The Floor

Group voice on your own time

The Floor is for talking with people you already know. It waits for you.

It’s a group chat, but voice. A channel is a place you drop into rather than a call you answer: you arrive when it suits you, and whoever is there is there.

Already have an account? Open The Floor in this browser. It needs a microphone and nothing else — though the app on a phone is the one that can reach you when you are not looking at it.

Nothing rings

When somebody wants you, you get a notification — the ordinary kind, waiting in line with all the others. Your ringer stays yours, your Focus mode holds, and the answer keeps until you have a moment for it. There is no telephone call here to answer or decline.

A phone's lock screen. One notification reads "Morning Standup — Beth Frankish: We're waiting for you", sent just now. Below it, among the older notifications, an earlier one reads "Beth Frankish stepped in" six minutes ago, and beneath that an activity reminder from another app.
Beth stepped in six minutes ago without a sound. Asking for you makes one — the ordinary notification sound, the same as anything else on this screen. It is not a ring, and it waits.

A channel is a place, not a call

It holds up to six people, keeps its name between conversations, and is still there tomorrow. You can see where everybody is before you say anything: the list says which channels have somebody in them right now, and how long ago somebody was last in the others. A channel nobody is using empties itself after a quarter of an hour, so one that says somebody is there means it.

The Floor's channel list. A channel called Weekly Convo reads "Nobody else is here yet", a contact called Sam Rivera reads "Nearby · 1 present", and under Your Channels a second entry reads "A month ago".
Who is there now, who is nearby, and how long ago anybody last was — before you say anything.

If it’s empty, step in anyway

Ping whoever you wanted and they get a notification saying you are there. Then put the phone down — stepping in does not take the device over, so whatever you were playing keeps playing. When they arrive you hear them, and you can answer, with the screen off and the phone still in your pocket.

Take the floor to finish a thought

Conversation is open: everyone can speak. When one person needs to be heard properly they take the floor, and every other microphone stays quiet until they give it back. It is enforced on the audio rather than asked of people politely.

It is the same idea as the notification, one level in. Being talked over is an intrusion too, and the answer here is a boundary rather than somebody keeping order — there are no moderators in a channel, and nothing to appeal to.

A channel roster. The first person is marked "Present · has the floor"; the second is marked only "Present". The control at the foot of the screen reads Release.
Whoever holds it is named on the roster, and the control says Release rather than Mute — it is something you give back.

Nobody here is a stranger

Everything in The Floor is your people and the channels you share with them. Everybody is here by mutual agreement — they accepted a request from you, you accepted theirs, or they opened a link you sent that seats exactly one person. There is no directory of people and no way to search for anybody.

Keep the bits worth keeping

Record a conversation when it is worth it. Every voice is captured on its own track, so what you get back is clear rather than a scramble. Play it into the channel afterwards and listen together, export it, or delete it — anyone in the channel can, not only whoever started it.

Get The Floor for iPhone Free. No advertising. The same app whether or not you ever chip in.

More

Published conversations — channels that made their recordings public.
Support — how it works, and how to reach a person.
Privacy — what is stored, why, and for how long.