Show HN: Minimalist, walkie-talkie for startups (flowy.live)
So here's what we are working on at flowy labs.
We are not trying to sell you anything as you are not our target buyers; this post is genuinely just to get fresh eyes on it as I value the insights of folks in the HN community.
I've done a few posts for a similar concept perhaps some of you will remember, but this one is radically evolved (it's a physical desk gadget now).
Happy discussion!
70 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 124 ms ] threadAs an example, maybe requiring the talk button to be held down might naturally limit conversations to a few minutes. (Just an idea, maybe it doesn’t)
A way to sync voice with screen recordings would be killer for product development or software testing. A quick “hey, this button doesn’t work when I do this” would be so much faster than making a screen recording and attaching it to a new bug report.
I have different approaches on screen + commz combo that uphold flowy's product principles of keeping it lightweight, and augmenting human conversation. Your idea around this is really interesting; I agree that this is a "killer" feature if done right.
Our bet: flowy is what loom users have been reaching for, but haven't been given.
Yes it's fast and easy for them to say something, but it's a terrible use of my time to try to consume their voice message.
I’ve been thinking for a while now that the beeper was a nice concept for something similar not to exist anymore
Knowledge work, for example, found email and hung onto this. All of a sudden, we lost simplicity and are in this bubble of noisy "software interfaces" being the standard.
Perhaps it's just that newer generations don't know how things used to work, and the old people are retired or can't do much about it?
1. Change the pic of you, the site makes it feels like premium product then there is a pic of you in your room with plastic target bag. Ruins it.
2. make the format for all the names of the apple people the same. Not some with upper case or under score or period.
Other comment would be can probably cut down on some of the text. Don't over sell. The point of flowy is instant and easy.
All jokes aside, I appreciate the simple and actionable feedback.
The problem I see is that if you want people to move from text (something like Slack) to vocal messages, then you need everybody to agree. Otherwise it's just like sending vocals on Slack/WhatsApp.
And in my case, there is no way I ever go with this. The reason I hate WhatsApp vocal messages is that it's more convenient for the sender but it sucks for me. When it's a friend talking, it can be fine (and sometimes it's nice to hear their voice), but for interactions with colleagues? No way.
You nailed it.
Initially I was taken in by the novelty of the idea, but when I started seeing features like Recorded Voice, Figma Integrations etc.. I quickly back tracked.
If this works, it would work for a very focussed scenario where instant communication for a short duration/event is required.
Maybe for things like "ship war rooms" for product launches, or during holiday sale event for e-commerce websites?
That's interesting. If the use case is meant to be during one-off or exceptionally busy periods, do you anticipate team members having these on their desks the whole year round?
But this comment makes me think, why this product cannot exist as a mobile walkie-talkie app?
When "war" comes, the "army" launches the app and are plugged into the dynamic war operations, using a headset. When the war is hopefully won, everyone goes back to their peace time apps - Email, Slack...
Nextel used to eat well off the PTT feature of their phones. IIRC the stickiest users of that seemed to be more blue collar folks -- construction crews, tow truck drivers, etc. I assume this is because they tended to be in environments where typing was harder and hands were otherwise engaged? It was also before widespread deployment of touch screens, so it was more competing with T9 or a full phone call than a 2024-style text message.
They can also decide to skip entire chunks of the conversation if it isn’t relevant anymore.
Neither is a possibility with this. How do you have a more in-depth discussion? At what point do you switch from sending voice notes to a full blown discussion. How do others catch up?
I was excited to see something new, but I want to really know if it's truly well-thought through to actually do anything / reserve / buy, which takes a lot more depth.
I know you provide the Cal Newport expert clips, but they're too long and not specific enough (I'll have to browse through a 2 hour long video) and are just talking about the problem, not the relative merits of the different solutions
FYI, collecting emails (or $15 I guess) doesn't qualify as "Show HN".
> there needs to be more than a signup page for it to qualify as a Show HN - dang, 2022
Here are the guidelines for Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
> Don't post landing pages or fundraisers.
