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(shí)，大學(xué)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(yè)是什么感覺(jué)。

23歲的灣區(qū)軟件程序員莫漢并沒(méi)有在打電話，也沒(méi)有在聽(tīng)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(yīng)用程序。

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

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

新人

Clubhouse是最出名的專注于音頻的網(wǎng)絡(luò)平臺(tái)。這款火爆的邀請(qǐng)制應(yīng)用程序于2020年春天首次亮相，因其改編了早期互聯(lián)網(wǎng)聊天室使其類似于脫口秀而受到熱評(píng)。使用它就好像臨時(shí)加入（在線）群聊。

但因其缺乏監(jiān)管以及那些厭女癥風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資家無(wú)節(jié)制地喋喋不休，Clubhouse的前景破滅了?！都~約時(shí)報(bào)》記者泰勒·洛倫茨曾是該應(yīng)用程序的粉絲，但因在Clubhouse討論中批評(píng)了一位風(fēng)投家的行為而受到騷擾。

“我不打算再打開(kāi)這個(gè)應(yīng)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(wǎng)絡(luò)。”敗壞所有其他社交平臺(tái)的行為似乎也潛藏在Clubhouse獨(dú)有的酷炫外表之下。

與此同時(shí)，游戲聊天應(yīng)用程序Discord大受歡迎。該服務(wù)使用基于網(wǎng)絡(luò)協(xié)議地址的語(yǔ)音傳輸軟件，將語(yǔ)音聊天轉(zhuǎn)換為文本（這個(gè)想法來(lái)自視頻游戲玩家，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)不可能邊玩游戲邊打字）。2020年6月，為了滿足人們?cè)谝咔槠陂g對(duì)聯(lián)系的需求，Discord發(fā)布了一個(gè)新口號(hào)——“你的談話場(chǎng)所”——并開(kāi)始嘗試讓該服務(wù)看起來(lái)不太像是以游戲玩家為中心的。營(yíng)銷推動(dòng)似乎奏效了：到10月，Discord估計(jì)有670萬(wàn)用戶——就在疫情暴發(fā)前的2月，用戶還只有140萬(wàn)。

言而聞之

在保持社交距離和相互隔離的時(shí)期，語(yǔ)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(guò)語(yǔ)音和視頻聯(lián)系的“無(wú)文本”約會(huì)應(yīng)用程序。Chekmate的首席執(zhí)行官吉米·泰萊表示，他想推出一款“防騙”應(yīng)用程序，意指防止用虛假個(gè)人信息在網(wǎng)上行騙的做法。

泰萊說(shuō)：“我們希望擺脫短信所容許的匿名性和游戲化，而創(chuàng)建一個(gè)根植于真實(shí)性的社群，鼓勵(lì)用戶不加苛責(zé)地做自我?！彪m然Chekmate有視頻選項(xiàng)，但泰萊表示，該應(yīng)用程序的數(shù)千名用戶絕大多數(shù)喜歡只發(fā)語(yǔ)音消息。他說(shuō)：“人們覺(jué)得語(yǔ)音不像視頻消息那樣咄咄逼人?！?/p>

即時(shí)性和真實(shí)性是吉勒斯·普帕爾丹創(chuàng)建Cappuccino的原因。該產(chǎn)品將語(yǔ)音備忘錄聚集到一個(gè)可下載的文件中。他說(shuō)：“人人都會(huì)和朋友們?nèi)毫?。但如果你能?tīng)到朋友的聲音呢？那就真的很強(qiáng)大了?！?/p>

莫漢說(shuō)，在改用Cap-puccino之前，朋友群最初是一個(gè)臉書(shū)通訊聊天群，疫情初期又試用了Zoom通話。但討論總會(huì)無(wú)可避免地變?yōu)榇笫掠洝Ｋ袊@道：“無(wú)暇了解細(xì)節(jié)?！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(shuō)：“我的一個(gè)朋友搬到一個(gè)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(yuǎn)不會(huì)在Zoom通話中知道的事情，因?yàn)檫@事太小了。”

即便是傳統(tǒng)的社交媒體公司也開(kāi)始參與其中。2020年夏天，推特啟動(dòng)了語(yǔ)音發(fā)帖，允許用戶將他們的聲音嵌入時(shí)間線中。12月，它上線了一項(xiàng)名為Spaces的公測(cè)版功能，用于兩人或多人之間進(jìn)行現(xiàn)場(chǎng)有主持的音頻對(duì)話。

推特語(yǔ)音發(fā)帖及Spaces團(tuán)隊(duì)的高級(jí)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(chǎng)精心舉辦的晚宴一樣貼心和舒適……要想盡興不一定要認(rèn)識(shí)那里所有人，但你在桌邊坐著應(yīng)該感到自在”。

音頻社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)似乎提供了傳統(tǒng)社交媒體無(wú)法提供的東西。該形式的主要優(yōu)點(diǎn)之一是，它為用戶提供了以他們自己的方式進(jìn)行即時(shí)語(yǔ)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(guī)劃。但是音頻社交媒體內(nèi)容可以在你自己方便的時(shí)候創(chuàng)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(tīng)朋友們聊天的莫漢在談到Cappuccino時(shí)所說(shuō)的：“它吸引我，促使我更仔細(xì)地去傾聽(tīng)每個(gè)人說(shuō)話。我甚至記錄下我想回應(yīng)和想說(shuō)的事?！?/p>