Show HN: I Built the Anti-Social Network (and Social Media Billionaires Hate It)

Great question! The 48 hours is actually just the trial period, not a hard cutoff. Think of it like this: you get matched with someone new, and you both have 48 hours to see if there's chemistry. If you're both enjoying the conversation, you can mutually extend it indefinitely. If not, it expires automatically—no awkward ghosting, no guilt. Why 48 hours specifically?

It creates urgency to actually engage (no "I'll reply later" that becomes never) It's long enough for meaningful exchange across time zones It filters out low-effort connections before they clutter your inbox

The alternative would be what you described—keeping conversations alive as long as there's activity. But in practice, we found people don't want 47 half-dead conversations lingering. The explicit "extend or end" decision forces both people to actively choose whether this connection matters. Sharing external contact info? Some users do exchange WhatsApp/Instagram if they really click, but that's not the goal. The goal is to keep quality high by requiring mutual intent to continue. Does that make more sense? Happy to clarify further!

You're absolutely right. This is one of the biggest UX challenges we're tackling. The reality: A US-Australia conversation could realistically be 4-6 back-and-forths over 48 hours if you're both responding once per waking cycle. That's why we allow mutual extensions. If the conversation is clearly going somewhere but you just need more time due to timezone lag, both people can extend it. What we're seeing so far:

Users in major timezone offsets (12+ hours) tend to extend more often Async messaging actually works better than expected. People write longer, more thoughtful messages instead of rapid-fire texts The 48-hour timer creates a bit of urgency even across timezones ("I should reply before bed so they wake up to it")

We're also experimenting with:

Giving users a "timezone buffer" notification if their match is 8+ hours offset Allowing one free extension per connection (currently testing this)

You've hit on something real though. Do you think a dynamic timer based on timezone offset would feel more fair? Like 72 hours for 12+ hour gaps? Curious about your take.