Recent COVID-19 outbreaks will likely delay when the US goes back to having regular in-person events. In this post we reflect upon what we miss about in-person events and how Sosh.ai uniquely delivers those missing elements into a video chat experience for groups.
Can anyone argue that the ways we interact with other people have dramatically changed since COVID-19? You’ve probably tried replicating those interpersonal interactions using digital online tools, such as Zoom. But oftentimes something about those experiences feels missing or even awkward. Why don’t those tools fully capture what it’s like to be there in person? These missing elements of natural interactions are part of what Sosh.ai is dedicated to providing in our video chat platform. But before I write more about Sosh.ai I’d like to try to first define what it is about in-person events that’s missing (and missed) from most digital replacements.
Think of life before COVID-19 and picture going to a party or a family gathering. Typically a room full of 40 people will break up into smaller conversation groups of 2 to 5 people. While you’re standing in a circle talking to 4 other people you look around the room and overhear another group having a different conversation 6 feet away. Let’s pretend they’re talking about rock climbing. Let’s also pretend you LOVE rock climbing. So you politely exit your current conversation and introduce yourself to the other group. 10 minutes later you look across the room and see an old friend laughing with a group of people and you hop over to them to hear the joke. At Sosh.ai we believe this freedom to create, overhear and hop between smaller conversation groups is not only the secret sauce that makes in-person events special, but is also sorely lacking from most video chat tools.
And we’re not alone. Writer Ashley Fetters explains in her article in The Atlantic that “The best part of any social gathering is the haphazard array of smaller, more intimate gatherings into which it inevitably breaks down.” In her article, Ashley focused on “side conversations” as the core element missing from the current array of online video conference tools.
The team here at Sosh.ai couldn’t agree more. In fact, what we’re building is a video chat tool uniquely designed to foster the side conversations and unstructured interactions that Ashley and millions of other people around the world are currently missing out on. At a high level we do this by solving two fundamental problems found in most online video chat tools. First, we solve the lack of side conversations by allowing anyone attending a Sosh gathering to create unique video chat rooms in which to have more intimate interactions. Second, we also encourage unstructured interactions by allowing attendees to hop between rooms and essentially “bump” into the people there. Attendees can even hover over any room name to get an audio and video preview of what’s happening there to see if they want to join — sort of like when you see that old friend across the room at a party.
If these kinds of interactions are missing from your online events, we encourage you to take Sosh.ai for a test drive with a group of friends, family members or co-workers!
