Teenagers ditch instant messages for app that sends texts by carrier pigeon
Just like birds, teens can track their message journey on a map.
Pigeons gather at the fountain to cool off. Andreas Arnold/picture alliance/Getty.
- Roost, a messaging app that sends texts via virtual carrier pigeons, exploded from 10,000 to 300,000 users in five weeks as teenagers embrace slower communication.
- Messages travel across a real map at bird speed – the farther the recipient, the longer the wait – with users able to track their message's journey.
- The app went viral after a mother posted on Threads that her daughter was using it to communicate with friends in Elizabethan English.
- Creator Logan Mendelsohn designed Roost to counter constant online pressure, offering communication without the expectation of instant responses.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
A messaging app that deliberately slows down communication by sending texts via virtual carrier pigeons has exploded to nearly 300,000 users in just five weeks, as teenagers embrace delayed gratification over instant replies.
It took just 3 days for a new messaging app, Roost, to increase its user base from 10,000 to 100,000, and nearly 300,000 in 5 weeks.
The secret: the combination of a unique concept of messages arriving at the speed of a (virtual) bird and a viral post by a mother. The numbers were reported by TechCrunch, citing Roost creator Logan Mendelsohn.
The idea behind the app, according to the developers, is that "every message is carried by a bird that actually flies across a real map to reach your friend, just like a carrier pigeon delivering a letter."
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Before sending your message, you need to choose which virtual bird should carry it and send it off, while Roost also tells you when the bird and your message will reach your pen pal – or pigeon pal, for that matter. The farther away they are, the longer it'll take for your message to reach the recipient. Once the bird takes off, you can also track it on a map.
For those who are more impatient, they can level up their bird and boost its speed by playing mini-games.
According to Mendelsohn, the app was developed as a response to the increasing speed of interactions and distractions online.
"It’s resonating with people in a way where they don’t feel pressure all the time to have to do something," the creator was quoted as saying by TechCrunch.
And it's resonating indeed. The app grew its user base 10x after a mother shared on Threads that her daughter had joined Roost.
"She's communicating with all of her friends in Elizabethan English, and they are responding in kind. Hilarious!" she wrote.
However, while the bird concept is unique, Roost is not alone in its slowness. For example, the Slowly app connects you with pen pals worldwide using simulated postal delivery times.
