The Future of Social Networks Might Be Audio社交網絡的未來或許是語音

塔尼婭·巴蘇/文 周臻/譯

Every morning， as Nandita Mohan sifts through her emails， her college pals are in her ear—recounting their day， reminiscing， reflecting on what its like to have graduated in the throes of1 a pandemic.

Mohan， a 23-year-old software programmer in the Bay Area， isnt on the phone， nor is she listening to an especially personal podcast; shes using Cappuccino， an app that takes voice recordings from a closed group of friends or family and delivers them as downloadable audio.

“Just hearing all of us makes me value our friendship， and hearing their voices is a game-changer2，” she says.

Audio messaging has been available for years; voice memos on WhatsApp are especially big in India， and WeChat audio messages are popular in China. And during the pandemic， these features have become an easy way for people to stay in touch while bypassing Zoom fatigue. But now a new wave of hip apps are baking the immediacy and rawness of audio into the core experience， making voice the way people connect again. From phone calls to messaging and back to audio—the way we use our phones may be coming full circle.

The newcomers

The best-known audio-focused network is Clubhouse， the buzzy3， invite-only app that debuted last spring to glowing reviews for its talk-show-like twist on the chat rooms of the early internet. Using it is akin to dropping in on an （online） party conversation.

But Clubhouses promise was shattered by its lack of moderation and the unfettered chatter of misogynistic4 venture capitalists. New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz， once a fan of the app， was subject to harassment in Clubhouse sessions for calling out one VCs behavior.

“I dont plan on opening the app again，” Lorenz told Wired. “I dont want to support any network that doesnt take user safety seriously.” It seems the behavior that mars5 every other social platform also lurks beneath Clubhouses exclusive， cool veneer.

Gaming chat app Discord， meanwhile， has exploded in popularity. The service uses voice-over-IP software to translate spoken chat into text （an idea that came from video gamers who found typing while playing impossible）. In June， to tap into peoples need for connection during the pandemic， Discord announced a new slogan—“Your place to talk”—and began trying to make the service appear less gamer-centric. The marketing push seems to have worked： by October， Discord estimated 6.7 million users—up from 1.4 million in February， just before the pandemic hit.

Speak and you shall be heard

The intimacy of voice makes audio social media that much more appealing in the age of social distancing and isolation. Jimi Tele， the CEO of Chekmate， a “text-free” dating app that connects users through voice and video， says he wanted to launch an app that would be “catfish-proof，” referring to the practice of deceiving others online with fake profiles.

“We wanted to break away from the anonymity and gamification6 that text-ing allows and instead create a community rooted in authenticity， where users are encouraged to be themselves without judgment，” Tele says. While Chekmate has a video option， Tele says the apps several thousand users overwhelmingly favor using just their voices. “They are perceived as less intimidating [than video messages]，” he says.

This immediacy and authenticity is the reason Gilles Poupardin created Cappuccino， a product that gathered voice memos together into a single downloadable file. “Everyone has a group chat with friends，” he says. “But what if you could hear your friends？ Thats really powerful.”

Mohan says that her group of friends switched to Cappuccino from a Facebook messenger chat group and then tried Zoom calls early in the pandemic. But the discussions would inevitably turn into a highlight reel of big events. “There was no time for details，” she laments. The daily Cappuccino “beans，” as the stitched-together recordings are called， let Mohans friend circle keep up to date in a very intimate way. “My one friend is moving to a new apartment in a new city， and she was just talking about how she goes to get coffee in her kitchen，” she says. “Thats something I would never know in a Zoom call， because its so small.”

Even legacy social media firms are getting in on the act. In the summer of 2020 Twitter launched voice tweets， allowing users to embed their voice right onto their timeline. And in December， it launched a feature called Spaces in beta for live， host-moderated7 audio conversations between two or more people.

Rémy Bourgoin， a senior software engineer on Twitters voice tweets and Spaces team， says that the vision is for Spaces to be “as intimate and comfortable as attending a well-hosted dinner party… You dont need to know everyone there to have a good time， but you should feel comfortable sitting at the table.”

Audio social networks seem to offer something that traditional social media cannot. One of the formats main benefits is the way it gives users the immediate connection of a voice or video call， but on their own terms. Phone calls—and Zoom calls， for that matter—require some planning. But audio social media content can be created and digested at your own convenience in a way that news alerts， notifications， and doomscrolling dont allow. As Mohan， who listens to her friends every morning， says of Cappuccino： “It engages me and forces me to listen more carefully as each person is talking. I even take notes of things I want to respond to and say.”

