The future of social is audio first
A new era of social audio is just beginning.
Prediction: We’re shifting to a time where we will be using social audio more in the next 2–3 years. Currently, we’re living in a time where people predominantly use text to communicate online in social settings. There are several reasons for this shift including the proliferation of AirPods and other bluetooth earphones, the growth of web3, the explosion of community, the fact it can be easier and faster to talk, and it’s also much more personal.
We are currently in a social audio holding pattern. There seems to be a lot of misconception and confusion about what social audio even is. If I asked someone on Twitter, “what is social audio?” they probably wouldn’t be able to tell me. While this doesn’t seem to bode well for the entire social audio category, we’re in the midst of a transition in which it will become more clear. Right now, the companies working on pushing the boundaries of audio communication on the internet are all heads down building the next iteration of their platforms which will ultimately lead to more widespread adoption.
Let’s take a moment for everyone to reset any expectations we may have about social audio.
Now that we’re all coming in with a blank slate, let’s start by redefining social audio.
Old Definition: Social audio is a medium to communicate with connections through audio.
New Definition: Social audio is a communication layer or “place” that enables shared real time experiences between two or more people connected over audio.
Now to examine some potential use cases for social audio:
brainstorming
planning/organizing
thoughtful conversations
lightweight friend call
collaboration and coworking spaces
group listening and discussion
social events and games
gamer chat
shows / broadcasts
These use cases are so different from social apps of yesteryear which are strictly broadcast platforms that have been makeshift converted into communities over the years. Platforms like Instagram and Twitter are prime examples of social broadcast platforms that have layered “community tools” on top. Instead of being built for community from the ground up, you end up with features like “Super Follows,” and the inability to have more granular community controls. That isn’t the case with a well-designed social audio app — one that will let you communicate with your community, friends, family through audio but not limit you to just that. We’ll touch on this more later.
The framework in which we’ve been trained to think about social media in terms of numbers and eyeballs, is changing. With social audio it’s no longer about follower counts, likes, or retweets — it’s about connection and being part of something. This is how you build long-term sustainable communities: pairing social audio with community ownership through tokens, governance, and the ability to create entire ecosystems through the blockchain. For example, I use social audio to build awareness and community for my NFT project crypto cackles. It has really allowed me to get my message (and laugh) out there in a way that just wouldn’t have been possible on text alone.
It’s almost an obvious statement but this also means that social platforms that plan to exist in the future will need to change as well — something that we can often forget by getting caught up in the moment. Social platforms will continue to become much more community centric, where the ability to to cross collaborate, and communicate freely and easily will be some of the most crucially important features.
In fact we’ve already seen this coming to fruition with the explosion in popularity of Discord, an individual community-based social networking platform where anyone can sign up to create their own Discord Servers (or communities). Social isn’t just about projecting a particular lifestyle or brand, it’s about being with your friends. When you’re with friends you want to actually speak to them — not just text, but a call is sometimes too formal — another complexity that social audio solves.
I like this quote from David Pierce in Protocol, “The better metaphor than calling is walking into a room and plopping down on the sofa: You’re simply saying, I’m here, what’s up?” That’s social audio. This small change in both functionality and mindset significantly reduces the anxiety associated with calling someone.
So where is social audio heading? The best social audio experiences are typically smaller and more intimate — and that will likely be a majority of your experience on any social audio platform. Broadcasts and shows are great, but they’re not where social audio really shines through. In the past, I’ve said that one of the reasons the Clubhouse app is an incredible place is because everyone can start a room on any topic and easily find others to converse with about it. At the core of social audio is the idea of connecting people. Often at the right time, to talk about the right topic . That’s where we’re headed — to a place where we can have better conversations.
Enter audio first communities (e.g. Discord Servers, Houses): The two best examples of communities that are powered by an audio first platform are Discord Servers and a new beta feature on Clubhouse called Houses that are being designed as audio first communities. In fact, both Discord and Clubhouse have taken a page from the same social playbook. Similarly to how each Discord Server is its own unique instance of Discord, each House acts as a unique instance of Clubhouse that is operated by a community creator. These communities are different from most–they revolve around audio. While text and other media can be shared in both asynchronous and synchronous fashions, voice is the primary form of communication resulting in deeper connections between community members.
Right now, Houses are at the very beginning of a promising audio first community product and from what I’ve seen so far, I like the direction. What I like most about them is how they combine asynchronous and synchronous communication with unique features like “Waving” a recent chat message to start a conversation/room. Additionally, Clubhouse being audio first also underscores how Paul + Rohan (Clubhouse co-founders) & Co. are continuing to push the boundaries of real time audio as well as how the team understands the importance of high fidelity audio when it comes to good communication and user experience.
Voice isn’t going away. As you may have noticed, it’s already becoming more prominent throughout the internet and apps. It took the viral medium of audio by way of Clubhouse for incumbent social companies to be inspired to innovate again. With the integration of social audio layers, more people will begin to realize the importance of audio, voice and just how antiquated (and laborious) mediums like text are. As our lives are increasingly lived online, this will become more evident. In fact, it’s already being recognized. Check out this tweet by c a designer at Twitter Spaces in which she states “some convos just can’t happen via tweets.” This tweet is actually the start of a really incredible thread that’s worth reading by c where she outlines the design thinking behind creating a feature that helps facilitate more conversations.
The next time someone says social audio is dead, remember this: it took Discord five years to start to turn the platform into a communication tool not just for gamers, but for everyone from study groups to sneakerheads to NFT collectors. For some perspective, Clubhouse is only two years old. The era of social audio is just beginning.
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