01
South Korea
KakaoTalk
Built their own.
Since 2010
A social network
A social network from a mixed Egyptian and Korean team, made for the Middle East. Real stories, voice on the timeline, your own emojis. Launching summer 2026, drop your email for the invite.
500
pilot users
EN+AR
from day one
'26
MVP this summer
Built for
CairoRiyadhDubaiBeirutAmmanDohaCasablancaTunisKhartoumBaghdadMuscatKuwaitManamaAlgiersTripoliSana'aRamallahDamascusAlexandriaMarrakeshCairoRiyadhDubaiBeirutAmmanDohaCasablancaTunisKhartoumBaghdadMuscatKuwaitManamaAlgiersTripoliSana'aRamallahDamascusAlexandriaMarrakesh
Why we exist
Every region built its own. Now it's our turn.
Korea has KakaoTalk. China has WeChat. Russia has VK. We grew up using platforms built for someone else, in a language that came second. ChaiTalk is our turn at the table.
02
China
Built their own.
Since 2011
03
Russia
VK
Built their own.
Since 2006
Middle East
ChaiTalk
Finally building ours.
2026
Killer feature
Stop typing. Talk on the timeline.
Every post on ChaiTalk accepts voice. Hold the mic, record what you would have said anyway. Replies feel human again.
REC · voice on the timeline
Sara · Cairo
12 min
Best koshary in Downtown? Asking for a serious investigation tonight 🌙
❤️0:12
0:08
0:04
🔥0:23
Stories
A 24-hour window into your people.
Stories are the heart of ChaiTalk v1. React with a voice note, reply with a sticker, share with the friends who actually matter.
❤️ 142Send a reply…
Coming soonComing with v1.2
Draw your own emoji. Watch it come alive. Sell it.
We are building the biggest emoji store in the region. Anyone can scratch out a character, watch the app turn it into a polished emoji, and publish it to the store. Other people collect it, use it everywhere, you get paid.
01Scratch it.
Sketch your character on the canvas. Anything from a single squiggle to a full chibi.
02Watch it form.
The app cleans your strokes, builds the variations, and gives it the chai-warm finish.
03Publish + earn.
Drop it in the store, set a price. The rest of the region collects it, you keep the revenue split.
- 01
You own it.
Your character, your emoji, your call. Every set you publish stays yours. Sell it, give it away, change your mind whenever.
- 02
Sell or share, your call.
Set a price and earn from every install, or release it free and let the region adopt it. No pressure either way.
- 03
Used everywhere they install it.
Anyone who installs your set can use it in chats, stories, shorts, comments, and posts. Your work travelling everywhere they go.
Chat
Chat that finally ends with voice.
One-to-one and group chat with text, GIFs, stickers, and voice notes. Because some things are easier to say than type, and we already know it.
Friday majlis at mine? 🌙
In. What time?
🎙0:14
SHORTS0:38
★Sunset over the Nile, every evening sounds different.
SHORTS0:24★Late-night Hamra walk. The city talks back.
SHORTS0:46★Dawn drive, music up, nobody on the road.
SHORTS0:18★Cat called dibs on the chai cup. Again.
Shorts
Short clips, no algorithm pressure.
Quick vertical videos from people you actually follow. React with stickers, drop a voice comment, share to a friend without leaving the feed.
Plus more
And a stack of small things that make a day feel right.
On top of the big moves, the little tools you actually reach for: GIFs, stickers, polls, comments. Stickers in particular: build one, use it everywhere.
GIFs that fit the conversation.
A curated GIF library tuned for our humour, not generic stock. Type a feeling, send a GIF.
Use in chat · stories · shorts · comments · polls
Stickers, used everywhere.
Make a sticker once, send it from chat, drop it on a story, react with it on a short, react with it on a comment. One sticker, every surface.
Which is the real Cairo koshary?
Abou Tarek58%
Sayed Hanafy27%
TBH a tie15%
312 votes
Polls that move a group.
Quick polls in any chat, community, or comment thread. Live counts, no spreadsheet.
Comments that hold a conversation.
Threaded replies, sticker reactions, and voice notes inline. The whole conversation in one tap, no scroll lottery.
Made by Arabs, for Arabs
We didn't wait for someone else to build this. So we built it ourselves.
Every social app you use was designed somewhere else, owned somewhere else, run on someone else's servers under someone else's rules. The Arabic was an afterthought. The culture was a translation. We grew up watching our friends, our families, our streets get squeezed into someone else's template, while our data sat on foreign machines. We are done waiting. ChaiTalk is built here, owned here, run here. In our language, with our humor, our hospitality, our long evenings. A social network that finally feels like home, because it actually is.
YapoeY Bit
What ships when
Honest, public, version-by-version.
We're bootstrapping. No empty promises, no fake screenshots. Here's the real plan.
Foundation
- Auth, profile, follow
- Timeline, posts, polls
- Stories with reactions
- Recording comments on the timeline
- 1-to-1 chat
- Group chats
- Voice messages
- EN + AR from day one
Emoji + Pages + Events
- Design + publish your own emoji set
- Regional emoji store with payouts
- Company + store Pages with verified handles
- Event pages: RSVP + reminders
- Nearby-events discovery
Communities + Audio
- Topic communities
- Live audio rooms (majlis style)
- 1-to-1 + group audio calls
- End-to-end encryption
- Local meet-ups directory
Ad campaigns
- Opt-in business campaigns, never surveillance
- No individual targeting, ever
- Verified brand handles
- Pay-per-reach pricing
- Regional ad standards we set publicly
ChaiTalk Kids
- A separate, safer ChaiTalk for under-13s
- Parent-controlled account linked to the parent's adult account
- No ads, no surveillance, no infinite scroll
- Approved-friends-only feed
- Screen-time limits + bedtime mode set by the parent
- Age-appropriate content filtering, in Arabic + English
Be there from day one.
We're going live across MENA this summer. Drop your email and we'll send you a TestFlight invite the day iOS lands.
No spam. No noise. Just the launch ping.
Karim · Beirut · 2m
Best koshary thread of the year so far, no notes.
Sara · Cairo · 1m
Omar · Amman · just now
Send pics of both, settling this tonight 🌙