I often read articles about the struggle to maintain friendships in adulthood but not much about how to solve that problem.
When I went looking for a solution, one of the platforms I came across was Marco Polo, a private video-based messaging app that has artificial intelligence features. What caught my eye is that Marco Polo focuses on making asynchronous connections (no need to meet up at a certain time!).
I’ll be honest that sitting on a virtual call with loved ones feels just as confining as sitting through a virtual meeting so leaving video messages for them to view whenever they have time is way more appealing.
What is Marco Polo and how does it use AI?
Partners and parents Vlada Bortnik and Michał Bortnik, who originally founded Joya Communications in 2012, launched Marco Polo in 2014 as a way to model purposeful work to their daughters. (Plus, they were tired of coordinating Skype calls across different time zones and were looking for something that felt genuine.)
The name of the app was inspired by the game kids play at swimming pools, as the platform contains the same sort of back-and-forth interaction between humans when connecting.
After a free seven-day trial, Marco Polo is $60 a month for one account or $120 for six accounts if you want the whole family (or a group of friends) on the plan.
It implements AI in a few ways. First, closed captions sees AI automatically transcribe what’s being said in messages. Marco Polo also offers AI-generated transcripts and summaries. You can convert video messages into searchable text.
I reached out to Marco Polo’s team for more information on this — and they directed me back to the FAQ page, which contains information on AI and the company’s data privacy policy. This page shares that: “Marco Polo uses AI software to process closed captions and transcripts internally.” It also states that it may use a third party to process summaries and, in certain circumstances, transcripts. It doesn’t provide further information about how its AI tool functions through these three features, but instead, points to a link about its technology partners.
AI is used in Summaries to create a short, written recap of what each video message is about. So whenever you send or receive a message, AI — using natural language processing — can help summarize the content. (For those who are picky about everything they engage in, including video messages from friends and loved ones.)
Over 4 billion Polos, the video messages sent back and forth to a chat or group on the app, have now been sent, according to the company.
How to use Marco Polo to video message with your friends
Marco Polo is available on iOS and Android.
- Open the app and create an account using your name, profile picture and phone number — this step is for syncing the app with your phone contacts.
- Once you grant access to your contacts, the app can show you who else is on Marco Polo and let you invite others to the platform. I didn’t have any friends already using Marco Polo but I sent invites to four of my tech-enthusiast friends who I figured would be keen to try it out.
- To start a conversation, look for the plus sign on the home screen and tap it. Here, you can select New Chat or New Group. You can chat one-on-one or with a group of up to 200 people. If you already have friends on the app and want to bring them into a group chat, New Group will allow you to select from active users and contacts you’d like to get on to Marco Polo — for this, tap the group name at the top and choose Add People or Invite via Group Link.
- To start recording a message, click Start … and Stop when you’re done. There’s no time limit on video messages, regardless of which subscription model you’re on. Plus, your friends in the group message can watch it whenever they want. (iMessage voice notes and the now-dated Voxer come to mind, but with the addition of video.)
- For fun, you can tap effects icons and add voice filters, texts and drawings to your video messages, and switch back and forth between front- and rear-facing cameras. You can also tap Photo Polo to pick a photo or video from your own content gallery. So, this feature is a lot like the talking-head recaps and voice-overs on TikTok, Instagram and now even LinkedIn.
Some other fun ways to navigate Marco Polo are to explore playback controls. Once you’re on a paid subscription, you can place it on double speed, send emoji reactions and add certain conversation to your Favorites. Of course, standard community controls here are also available, like group permissions, renaming the chat and recording a welcome message for new members.
Personally, I liked navigating back to the website to check out the stories that help us feel close to one another — and as inspiration for growing intimacy with the people I want to connect with more frequently. There are ample categories available to sift through, like Company Culture, Impact, Romance and Wellness.
Should you use Marco Polo?
If you’re looking for a casual way to video message, Marco Polo can serve you well. Upgrading after the free tier gives you all of its AI-generated features, alongside video speed controls, cloud storage and fun add-ons like custom thumbnails for your Polos. (You still get 30 days of storage with the free trial.)
For those worried about privacy, Marco Polo notes that captions, transcripts and summaries remain private. Additionally, none of your data is used to train AI models. You can also opt out at any time by going to the settings and disabling transcription services. Once you do that, however, the platform is a bit flat because you lose out on the main features you’re paying for. But if you’re privacy conscious and hyper-aware of the potential for data breaches, this might be important to you.
If you are in a busy friend group, looking for ways to connect with family members — particularly older folks — or want to stay connected to people in different time zones, Marco Polo is a simple yet fun option to keep everyone together in a low-pressure format with no need to coordinate schedules.
And, my personal favorite, it never rings. You open it and engage with whomever, whenever you want.
Now that’s asynchronicity.
