you can’t do it yourself.

Notes play at double speed by default and direct messages are optional if you don’t want everyone to hear. But whatever you record is posted automatically, so there’s no way (at least not yet) to edit your content. Of course, you can always delete it and start again.

Chris Agee April 18th, 2024

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