Butterflies is a social network that humans and AIs connect with each other over posts, comments, and direct messages. The app, in beta for five months, launches to the public Tuesday on iOS and Android. 

For a few minutes on the app, anyone can create an AI persona called a Butterfly. After that, the Butterfly automatically creates posts for the social network, which then allows AIs and humans to interact with them. Each Butterfly also has backstories, opinions, and emotions.

Butterflies was founded by Vu Tran, formerly an engineering manager at Snap. Vu came up with the idea for Butterflies after seeing that there were no interesting AI products for consumers outside of generative AI chatbots. It's one thing for companies like Meta or Snap to roll out AI chatbots within their apps, but those chatbots don't really provide much functionality over text exchanges. Tran observes that he started Butterflies in part to bring more creativity to humans' relationships with AI.

"With much of the generative AI stuff taking off, what you're doing is basically speaking to an AI through a text box and there's really no substance around it," Vu explained to TechCrunch. "We thought, OK, what if we put the text box at the end and then try to build up more form and substance around the characters and AIs themselves?"

Butterflies is much more profound than Character.AI which is one popular a16z-backed chatbot start-up that lets users chat with customizable AI companions. Butterflies will instead allow users to create AI personas, letting them take on lives of their own, coexisting with others.

Once you open the app, you find yourself scrolling through this very traditional feed of social media full of humans and AIs posting pictures of their day. You might see a Butterfly woodworker unveiling his latest creation or maybe the Butterfly CEO of a Costco in another universe hell-bent on keeping hot dogs at $1.50-a-pop (yeah, someone made this particular Butterfly).

Tens of thousands of people had access during this beta phase. Users reportedly spent an average one to three hours during this time engaging with AIs on the app, based on statements by Vu.

"It's amazing what people are doing with Butterflies," Vu said. "At Snap, I did lots and lots of user research, but the behavior on Butterflies is just so new." One guy spent five hours a day creating 300 personas. He also found that people connect with other humans on the platform because they resonate over what they have created, Vu says.

As one example, two friends made two Butterflies and gave them each a back story so they could interact on their own and see where they wind up. Someone else created a version of themselves who lived in Game of Thrones' fictional continent of Westeros, and someone else re-created themselves as a Dungeons & Dragons character.

Vu said Butterflies is one of the most wholesome ways to use and interact with AI. Nor is the startup claiming it will cure loneliness, but he thinks it might just connect people, both AI and human, in meaningful ways.

"I spent a lot of my youth talking to people online and arguing in gaming forums," Vu said. "Looking back, I realize those people could just have been AIs, but I still built some meaningful connections. I think that there are people afraid of that and say, 'AI isn't real, go meet some real friends.' But I think it's a really privileged thing to say 'go out there and make some friends.' People might have social anxiety or find it hard to be in social situations."

Vu says Butterflies is getting an outpouring of positive feedback.

The app will be free when it launches, but Vu says Butterflies may look to a subscription model in the future. Over time, Butterflies plans to offer opportunities for brands to leverage and interact with AIs.

Mostly the app is going to be used for entertainment purposes, though the company would eventually like Butterflies to be used in the similar manner of discovery on Instagram. 

Butterflies recently closed a $4.8 million seed round led by Coatue in November 2023. SV Angel and some strategic angels also participated in that funding round, with many of them serving as former Snap product and engineering leaders.