I built a voice-based social app, but people don’t want to talk

I built an app called Podalia where people answer simple daily questions using their voice and can hear perspectives from different countries. The idea felt strong.
-Voice is more human than text
-AI removes language barriers,
-people say they want more authentic social media.

But after launching, I’ve run into a problem I didn’t expect.

People don’t speak.

They download, browse, and listen, but very few actually record anything.

I’m based in Finland, where people are not exactly known for being very talkative 😄 so local testing hasn’t been a great fit. The app supports 8 languages, but the challenge is that a social app like this needs active participation, and right now it feels a bit too quiet.

I’ve been building this as a bootstrap project, and it’s already live on iOS and Android. I’m still improving it actively and adding new features like stories next.

So now I’m wondering two things.

Is voice just too much friction?
Where would you go to find international users who actually participate, not just browse?

Curious if anyone here has tried something similar or has thoughts.