The AI social track has cooled down, and most product data has declined. However, some applications, such as ChaChat, have bucked the trend with innovative gameplay. The article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of a variety of AI social applications and market pain points.
Recently, the AI social track is experiencing a significant cooling. Most of the products in the market have appearedDownloads and revenue data growth slows down or even declines, in stark contrast to last year’s frenzied entry, where everyone wanted a piece of the pie.
It was once seen as a new generation of social applications that address the emotional needs of young people of Generation Z, based on it7×24h never loses contact, so that a large number of insecure users are addicted to it and passContinuous krypton goldto ensure that the TA on the other side of the screen is always online. Although such apps are available instantlyEmotional value, does fill the emotional gap in the user’s real life, but over time,Technical bottlenecksIt is also gradually highlighted.Character language is repetitive, dialogue content is often forgotten, and AI scale is blurredand other problems, which will lead to a decrease in user experience and a situation where paid conversions fall short of expectations.
ButShort-term cooling is often another manifestation of market maturityOnly healthy competition can make the industry develop for a longer time. To this end, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the two applications that entered the market in 2023, Hi.AI ChaChat, and the two newly launched applications SoulTalk AI and Soulplay last year, and explored them in depthInnovations and areas for optimization, so as to stimulate the creativity of more developers and promote the further upgrading of the industry.
Gameplay upgrade: from dialogue interaction to content co-creation
While most products have seen varying degrees of decline in monthly downloads and revenue data, ChaChat has ushered in a new wave of growth. According to Diandian data, the app’s downloads increased by 18.4% in May this year compared with April, and its revenue increased by 57.1%, which is considered to be yesRise against the trendA major representative of .
ChaChat as a wholeMainly female characters, including real images and two-dimensional content. In addition to the basic character templates, it is also providedCustomize character image and personality traits, such as romantic, gentlemanly, naughty, etc., to satisfy users’ possessiveness that they want to be “exclusive” and “unique”.
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In order to allow users to better choose their favorite characters, ChaChat tags each role with keywords to inform users of the roleWhat are the features, whether you support sending photos in conversations, and whether there are any special soundsetc., when you meet a character you like, you can directly “say hello” to them to start a conversation. In addition, during the conversation, the application also simulates the real feeling of a real person’s conversation, which will be when waiting for the other party’s replyDisplays “The other person is typing” and online status, giving users a more immersive experience.
In general, ChaChat’s main positioning is:Male Oriented App, can simulate the realism of chat through some details in the character’s display and dialogue, so that users can “enter the play deeper”.
Hi.AI earlier than ChaChat was launched, the module design is more concise and clear, and the initial character selection and classification are more concise and diverse. Users can not only choose real men and women or anime characters, but also realizeTalk to celebrities, experience the feeling of “surreal” and “spanning time and space” online. At the same time, the application is also rightThe character characteristics and relationship positioning of the characters are classified, such as couple relationships, domineering presidents, “mafia”, etc., and were carried out according to the heat of the conversationSort from lowest to highest, giving users a certain reference value.
Hi.AI also supports AI character creation, and content can be generated by uploading images, text descriptions, and type selection, which is currently supportedAnime, live-action, and CG type characters。 In addition, in order to optimize the experience, the application sets up likes or clicks on the dialogue content of the AI charactersIntelligently analyze user feedbackto add or subtract relevant content to better suit users’ preferences.
Compared with AI social applications in 2023, it can be found that similar applications launched last year have been upgraded in content and added a lotStory-based design, through AI and between the userContent co-creation, to create moreImmersive experience, at the same timePrivacy protectionhas also been further dealt with.
For example, SoulTalk AI and Soulplay have focused on thisThe interaction between AI and users。 In it, you can“Role-playing”, guided by a certain storyline, immersive online adventures, creating dynamic storylines with different memories with each different character.
As the story progresses, SoulTalk AI also increasesCharacter cards and new scenes unlock gameplay, based on the difference in “intimacy” with different characters, to create a sense of surprise for subsequent interactions. This kind of opening dialog is thisUnknown experienceThe feeling deeply hits the user’s heart“Curiosity” psychology。
For players on AI social networking, privacy is often a point of great concern for them, and most people don’t want their chats with AI characters to be known by third people. To this end, Soulplay has introduced a password unlock chat content feature, adding a layer of protection for users’ privacy.
