Can AI help you to break your social media addiction? That’s one of the questions raised by an odd new app SocialAI, which offers its users a private social network where they can post their thoughts and receive AI-generated comments and feedback in return. Developer Michael Sayman describes the app as something more akin to a private diary, but one that comes in the format of a social network.
“It’s a weird app,” Sayman admits. “But these are weird times.”
SocialAI looks and feels a lot like Twitter, now called X, as it offers a way to create short posts that appear in a timeline-like view. It even has the same reply, repost, and favorite buttons as on X, which appear beneath every post you make.
But what makes SocialAI different is that none of the people interacting with you are real, they’re AI bots. (Actually, it may not be that different from X now that we think about it…)
Explains Sayman, after users post to SocialAI, they receive AI-generated comments in the form of feedback, advice, and reflections.
“Essentially, everyone gets to be the Elon Musk of their own social media app,” he notes, a reference to X’s owner and the flood of replies every post of his receives.
When setting up SocialAI, users can choose what kind of followers they want ranging from those who will offer positive vibes, like supporters, fans, and counselors, to those more in the middle, like debaters or realists, and even those who are not as kind, like trolls and critics. The diversity of AI bots to choose from means you can make SocialAI feel somewhat like a real social network, or you can configure it to create whatever sort of experience you need — whether that’s uplifting support or someone to pick apart your ideas so you can get a sense of their downsides.
The network itself is completely private — you don’t follow any other “real” users nor do they follow you. But shortly after posting, you’ll receive a number of replies from the bots, offering feedback in whatever form you said you preferred. As you continue to scroll down, more replies are generated.
In our experience, the replies don’t fully pass for those written by humans, as the supportive posts can be overly nice and often include several exclamation points. The trolling responses, meanwhile, seem almost like a parody of online criticism, though they stop short of the name-calling and other low blows you may face on X. The responses themselves are generated by a custom mix of common AI models, the founder says.
Sayman claims he designed the app to help people “feel heard, to give them a space for reflection, support, and feedback” in a space that acts like “a close-knit community.”
The idea, he adds, was inspired by his own need to have a sounding board of sorts when he was feeling isolated and had no one to turn to.
“I know the app won’t solve problems for everyone, but I believe strongly that many people like me will use this to reflect [and] to grow,” Sayman explains.
In practice, the app feels more like a showcase for AI technology, and how it’s capable of mimicking how people speak and write, rather than something users would turn to regularly. (But it could at least be a safe place to post all those Twitter/X drafts you never had the courage to share!)
SocialAI is the third app to emerge from his startup Friendly Apps, which has experimented with AI through an AI music streaming charts site, AI Hits, and in online dating, with Cosmic, which matches users with AI personality quizzes.
The startup is backed by $3 million in seed funding which Sayman raised pre-product, thanks to Sayman’s reputation as a young developer who landed a role at Facebook at age 17 and later worked at Google, Roblox, and Twitter. He also authored a book about his experience, “App Kid.”
Sayman says he doesn’t intend to raise additional funds until he finds product-market fit.
For now, SocialAI is a free download without in-app purchases.