French Startup Ten Ten Reinvents Walkie-Talkie

Within a year of its iOS introduction, French company ten ten’s walkie-talkie software has gone viral, allowing kids to send voice messages to close friends even while their phone is locked

A walkie-talkie application developed by the French startup Ten Ten has achieved viral status less than a year after its iOS debut. This application enables adolescents to communicate with their closest companions via vocal commands, even when their mobile device is locked.

Whether you perceive that as a tantrum or the most significant thing you’ve ever heard may depend on your age group; indeed, adolescents were aware of that notion well before our generation. However, even in app form, walkie-talkies are not a novel concept. Similar to what Ten Ten is doing, but in 2024.

Jule Comar, co-founder and CEO of Ten Ten, stated, “We are ephemeral by design.” The individual stated that 1010 in CB codes signifies “Transmission completed, standing by.” This is merely one of “multiple meanings consistent with our values and the concept,” as stated by Comar. It is resonating, as the app is currently available for free and is rapidly gaining placement in rankings.

The meteoric ascent of Ten Ten is especially evident in France, where the application has been downloaded one million times. Since its release a few weeks ago, the application has been downloaded 6 million times, including on Android, according to data shared with TechCrunch on Friday by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

Furthermore, the concept’s modifications may be implemented during development. Although the current UX implies a friend limit of nine, this is untrue. “Ten ten is for close friends, but there is no friend limit,” Comar explained. “As more people share their PINs on social media, we develop a more effective friend management system.”

Comar refers to the PINs, the identifiers that users can use to locate one another. Additionally, the application requests access to the user’s contacts; however, no contacts are added unless the user grants permission. This model contains virality by nature, but it is not the only growth driver, according to Comar; TikTok “played a significant role.”

Undoubtedly, Ten Ten’s download figures continued to increase over the weekend; the French media has been awash in Ten Ten-related news recently. Not always in a positive light; for instance, the French newspaper Le Figaro characterized it as “worrying.” “I was astonished,” Comar exclaimed. “Ten ten does not present any “hazardous” qualities!”

Comar stated that articles criticize the app negatively and that fake news is increasing. “Due to the appellation “ten,” there were rumors that we were a Chinese application, and we were falsely accused of “spying” and “stealing data.”

However, ten ten is not Chinese. Since 2021, when the business was duly registered in France, it has also been subject to the GDPR. Mention that while the terms and conditions are currently formulaic, the team is working on revising them. Moreover, the privacy policy of the venture is exceptionally steadfast regarding two aspects:

Your conversations are entirely brief; we cannot even store them, so we cannot even listen to them.
Never will we sell your information!

Beyond this decision not to sell data, Ten’s revenue stream remains to be discovered. “We have numerous innovative concepts for future monetization,” Comar stated. Their present accomplishments will undoubtedly buy them time and facilitate the venture capital acquisition necessary to reach that juncture.

When queried whether his venture had secured funding or was in the process of doing so, Comar responded in the affirmative. However, he continued with a grin, “We cannot reveal precisely how much or from whom just yet.”

Hugo Amsellem, a French venture capitalist, told TechCrunch that while his firm Intuition does not support any of these startups, he considers ten to represent a broader trend among French entrepreneurs.

Amsellem maintains that “France reigns supreme regarding status games.” French entrepreneurs readily assist individuals in elevating their social standing by providing luxury devices or software applications such as BeReal, Yubo, or Zenly.

It is still being determined how long Ten Ten can maintain its cool factor, but its CEO is aware of the privileged and precarious nature of the company’s current position. Comar stated,

Few fortunate individuals have experienced this difficult-to-describe sensation, in which everything seems to be moving too quickly and slowly, adrenaline entwined with pride, gratitude, and responsibilities, and one simultaneously feels enormous and insignificant. This sensation is unique to consumer social media, where it can strike at any moment and has no limitations. It is, however, only the beginning; the most difficult parts remain. We must maintain a positive outlook.

Antoine Baché, co-founder and CTO of Comar and ten, has been resting very little as of late. A smiley-filled email auto-reply notifies the recipient that “a tremendous number of users at the same time is causing issues with our servers” and that “departmental personnel are working around the clock to resolve the matter permanently.”

Ten-ten must deftly traverse a generational divide, putting aside server annoyances. The discourse frequently centers on the fact that ten-ten is utilized in classrooms and by adolescents rather than privacy. “Reading these articles gives the impression that they are discussing a new drug circulating in the classroom,” Comar exclaimed.

It is easy to comprehend why educators were the initial adults who became aware of the application. Ten Ten can circumvent a security screen to audibly play a message, rendering it amenable to pranks and minor disruptions in classroom settings. However, phone hygiene instruction is not novel, and children are intelligent enough to sort it out independently.

Members of a French subreddit for educators engaged in a discourse regarding challenges encountered while implementing ten ten in the classroom.

“No major incidents have occurred thus far,” according to one participant, despite the app “getting a lot of attention” at their school.

“However,” that individual continued, “I request that the students set their phones to airplane mode.” (Although we have not initiated contact to validate this individual’s status as an educator, their profile appears to support this assertion.)

Rather than inciting a fresh moral panic, Ten Ten could allow parents to appreciate the resurgence of some of our most cherished cultural artifacts, including walkie-talkies, cassettes, and Dungeons & Dragons.

Vintage is a one-half step away from obsolescence, and the success of ‘Stranger Things’ contributed to that. However, app-based walkie-talkies would only gain traction in the presence of a practical application. His conviction that there is was what motivated Comar.

He said, “I’ve always had a group of close friends with whom I communicate daily via various platforms, but I got the impression that they all had some sort of friction.” “I desired for us to be able to converse as if we were roommates living under the same roof: simply enter their room when you have something to say; if their door is closed, knock; if it is open, speak!”

With any luck, parents will recognize the value of that for ten. They could use it to verbally announce that dinner is ready if their adolescent agrees to have them as a contact.