Airchat is a new social media platform that lets you interact using voice recordings

It’s hardly a mystery that one’s options are limitless when it comes to social media today. Whether you prefer text-based interactions via tweets on X (formerly Twitter) or WhatsApp, or you prefer sharing your life updates via pictures and videos on Instagram, there is something for everyone.

However, there’s a new entrant on the scene now. It’s called Airchat. And if you’re wondering just what’s new with it, Airchat is a primarily audio-based social media platform. Intrigued? Read on to find out more.

What is Airchat?

Unlike conventional social media apps, Airchat users can interact with each other via short voice recordings posted publicly. These recordings are also transcribed once played. What’s more, users can also play, pause or replay these recordings, as per their liking.

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Airchat’s founder Naval Ravikant, and co-founder Brian Norgard (who formerly worked at Tinder), say that natural voice communication helps encourage more genuine interaction as opposed to text-based ones, which often leave people struggling to relate to one another.

Besides the voice-recording-based posts though, Airchat functions like any other social media platform. Users can scroll through their feed as they would on Instagram, Facebook, or even Reddit, react to posts, and follow their favourite celebrities, politicians, and influencers (along with their friends and family of course).

That’s not all. Airchat also has a threaded conversation model, to increase engagement. What’s cool is, that it can automatically detect if you mention another user from your follow list in your recording and tag them in your post as well.

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An audio post, for now, can be up to 45 seconds long. In addition to this, below each post is also a little “Plus” icon, which you can tap on to add a picture or a link with the recording. The platform gets a search function too, wherein you can find other members or look for posts around various topics.

Unlike Instagram, WhatsApp, X, Facebook, or even Reddit though, wherein you can review your posts in real-time, Airchat doesn’t get a text-to-speech conversion function and requires human voice recordings to make posts. Users may not find this entirely natural or even comfortable, especially if they happen to be in a crowded setting.

Who can use Airchat?

Accessing Airchat currently invite-based and you will need an invitation from an existing user. Therefore, you need to know someone in your network who may have received an invitation for the platform from someone else and signed up for it.

Moreover, it is currently available only for Android phones and iPhones. When it will make its way to laptops and desktops, if at all, remains to be seen as of now.

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Airchat certainly is a novel idea and may foster engagement like never before. However, whether it will be able to take on platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, which incorporate video and photographs with audio as well, only time will tell.