In terms of these four applications, ChaChat and Hi.AI, which were launched in the early days, pay more attentionCharacter creation and diversity, while the later SoulTalk AI and Soulplay are more focusedInteractivity of content, committed to allowing users to gain a sense of immersion in it, thereby improving long-term retention. From the internal concept and focus of these applications, it can also be found that the whole thingThe market is extending from characters to content, the gameplay is also iteratively upgrading, and creativity is filling the track little by little。
Pain points emerge: Where is the boundary of AI?
However, while content innovation is increasing, many problems are constantly being exposed. If you want the market to develop better, only by solving these pain points can we better serve users, not just a “flash in the pan”. Based on the user feedback of the above four AI social applications, it can be summarized that the current market is mainly facing the following six major problems.
1. AI memory is short:After establishing an emotional connection with the characters, users are eager to create more story memories with the characters. And in this process, once the character appears“Amnesia” phenomenonForgetting what you have said to users before will greatly affect the user experience, resulting in users who are finally immersed in it and have a sense of dependence instantly “play”. At present, the application on the marketThere is a big gap in the memory of AI characters, better memory can be calculated on a monthly basis, but poor memory will forget a few sentences ago, and even make up a completely absent memory out of thin air, making it difficult for users to have a continuous conversation with it.
2. Character “gibberish”, mechanical repetition content:In order to facilitate AI to quickly start a conversation with the user, some applications will set fancy greeting words or fixed replies for the character, but it causesAI mechanically repeats certain fixed template phrases。 The other situation is the opposite, that is, the AI cannot output dialogue according to the context.Randomly output content that does not conform to the logic of the scene, causing dialogue interruptions, it is impossible to carry out in-depth communication on a certain content.
3. Pictures appear randomly and the image content is repeated:In order to make the conversation content more realistic and immersive, many AI social applications will send charactersSend a selfiefunctions are integrated into it, giving users a stronger visual impact. However, when users engage in long chats asking characters to send photos frequently, they find that sometimes these are foundThere is a large area of duplication in image content, causing users to lose their freshness quickly。 You will also find that sometimes these characters are not very “commanded”,Inexplicably images that are not relevant to the scene appear during the conversation, causing chat to be interrupted or interrupted.
4. AI boundaries are blurred, and content scale control is difficult:At present, there is no relatively unified legislation for AI interaction in various countries and regions, and there are differences in the strictness of supervision of such applications in different regionsIt is difficult to accurately control the scale and boundaries of AI characters。 As a result, AI in some applications has “guided” or “supported” incidents that violate morality and ethics, and even output some violent, terrorist, and anti-human content, which has a negative impact on underage users and has also had a huge impact on the entire industry. Therefore, in order to ensure the long-term development of the application,Boundary testing for AIhas become a necessary topic.
5. User privacy and security protection:Part of the reason why AI social is used instead of real social is because users feel that they are talking to AIIt can be kept secret and has a sense of privacy。 Their inner world does not want to be seen by others, so they choose to talk to AI to find spiritual comfort, so privacy and security have become a point of great concern for users. But in the era of big data, how to ensure the interaction between users and AI?The content is strictly confidentialhas also become the top priority of the next development of the industry.
6. Balance between commercial monetization and anti-“addiction”:At present, most AI social applications use the payment form of subscription and purchase of in-app currency to ensure long-term conversations with more characters, especially when establishing an emotional connection with the characters.It is necessary to constantly “recharge” to maintain the relationship。 Although this model is a common way of commercialization, it has caused a lot due to the particularity of the nature of the productMinors are immersed in this, and minorsSpending power is often not enough to support their immersion, a certain paradox is formed between the two. This also leads to the fact that AI social applications often existThe number of downloads in the early stage is extremely high, and then the commercial monetization ability and user retention ability are insufficientThe situation arises.
epilogue
In general, in the past two years, the AI social track has upgraded from the initial conversational interaction to the level of emotional interaction. Through content co-creation, we create more story-telling and immersive applications, allowing users to “can’t stop” in a virtual social world created by AI. However, issues such as memory ability, content boundaries, privacy and security of AI dialogue have been highlighted in the process of development. Perhaps, this short-term cold of the market is not a bad thing, but it gives developers more time and space to think about it, overcome difficulties to solve these pain points, and use higher-quality applications to show people the infinite possibilities of future AI.
