Roost messaging app soars to 300,000 users with slow delivery charm

Roost has climbed to nearly 300,000 users by making delay part of the experience. Each message is carried by a bird that crosses a real map, so delivery can take hours or days depending on distance and species, a design that strips out instant replies, read receipts, endless scroll and algorithms.

Logan Mendelsohn, a senior product manager in trust and safety at Ticketmaster, started Roost as a side project for friends before publishing it publicly. The app’s breakout came after a Threads post about a daughter using Roost in Elizabethan English, which pushed the service from 10,000 users to 100,000 in three days and set off a run that brought it close to 300,000 users about five weeks later. The surge points to a clear appetite for a calmer messaging format at a moment when most social products compete on speed, volume and constant interruption.

Roost’s mechanics lean into that slowdown. Users can send messages with pigeons, falcons, hummingbirds, snails, turtles, bats and even mythical birds, each with its own travel pace. Mendelsohn has said the product resonated because people feel less pressure when messages are not delivered instantly, a simple idea that has turned into a national-scale novelty with staying power.

The growth has been almost entirely organic. Roost has picked up attention on TikTok, Threads, an unofficial subreddit and creator posts, without reported paid user acquisition. GamesBeat said the app had more than 250,000 downloads and over 100,000 active conversations every day, while also noting that Roost began as a proof-of-concept TikTok in May 2025 and launched in April.

The business model is built around the birds themselves. Individual birds cost between $0.99 and $10, and the app also sells a subscription tier; the most popular paid option has been a $50 lifetime subscription. On the Apple App Store, Roost carries a 4.7-star rating from 349 ratings and is ranked No. 70 in Social Networking. On Google Play, it shows 50,000-plus downloads and a 4.4-star rating.

Mendelsohn has said he grew up around birds in a family of birdwatchers, which fits the app’s design as more than a messaging tool. Roost now sits at the intersection of game, social network and anti-doomscrolling statement, and its user growth suggests that some users are not looking for more alerts, but for fewer of them.