General Mechanics

• Audio first, because audio has more tone and context than text but is less friction than video
• Asynchronous, so people can participate when it works for them. They don’t feel pressured to respond immediately. They can re-listen to a message to better understand it. No one interrupts another person while talking. It’s possible to listen in contexts that don’t work well live, such as multitasking, driving, or in the bathroom (with headphones!)
• Calm information sharing - posts that are not designed for attention or reaction-collecting
• Collaborative leadership - groups often have rotating leaders or people willing to contribute more or less at various times so permissions should reflect this
• Built to encourage synchronous and in-person connection - event listings, member location
• Private - E2E encrypted, or built on P2P architecture eventually

Conversation Screen

Header info

• Group name and logo - if a member is in multiple groups, this will indicate which group this conversation is happening in
• Conversation title - sets the expectation about what the topic for the conversation is so it can be found in a list of conversations and searched for later
• Avatar list - shows who has participated or been invited into the conversation
• Prompt - lets the person initiating the conversation give more context or a question to answer

Conversation Timeline:

Most apps with voice memos treat them like texts in a text thread. The timeline helps to set the expectation that this is a conversation. It also allows members to visually see who has spoken, when they responded, and how long they spoke, and to navigate the conversation to go back to previous responses. It also indicates that messages will automatically play through, so if there are a number of responses, they will not require separate playback interactions (i.e. tap once, better for when you are doing other things while listening to the conversation). The timeline can also indicate visually when there is unheard content.

Current Response

The current response helps to clarify who the response is from, how long the response is, and to give listeners the opportunity to have finer control for listening. This includes Playback Controls that give listeners different speed options for the message.