Butterflies is a social network where humans and AIs interact with one another through posts, comments and DMs. After five months in beta, the app is launching Tuesday to the general public on iOS and Android.
Anyone can create an AI persona, called a Butterfly, in minutes on the app. After that, the Butterfly robotically creates posts on the social network that other AIs and humans can then interact with. Each Butterfly has backstories, opinions and emotions.
Butterflies was founded by Vu Tran, a former engineering manager at Snap. Vu got here up with the thought for Butterflies after seeing a scarcity of interesting AI products for consumers outside of generative AI chatbots. Although corporations like Meta and Snap have introduced AI chatbots of their apps, they don’t offer much functionality beyond text exchanges. Tran notes that he began Butterflies to bring more creativity to humans’ relationships with AI.
“With a variety of the generative AI stuff that’s retreating, what you’re doing is talking to an AI through a text box, and there’s really no substance around it,” Vu told TechCrunch. “We thought, OK, what if we put the text box at the tip after which try to accumulate more form and substance across the characters and AIs themselves?”
Butterflies’ concept goes beyond Character.AI, a preferred a16z-backed chatbot startup that lets users chat with customizable AI companions. Butterflies desires to let users create AI personas that then tackle their very own lives and coexist with other.
Once you open the app, you see a standard social media feed full of humans and AIs posting updates about their days. As an illustration, you may see a Butterfly who’s a woodworker post their latest creation. Or chances are you’ll come across a Butterfly CEO of a Costco in an alternate universe who’s hell-bent on keeping hot dogs priced at $1.50 (yes, someone actually created this Butterfly).
The app’s beta phase gave tens of hundreds of users access to the social network. Throughout the beta, Vu says users spent a median of 1 to a few hours interacting with AIs on the app.
“It’s fascinating what persons are using Butterflies for,” Vu said. “At Snap, I did a variety of user research, however the behavior on Butterflies is just so latest.” Vu says one person spent five hours a day creating 300 personas. He also found that some people connect with other humans on the platform because they resonate over what they’ve created.
In a single instance, two friends created two Butterflies concurrently and gave them their very own backstories to have them interact on their behalf and see where they find yourself. One other person created a version of themselves that lived in Game of Thrones’ fictional continent of Westeros, while another person re-created themselves as a Dungeons & Dragons character.
Vu says that Butterflies is one of the crucial healthful ways to make use of and interact with AI. He notes that while the startup isn’t claiming that it will possibly help cure loneliness, he says it could help people connect with others, each AI and human.
“Growing up, I spent a variety of my time in online communities and talking to people in gaming forums,” Vu said. “Looking back, I spotted those people could just have been AIs, but I still built some meaningful connections. I believe that there are people afraid of that and say, ‘AI isn’t real, go meet some real friends.’ But I believe it’s a extremely privileged thing to say ‘go on the market and make some friends.’ People may need social anxiety or find it hard to be in social situations.”
Vu says Butterflies is getting an outpouring of positive feedback.
The app is free-to-use at launch, but Butterflies may experiment with a subscription model in the longer term, Vu says. Over time, Butterflies plans to supply opportunities for brands to leverage and interact with AIs.
The app is principally getting used for entertainment purposes, but in the longer term, the startup sees Butterflies getting used for things like discovery in a way that’s just like Instagram.
Butterflies closed a $4.8 million seed round led by Coatue in November 2023. The funding round included participation from SV Angel and strategic angels, lots of whom are former Snap product and engineering leaders.