每天早上，南迪塔·莫漢篩濾電郵時，大學好友們就在她的耳邊——講述他們的一天，追憶往昔，并反思在疫情陣痛中畢業是什么感覺。

23歲的灣區軟件程序員莫漢并沒有在打電話，也沒有在聽特別私人的播客。她正在使用Cappuccino，一款從家人或朋友小圈子里獲取錄音并提供音頻下載的應用程序。

她說：“光聽到我們所有人的聲音，就讓我感受到我們友誼的珍貴，而聽到他們的聲音具有非同凡響的意義。”

音頻消息已經存在多年。WhatsApp上的語音備忘錄在印度尤為盛行，微信語音消息在中國很受歡迎。疫情期間，這些功能已成為人們保持聯系而又不至陷入Zoom疲勞的一種簡單方式。而現在，新一波流行的應用程序正在將音頻的即時性和原始性融入核心體驗，讓語音再次成為人們聯系的方式。從電話到短信再回到語音——我們使用手機的方式可能經歷了一個輪回。

新人

Clubhouse是最出名的專注于音頻的網絡平臺。這款火爆的邀請制應用程序于2020年春天首次亮相，因其改編了早期互聯網聊天室使其類似于脫口秀而受到熱評。使用它就好像臨時加入（在線）群聊。

但因其缺乏監管以及那些厭女癥風險投資家無節制地喋喋不休，Clubhouse的前景破滅了?！都~約時報》記者泰勒·洛倫茨曾是該應用程序的粉絲，但因在Clubhouse討論中批評了一位風投家的行為而受到騷擾。

“我不打算再打開這個應用程序?！甭鍌惔母嬖V《連線》雜志，“我不想支持任何不重視用戶安全的網絡?！睌乃衅渌缃黄脚_的行為似乎也潛藏在Clubhouse獨有的酷炫外表之下。

與此同時，游戲聊天應用程序Discord大受歡迎。該服務使用基于網絡協議地址的語音傳輸軟件，將語音聊天轉換為文本（這個想法來自視頻游戲玩家，他們發現不可能邊玩游戲邊打字）。2020年6月，為了滿足人們在疫情期間對聯系的需求，Discord發布了一個新口號——“你的談話場所”——并開始嘗試讓該服務看起來不太像是以游戲玩家為中心的。營銷推動似乎奏效了：到10月，Discord估計有670萬用戶——就在疫情暴發前的2月，用戶還只有140萬。

言而聞之

在保持社交距離和相互隔離的時期，語音的親密屬性使音頻社交媒體的吸引力大大增加。Chekmate是一款用戶通過語音和視頻聯系的“無文本”約會應用程序。Chekmate的首席執行官吉米·泰萊表示，他想推出一款“防騙”應用程序，意指防止用虛假個人信息在網上行騙的做法。

泰萊說：“我們希望擺脫短信所容許的匿名性和游戲化，而創建一個根植于真實性的社群，鼓勵用戶不加苛責地做自我?！彪m然Chekmate有視頻選項，但泰萊表示，該應用程序的數千名用戶絕大多數喜歡只發語音消息。他說：“人們覺得語音不像視頻消息那樣咄咄逼人。”

即時性和真實性是吉勒斯·普帕爾丹創建Cappuccino的原因。該產品將語音備忘錄聚集到一個可下載的文件中。他說：“人人都會和朋友們群聊。但如果你能聽到朋友的聲音呢？那就真的很強大了?！?/p>

莫漢說，在改用Cap-puccino之前，朋友群最初是一個臉書通訊聊天群，疫情初期又試用了Zoom通話。但討論總會無可避免地變為大事記。她感嘆道：“無暇了解細節?！盋appuccino每天的“豆子”（即拼接在一起的錄音）讓莫罕的朋友圈以一種非常親密的方式保持更新。她說：“我的一個朋友搬到一個新城市的新公寓，她剛剛在念叨要去廚房端咖啡。這是我永遠不會在Zoom通話中知道的事情，因為這事太小了?！?/p>

即便是傳統的社交媒體公司也開始參與其中。2020年夏天，推特啟動了語音發帖，允許用戶將他們的聲音嵌入時間線中。12月，它上線了一項名為Spaces的公測版功能，用于兩人或多人之間進行現場有主持的音頻對話。

推特語音發帖及Spaces團隊的高級軟件工程師雷米·布古安表示，Spaces的愿景是，讓用戶“像參加一場精心舉辦的晚宴一樣貼心和舒適……要想盡興不一定要認識那里所有人，但你在桌邊坐著應該感到自在”。

音頻社交網絡似乎提供了傳統社交媒體無法提供的東西。該形式的主要優點之一是，它為用戶提供了以他們自己的方式進行即時語音或視頻通話的連接。電話——就此而言還有Zoom通話——需要一些規劃。但是音頻社交媒體內容可以在你自己方便的時候創建和查看;新聞快訊、通知和陰暗刷屏卻做不到。正如每天早上聽朋友們聊天的莫漢在談到Cappuccino時所說的：“它吸引我，促使我更仔細地去傾聽每個人說話。我甚至記錄下我想回應和想說的事?！?/p>