Video calls are exhausting. They work for formal business meetings, where one person speaks and everyone else listens, but they're terrible for informal get-togethers. The bigger the group, the worse it is. That meant that as we distanced during the pandemic, we lost our ability to socialize with colleagues, communities, and friends. We had to limit our calls to just a few people or be forced to endure awkward, unfulfilling interactions with large groups. At home during quarantine, wishing we had a better tool to connect with our own communities, we started to build Sidebar.
When people get together in real life, they divide into small groups to talk, disband and recombine. Sidebar recreates that experience. Users can hop in and out of conversations with a click, run into friends and strangers, and have real conversations, often unexpectedly.
Sidebar is in private beta and we expect to launch to the public in August. We hope it gives friends, teams, and communities the joy and excitement of socializing and meeting people again, even while apart.
Create a call link and share it. Open the link in your browser, enter your name and....you're in! Start mingling and chatting.
Create, edit, and delete rooms
Move in and out of conversations