'Slow-cial' app Roost forces you to slow down to the speed of a carrier pigeon
Roost, a viral slow social media app that delivers messages at real bird flight speeds, has attracted nearly 300,000 users by offering a break from instant communication and emphasizing intentionality.
Somewhere above the Great Plains, a virtual woodpecker is on its way to Alaska to deliver a message to an anonymous pen pal. At the same time, a zebra finch named Tucker soars into Manhattan to send a friend a shabby doodle. These messages take hours or even days to send, depending on how far the bird has to fly – that's the point of Roost, the viral "slow-cial" app that's making carrier pigeons cool again.
Roost creator Logan Mendelsohn told TechCrunch that everything on a phone is instantaneous these days, with constant notifications. Roost offers a break from the instant, allowing people to communicate without pressure. When you sign up, you choose four birds for your rookery; each bird moves at its real-life speed, so a falcon delivers faster than a hummingbird. For even slower messaging, users can send snails or turtles.
A senior product manager in trust and safety at Ticketmaster by day, Mendelsohn built Roost as a fun side project for friends. They loved it and encouraged him to publish it on the App Store. The app developed a small niche following but exploded when a mother posted on Threads about how her daughter was communicating with friends in Elizabethan English on an app that sends messages at the speed of actual birds. Within three days, users grew from 10,000 to 100,000; five weeks later, Roost is about to hit 300,000 users.
"The people are what really make this platform," Mendelsohn said. "They talk about how wholesome and whimsical it is, and how it helps them put more intention into what they're saying. There's less pressure when you know the message won't arrive immediately.”
As a trust and safety professional, Mendelsohn built privacy features from the start. By default, only a user's city is shared with friends; a “close friends” option shares precise location. The “Pen Pals” feature warns users not to give out personal information, and photo sharing is disabled until content moderation tools are ready.
Mendelsohn used Claude Code to develop Roost, but some users criticized the AI-generated bird art. He acknowledged the feedback and launched a contest for artists to contribute art instead. "As a solo founder, I couldn't build this scale without AI-assisted development, but every product decision comes from me and the community," he said. The controversy highlights the tension between AI use and respect for artists in consumer apps.
