The Future of Social Networks Might Be Audio社交网络的未来或许是语音

塔尼娅·巴苏/文 周臻/译

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·莫汉筛滤电邮时，大学好友们就在她的耳边——讲述他们的一天，追忆往昔，并反思在疫情阵痛中毕业是什么感觉。

23岁的湾区软件程序员莫汉并没有在打电话，也没有在听特别私人的播客。她正在使用Cappuccino，一款从家人或朋友小圈子里获取录音并提供音频下载的应用程序。

她说：“光听到我们所有人的声音，就让我感受到我们友谊的珍贵，而听到他们的声音具有非同凡响的意义。”

音频消息已经存在多年。WhatsApp上的语音备忘录在印度尤为盛行，微信语音消息在中国很受欢迎。疫情期间，这些功能已成为人们保持联系而又不至陷入Zoom疲劳的一种简单方式。而现在，新一波流行的应用程序正在将音频的即时性和原始性融入核心体验，让语音再次成为人们联系的方式。从电话到短信再回到语音——我们使用手机的方式可能经历了一个轮回。

新人

Clubhouse是最出名的专注于音频的网络平台。这款火爆的邀请制应用程序于2020年春天首次亮相，因其改编了早期互联网聊天室使其类似于脱口秀而受到热评。使用它就好像临时加入（在线）群聊。

但因其缺乏监管以及那些厌女症风险投资家无节制地喋喋不休，Clubhouse的前景破灭了。《纽约时报》记者泰勒·洛伦茨曾是该应用程序的粉丝，但因在Clubhouse讨论中批评了一位风投家的行为而受到骚扰。

“我不打算再打开这个应用程序。”洛伦茨告诉《连线》杂志，“我不想支持任何不重视用户安全的网络。”败坏所有其他社交平台的行为似乎也潜藏在Clubhouse独有的酷炫外表之下。

与此同时，游戏聊天应用程序Discord大受欢迎。该服务使用基于网络协议地址的语音传输软件，将语音聊天转换为文本（这个想法来自视频游戏玩家，他们发现不可能边玩游戏边打字）。2020年6月，为了满足人们在疫情期间对联系的需求，Discord发布了一个新口号——“你的谈话场所”——并开始尝试让该服务看起来不太像是以游戏玩家为中心的。营销推动似乎奏效了：到10月，Discord估计有670万用户——就在疫情暴发前的2月，用户还只有140万。

言而闻之

在保持社交距离和相互隔离的时期，语音的亲密属性使音频社交媒体的吸引力大大增加。Chekmate是一款用户通过语音和视频联系的“无文本”约会应用程序。Chekmate的首席执行官吉米·泰莱表示，他想推出一款“防骗”应用程序，意指防止用虚假个人信息在网上行骗的做法。

泰莱说：“我们希望摆脱短信所容许的匿名性和游戏化，而创建一个根植于真实性的社群，鼓励用户不加苛责地做自我。”虽然Chekmate有视频选项，但泰莱表示，该应用程序的数千名用户绝大多数喜欢只发语音消息。他说：“人们觉得语音不像视频消息那样咄咄逼人。”

即时性和真实性是吉勒斯·普帕尔丹创建Cappuccino的原因。该产品将语音备忘录聚集到一个可下载的文件中。他说：“人人都会和朋友们群聊。但如果你能听到朋友的声音呢？那就真的很强大了。”

莫汉说，在改用Cap-puccino之前，朋友群最初是一个脸书通讯聊天群，疫情初期又試用了Zoom通话。但讨论总会无可避免地变为大事记。她感叹道：“无暇了解细节。”Cappuccino每天的“豆子”（即拼接在一起的录音）让莫罕的朋友圈以一种非常亲密的方式保持更新。她说：“我的一个朋友搬到一个新城市的新公寓，她刚刚在念叨要去厨房端咖啡。这是我永远不会在Zoom通话中知道的事情，因为这事太小了。”

即便是传统的社交媒体公司也开始参与其中。2020年夏天，推特启动了语音发帖，允许用户将他们的声音嵌入时间线中。12月，它上线了一项名为Spaces的公测版功能，用于两人或多人之间进行现场有主持的音频对话。

推特语音发帖及Spaces团队的高级软件工程师雷米·布古安表示，Spaces的愿景是，让用户“像参加一场精心举办的晚宴一样贴心和舒适……要想尽兴不一定要认识那里所有人，但你在桌边坐着应该感到自在”。

音频社交网络似乎提供了传统社交媒体无法提供的东西。该形式的主要优点之一是，它为用户提供了以他们自己的方式进行即时语音或视频通话的连接。电话——就此而言还有Zoom通话——需要一些规划。但是音频社交媒体内容可以在你自己方便的时候创建和查看;新闻快讯、通知和阴暗刷屏却做不到。正如每天早上听朋友们聊天的莫汉在谈到Cappuccino时所说的：“它吸引我，促使我更仔细地去倾听每个人说话。我甚至记录下我想回应和想说的事。”