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Less than one year after its iOS launch, French startup ten ten<\/a> has gone viral with a walkie-talkie app that allows teens to send voice messages to their close friends \u2014 even when their phone is locked.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether you think that\u2019s a recipe for disaster or the coolest thing you\u2019ve heard may depend on your age group, and teens clearly heard of that one long before we did; although walkie talkies are clearly not a new concept, even in app form<\/a>. Ten ten is doing the same, but in 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re ephemeral by design,\u201d ten ten co-founder and CEO, Jule Comar said in a written interview with TechCrunch. He added that In CB codes, 1010 means \u201cTransmission completed, standing by.\u201d According to Comar, this is just one of \u201cmultiple meanings that align with our values and the concept.\u201d It seems to be resonating; the app is free and quickly climbing rankings.<\/p>\n Ten ten\u2019s sudden rise is particularly noticeable in France, where it has been downloaded 1 million times. Including on Android, where it became available a few weeks ago, the app saw 6 million downloads since its launch, according to data shared by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower<\/a> with TechCrunch on Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n The concept could also receive tweaks along the way. The current UX suggests a 9-friend cap, but that\u2019s not the case. \u201cTen ten is for close friends but there\u2019s no friend limit, we\u2019re seeing people share their PINs on social media so we\u2019re working on a better friend management system,\u201d Comar said.<\/p>\n The PINs Comar is referring to are the IDs that users can use to find each other. The app also asks for access to the user\u2019s contacts (but nobody gets added without user action.) There\u2019s inherent virality in this model, but that\u2019s not the only growth driver; TikTok<\/a> \u201cplayed an important role,\u201d Comar said.<\/p>\n Ten ten\u2019s download numbers have undoubtedly kept on rising during the weekend: ten ten has been all over the French media lately. Not always with a positive spin; French newspaper Le Figaro, for instance, called it \u201cworrying<\/a>.\u201d \u201cI was very surprised,\u201d Comar said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing \u201cdangerous\u201d about ten ten!\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just articles looking at the app in a negative light; there is also fake news circulating, Comar said. \u201cThere were some rumors going around that we were a Chinese app because of the name \u201cten ten\u201d and we got wrongly accused of \u201cspying\u201d and \u201cstealing data\u201d\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Ten ten is not Chinese, though. The company has been duly registered<\/a> in France, since 2021, meaning it is also subject to GDPR. Its current terms and conditions<\/a> are formulaic, but mention that the team is in the process of writing better ones. More importantly, the startup\u2019s privacy policy<\/a> is adamant about two points:<\/p>\n Besides that decision not to sell data, it is unclear how ten ten will make money. \u201cWe have a lot of cool ideas on how we could monetize at a later point,\u201d Comar said. There\u2019s no doubt that their current success will buy them time \u2014 and help them secure venture capital to get to that later point.<\/p>\n Asked if his startup already had or was in the process of raising funding, Comar replied affirmatively. But, he added with a smiley, \u201cwe can\u2019t really disclose how much and [from] whom yet.\u201d<\/p>\n In response to TechCrunch, French VC Hugo Amsellem indicated that although his firm Intuition isn\u2019t one of these backers, he sees ten ten as part of a larger trend among French startups.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Amsellem, the common thread is that \u201cFrance is king at status game plays.\u201d Individuals are seeking to increase their social status, and French entrepreneurs are happy to help, whether that\u2019s on the software side BeReal, Yubo or Zenly<\/a>, or on the hardware side with luxury devices.\u00a0<\/p>\n It remains to be seen how long ten ten can retain its cool factor, but its CEO is aware that its current position is both privileged and fragile. Comar said:<\/p>\n It\u2019s exhilarating, it\u2019s a feeling that is hard to describe but that a few lucky ones have felt, it feels like everything is going so fast and so slow at the same time, adrenaline mixed with pride, gratitude and responsibilities, you feel big and small at the same time \u2014 You can only feel this in consumer social, because it can hit you when you least expect it and there\u2019s no ceiling. But we have to keep our heads on our shoulders, it\u2019s just the beginning, the hardest is yet to come.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Comar and ten ten co-founder and CTO Antoine Bach\u00e9 have been sleeping very little lately. A smiley-ridden email auto-reply warns that they are \u201chaving issues with our servers due to a huge number of users at the same time,\u201d\u00a0 and \u201cworking on it day and night to fix it once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n Server pains aside, a generational gap is one hurdle that ten ten will have to navigate smartly. More than privacy, it is often the fact that ten ten is used by teens and in classrooms that\u2019s being discussed. \u201cWhen you read these articles it feels like they\u2019re talking about some kind of new drug going around in school!\u201d Comar said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to see why teachers were the first adults to notice the app. Since ten ten can bypass a lock screen to play a message out loud, it can be used for pranks and create small disruptions in classrooms. But having to teach phone hygiene isn\u2019t new, and kids are savvy enough to figure it out, too.<\/p>\n In a French subreddit for teachers, a discussion<\/a> took place as to whether members had had any problems with ten ten in classrooms. One participant noted that there had been \u201cno major incidents so far\u201d despite the app \u201cgetting a lot of attention\u201d at their school. But, that person added, \u201cI ask the students to put their phones on airplane mode.\u201d (We haven\u2019t reached out to verify that this person is a teacher, but their profile seems to confirm it\u2019s the case.)<\/p>\n Instead of starting a new moral panic, perhaps ten ten could be an opportunity for parents to marvel at the fact that some of our favorite cultural artifacts are making a comeback; whether that\u2019s cassettes, Dungeons & Dragons, or now, walkie talkies.<\/p>\n\n
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