How do you build something calm in a culture obsessed with speed?
Every app today is fighting for reaction time — not reflection time. The faster you click, scroll, or tap, the more valuable you become. We live in an economy that rewards attention capture, not attention care.
When we started building Murm, the biggest contradiction was obvious from day one —
We wanted to deliver presence at lightning speed, without turning presence into another dopamine hit.
That meant unlearning almost everything modern product design teaches.
The paradox of calm at speed
Presence sounds like slowness — unhurried, grounded, human. But to make it usable, it needs to be available instantly.
So how do you build something that says “slow down” — in seconds?
We designed Murm like Zepto meets Zen.
Fast to access, slow in spirit.
You can find a human murm’er near you in minutes, but what happens next — the 15-minute session — is deliberately unoptimized. No swiping, no scoring, no notifications. Just conversation.
It’s the hardest kind of product to build — one that succeeds when people pause.
Designing for emotional velocity
Our experiments showed something powerful: people don’t seek long therapy-style conversations when they’re overwhelmed — they seek immediate grounding. Even a short human connection of 10–15 minutes can lower stress levels and restore calm.
So we built the product around micro-presence:
- Minimal onboarding friction — one tap to set your mood and match nearby murm’ers.
- Fast confirmation — no lengthy bios or endless options.
- Quiet UI — no clutter, just enough warmth to invite conversation.
Murm is not about more time online; it’s about less time feeling alone.
Why this matters
The data is brutal — nearly one in four people globally now report feeling lonely or emotionally disconnected, even while being constantly “connected.”
We have faster logistics, faster dating, faster news — but no faster way to feel seen.
If loneliness is the new pandemic, then presence is the antidote.
That’s what we’re trying to build — a scalable way to return humanity to speed.
The lesson so far
Building Murm taught us that the future of connection won’t come from slowing the world down — it will come from matching its pace without losing presence.
Technology doesn’t need to make people quieter; it just needs to help them hear themselves again.
So yes, the world won’t sit still.
That’s fine.
With Murm, stillness now moves at the speed of life.