Show HN: Built an app to replace our failed group podcast experiment

[1manstartup]

After college, my friends scattered across time zones. We tried starting a podcast to stay in touch, everyone would record updates, uploads them to Google Drive, and we planned to eventually publish episodes.

We never published one. Turns out we didn't want a public podcast, but "the podcast" gave us a reason to keep in touch and share stories/thoughts.

Google Drive was terrible for our needs. Record in one app, then upload. No notifications, bad organization. The worst part was when responding to something specific, I'd have to manually timestamp it and repeat their point before commenting. Completely broke the flow.

So I built Roads Audio. Private audio messaging where you can reply to specific moments with timestamped comments. Conversations branch naturally instead of stacking linearly. The hardest technical problem was handling infinite nested timestamped threads and querying position in the conversation tree, then displaying that in a user-friendly UI.

I built with Flutter/Django and have been working on it for a few years (here's the original micro-podcasting launch: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37758099). Initially positioned as a podcast alternative, but I've realized it's really about staying connected through longer-form audio without immediate response pressure.

The app has evolved a lot over the years and I'm always looking for more feedback from people who are interested in async audio. I still use it regularly with the same friend group; if it seems interesting let me know what you think!