Chatrooms are like a group of people, each with a loudspeaker, trying to get things done. Chatrooms cause FOMO, constant checking Slack, HipChat and other group chat apps promised to make us more productive, but instead, they demand our constant attention and rob us of our focus.

These problems aren't new, but they definitely won't be solved by repackaging the same ideas we've had since IRC, over and over. We need a new approach.

We need an app that respects your focus, keeps conversations in context, and doesn't demand your constant attention, while still allowing for quick and casual conversations. A few of us have been toying with this problem and we think we've stumbled onto something pretty neat.

It turns out, if you free yourself from having chat rooms, and focus on conversations instead, many of the problems go away. We've built a prototype around this concept, and though it still has some rough edges, it's already become our go-to chat app (and for a bunch of other folks too)

We call it Braid and we'd love for you to join us in making it better.