What is Ten Ten: the app that turns your mobile phone into a walkie talkie

There is a new application that is attracting the attention of younger users. It is called Ten Ten, and it allows you to turn your mobile phone into a live walkie-talkie so that your friends, family, or nearby people can contact you at any time and place through voice calls.

What is striking (and concerning) about this application is that users can communicate with you even if your phone is locked or you are performing any action with it. This can lead to toxic behaviors and a loss of privacy.

To start using Ten Ten, you only need to download it (it is available on both the Play Store and the App Store), register with an email address, and create a password. Then the system will provide you with a PIN code that people can use to add you as a contact and communicate with you.

Once inside, you simply need to press and hold the profile picture of a contact to speak to them live. The user receiving the message can hear the voice in real time and respond with the same spontaneity.

The best (or worst) thing about Ten Ten is that the user does not need to have their phone unlocked or even be active in the app to hear their friend’s voice through the speaker.

Of course, Ten Ten has a security layer. It is possible to mute certain contacts to avoid unwanted messages or even mute all of them to not interrupt meetings or classes. Additionally, no user can send a message to another without being accepted as a contact.

TikTok helped Ten Ten on going viral

Founded in 2021, Ten Ten was created by the French duo Jule Colmar and Antoine Baché, who now hold the positions of CEO and CTO, respectively. They developed the app with the idea of communicating with their friends and roommates as if they were in the same room, without needing to make a call or record an audio message.

According to statements by Colmar, the name is “a nod to the Citizen Band short-range radio communication system,” where the code 10-10 means “transmission completed, standing by.”

At the time of its creation, the application did not achieve much success. It was not until the end of May this year that Ten Ten experienced a sudden boom, which even caused the platform to suffer technical issues due to the large number of connections.

According to figures collected by the French digital newspaper Le Monde, Ten Ten has six million active users per month. Additionally, according to data from data.ai, it is the second most downloaded app in France, both on iOS and Android. However, for the time being, it has not surpassed the threshold of the 100 most downloaded apps in Spain and Italy.

A large part of Ten Ten’s sudden success is due to videos circulating on TikTok showing users using it and sharing their information to be added. Some of these videos have received millions of views, helping more people become aware of the application.

@in_romeo_we_trust I actually love bothering kassidi #tentenapp ♬ original sound – Romeo

French Government is concerned

Although Ten Ten promises to be a fun app to use among close friends, several members of the French government have expressed concerns. For instance, the Minister of the Interior, Camille Chaize, has used her account on X to highlight the security risks of the app, writing, “Behind the fun, there are serious dangers to privacy and online security.”

⚠️ Nouvelle application en vogue dans les #collèges & #lycées : #TenTen. Transformant les #téléphones en talkie-walkie, elle permet aux #adolescents de communiquer en direct via des messages audio, même lorsque le téléphone est verrouillé. Derrière le fun, se cachent de sérieux… https://t.co/GcOtDXCwM4

— Porte-parole ministère de l’Intérieur et Outre-mer (@PorteParoleMI) June 4, 2024

First, Chaize refers to the sensitive data that Ten Ten collects (username, phone number, IP address, and location). She also considers that the live voice system can increase the risk of virtual harassment and invasion of privacy, as well as encourage teenagers to interact with strangers.

To address this situation and prevent the misuse of the application, the French Ministry of the Interior recommends that parents supervise their children’s activities and educate young people about “the dangers of online harassment and cyberbullying.”

In response to this criticism, Ten Ten promises not to sell its users’ data and states, “All your conversations are ephemeral; we cannot listen to them because we do not even store them!”

Photo: Ten Ten