Branch — Great Online Conversations?

Branch — "A new way to talk to each other"

Deep and meaningful conversations are rather hard to have through online services like Twitter or Facebook. Conversations that have you staying up all night to finish them don't really happen online. That seems to be what Branch is trying to allow for. (No idea how they got that domain.) It just opened up to the public, albeit you still have to request an invitation first before you get in.

From the outside, there is not much information as to how exactly the service works or why it will be more conducive to more meaningful conversations. It certainly is an intriguing idea though.

But it begs a lot of questions.

Is this something we really need? Perhaps truly deep conversations are best had when you are actually sitting in front of the person you are talking to — or at least seeing or hearing them through a video chat or phone call. Do we really need another service to fill some supposed void? Twitter works so well because it isn't about deep conversations. Sure, one day, long ago, letter writing was the best way to communicate with people — and I'm sure there were some rather meaningful letters sent. Now though, when an important conversation has to be had you can just pick up a phone. The written word is not as conducive to conversation as actual speaking is, and that's just a fact. And should Branch branch out (see what I did there?) and add in video and audio, well, why do you need Branch to do that?

Sorry, don't see the appeal here. Haven't signed up and don't really plan to.

What about you? Have you had enough of all of these new "social services" cropping up? Or do you think that Branch is onto something here? Leave it all in the comments.