I made Beacon, a mobile app for answering: “which friend is free to talk right now?” It’s basically a one-to-many phone call that only one person can answer. Send a beacon to a group, and everyone gets rung at the same time. The first person who answers gets connected for a 1-1 call, and for everyone else the signal drops silently. It does not log missed-calls so there’s neither pressure to answer nor pressure to return calls.
Overall it works pretty well given most people keep their phones on silent (and there are in-app settings for quiet hours too if you don’t).
It works best if you're able to join with at least four or five friends/family you don't chat with as much as you'd like. I have a couple dozen connections on the app now, and it feels like magic to me. Would love feedback from both introverts and extroverts who still like phone calls, or wish they had more of them.
Overall it works pretty well given most people keep their phones on silent (and there are in-app settings for quiet hours too if you don’t).
It works best if you're able to join with at least four or five friends/family you don't chat with as much as you'd like. I have a couple dozen connections on the app now, and it feels like magic to me. Would love feedback from both introverts and extroverts who still like phone calls, or wish they had more of them.
https://trybeacon.chat/