The Airchat experience

0:02 Experience use your voice the air chat experiment seems to be over as a social voice app the future of podcasting as I titled my post year and half ago is their new Direction not as a social voice app but as a content creator tool achat iterated fast and released more versions than any user could keep track of the database was wiped more than once and so was your social graph and content it experimented iterated and created a close-knit beta user Community there were unique experiences and moments within the community but also shared expertise as world events unfounded the barrier to us your voice and consume content set the expectations to another level just talk and read your listen to replies and posts the transcript quality was exceptional no other social media app has reached it yet voice brings social communication closer to IRL.

1:06 Interaction you can hear the tone and other nuances of the speaker that are not carried over in the text it's hard to shout at people asynchronously misunderstandings happen when people read but did not listen to the message voice revealed an opposite meaning the air is making human interaction rare and generated content will be the norm authentic and spontaneous discussions are less performative and more playful interaction and interplay between participants creates something no scripted podcast will convey this was the unique air chat experience strangers got together found something to share and started to talk even in different languages that were automatically what was airchat it was an almost realtime communication platform for ideas and content that could be shared and discovered publicly or in a smaller group setting at its peak it allowed you to use your voice or video to post.

2:10 Messages with supporting images and links it brought the old casual Walky talkie feel to the social realm just talk don't worry too much about it the first take is good enough it trained users to become better speakers filler words ramblings or long-winded messages lost the audience fast it revealed the personality behind the Tweeter the real thinkers and talkers who could do it without rehearsals or iterations the first version of airchat tried to connect people with similar interests and allow them to share moments together over ideas or content people and content Discovery were the essential parts of the experience it was people first and Via people service you engaged with people and discovered the people they followed the intimate setting was created by the web of trust social graph concept you see the people who you follow and who they follow the second version removed.

3:15 The intimacy aspect by removing spaces that people could create to have public or closed rooms the room concept brought agency to the owner of the room that allowed others to follow and participate in a familiar setting there were topic rooms and person-based spaces for sharing and engaging with other users the new version had only public topics that did not allow you to fine-tune your feet to follow only particular person or curated experiences the fire hose approach destroyed the feed and made it hard to get updates from the people you followed this version tried to simplify the user experience but it removed a lot of the features that made the platform unique the illustrative a generated post pictures and made the content sharing less versatile than previously the final iteration shifted from the original purpose overnight it became a group direct messaging app without people and content Discovery the version removed threaded discussions and features that made the app valuable this.

4:20 Version was short-lived and it got rolled back to the previous one after user feedback and the version was finally deprecated to the lightweight podcasting tool it is today for air chat examples see my archives.