Launch HN: Muddy (YC S19) – Multiplayer browser for getting work done

Building together in the past, we were incredibly frustrated with how much friction there is to get anything done on our computers. I was losing time everyday digging through chat logs looking for that one important link or breaking others out of flow by asking where something is.

Web apps promised to help us get more done—and they do, but each in its own silo, so there’s still a ton of redundancy to deal with. Every app has its own way of organizing files, its own notification inbox, its own search system. Conversations live everywhere and there isn’t a single view to see everything about a project. Remember when files simply lived in folders rather than the “cloud”?

We started dedicating time to organizing our files in shared docs and limiting new apps we used. This helped – but the second we didn’t stay on top of organization, links became stale and things got messy again.

Muddy started as a hack week project we built for ourselves—a single place to use web apps with others, but personalized for each user automatically. Everyone gets their own view for every project, designed around how they work.

Muddy users work on projects in spaces, which are like automatic tab groups. Users share apps (any site works—a Github PR, Figma file, Trello board—whatever you want) into the project’s shared timeline and Muddy automatically opens relevant tabs for you. It’s a single click to open up all the apps you need for the project.

Under the hood, Muddy works in the background to keep track of the timeline and uses a LLM to continuously organize apps and keep everything on to date. It considers signals like the popularity of a file, naming conventions, and conversations to figure out what’s relevant. So everyone is presented with an updated list of important tabs, without anyone lifting a finger. Our actual browser is based on Chromium.

When you need to revisit something from weeks ago, you can rewind the project timeline to that point in a single click. Apps open up in the timeline so you’ll see your files right away. For sites that don’t have built in collaboration features (like documentation), Muddy lets you do annotations directly on the website.

Projects sometimes get big and need to be broken up. Across all your spaces, Muddy can answer questions like ChatGPT, cite your files as sources, and return apps directly. This is possible since Muddy’s AI shares your browser and can use your authenticated apps locally (with privacy in mind).

Other browsers like Chrome and Arc focus on solo productivity with sharing as a bolt-on. We think productivity depends on how well you can work with others, and should be the first class consideration. And doing organizational work manually is unsustainable.

Muddy will have paid subscriptions for teams with additional features like shared passwords, team organization, custom shortcuts, and SSO management. Those aren’t built out yet and the base product will be free. No part of our revenue will come from data monetization.

We’d love for you to give Muddy a spin! You can download Muddy for Mac or Windows on our website and add others once inside: https://feelmuddy.com/. We’ll be around to answer questions and look forward to any and all feedback!