There is a new app on the town, based on Wired and Bloomberg, for those who take into account Silicon Valley a city. A by-invitation-only audio-based app referred to as Airchat is reportedly being “hyped in tech circles,” with invitations making the rounds among the many Valley’s prime brass.

The app combines components of X (previously Twitter) and voice notes, with a essential feed populated by textual content transcripts of voice notes from different customers, which you’ll be able to play, coronary heart, or repost.

The “hype” for AirChat has been magnified by reviews from Enterprise Insider and a contributor at Forbes, who declared that you simply’d need to have been “underneath a rock” to have averted an invitation to the app. And it is no coincidence that Airchat cofounders Naval Ravikant (co-creator of AngelList) and Brian Norgard (former chief product officer at Tinder) are tech insiders themselves, or that traders embody the likes of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who “threw in a verify, sort of blindly,” based on Ravikant.

However the numbers could inform a special story. Each Bloomberg and Enterprise Insider cite knowledge from Sensor Tower that claims Airchat has been downloaded simply over 45,000 occasions since launching in mid-2023, with 30,000 of these downloads occurring solely after a relaunch this month. That lackluster displaying could possibly be chalked as much as the app’s present exclusivity, however Airchat can also be shedding steam quick. Bloomberg reported that the app was ranked no. 29 within the App Retailer’s rating of prime social networking apps simply yesterday. As of publishing at present, the app has fallen to no. 42.

If the time period “social audio app” rings a bell, you might be remembering Clubhouse, which shot to fame in 2020 and 2021 in the course of the top of the COVID-19 pandemic and was valued at $4 billion. However Clubhouse gained recognition at a lonely time, when most individuals have been sheltering inside and determined for human interplay, and final yr, the app laid off half of its workers.

Maybe Airchat can do what Clubhouse couldn’t. For now, it looks as if simply one other place tech execs can hear themselves speak.