In any case, every success to talksik and flowy labs. I plan to move forward with something like https://amzn.com/dp/B0B9QVWX77, bluetooth push-to-talk for a one-time $60.
The same features could probably be achieved with a smartphone, without the security issues, and good headphone support.
Practical answer: we want to do cool things like "hover over keypad and say a name" and then you can talk to them. Only possible when we build the whole stack.
Thoughts?
At least if you did a dual SaaS/hardware offering you'd cast a bigger net.
The last thing I want is voice messages - please just send me a text.
Also as SE I have calls all day long so I definitely won’t get a device that makes it easier to call me - I want the opposite!
Besides a speaker, I see a small text screen.
When I'm pushing info, email works for some comms. But some emails require paragraphs to cover all possible understandings but only a few spoken sentences (bc tonals & instant feedback).
which doesn't work in a "record a message for someone to listen to" format.
But I’m not a gadget guy and it took me long to adopt smartphones
They pay thousands per employee on saas tools + remote office reimbursements + give iphones and cell plans to their employees. What flowy offers is (hopefully) priceless to them; that is, if the promise is fulfilled. They want to try it for a few teams for a couple months, and go from there.
IMHO, we underrate how much we invest in commz. Human to human commz is worth more than any computing tool. What is an organization without people collaborating? A band where everyone's playing solo. This is part of our philosophy :)
Here are concepts of the protocol that we poorly explain on the landing page: 1. You tune into you're top-of-mind folks. This set of people is different for everyone and it changes project to project. But it's generally only 5-8 people. If your device is ON and you are not in another conversation, these people (and any combination of them) can get to you instantly. 2. Other people have to send you voice messages. 3. When you press the play button, you only go through all of your top-of-mind peoples' messages. Then there is a filter called "inbox" for "others". 4. If you press the flash button on the keyboard, you are OFF. Everyone sees a "-" for you. You don't hear anything.
So in aggregate, although it doesn't seem so at first glance, I built flowy so that there is less noise. We following "less is more" principle a lot more than it seems. It's just the sound of your people: no notifications, no fake AI voice assistant sound. This being said, I realize that we do not do a good job of articulating how everything works, so we will make a full demo video at the end of the year.
I don't want to have to listen to recorded voice messages coworkers send me, period.
I don't think you're hearing how clearly people are trying to tell you they don't want this. We understand the product you are building. We actively don't want it in the places where we work.
For idea leader management types, this would be great for putting their inspiration down in concrete form and sending action items to their implementers.
But for large, boring corporate teams with little to no autonomy and even a scintilla of micromanagement? This would be terrible. I would quit any company with more than 100 people in it that forced this on me on the spot.
I have a colleague who insists on sending me WhatsApp voice notes despite requests not to, and it just ends up obfuscating information eventually: it's not searchable, it requires effort to go back through, etc.
I think most of advertised features here are readily replicated with expired Cisco phones on eBay if you had spare couple engineering person-days, but those are complicated. A modern hassle-free solution is going to be a much better experience for most.
but i dread cables, and i don’t want another usb cable on my desk. how hard would it be to make it battery powered and pair using bluetooth ?
I also want to make sure that those who use the keypad are 99% at their home desk because we can nail that experience better than building a mobile variant right now. I'm planning a mobile version (keyfob/earpiece) for the future that would cover a wider audience's needs.
However, perhaps eventually there will be a battery variant; from an engineering perspective, it adds complexity to make sure that it lasts and handles different environments. I thought about adding battery and giving customers a wireless charging pad so that it can just sit on it. But I told myself, for v1, let's just make it stationary just like mechanical keyboards; reliable, simple, minimal.
What’s even the product and what is “loom”. Things seem pretty sensationalized without even knowing what it is
EDIT: I also am suddenly reminded of the old hoot-n-holler systems. This feels like modern Hoot-n-holler hardware, and I'm absolutely here for it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoot-n-holler
For the person doing the recording. The person doing the listening is moving at the speed of the first person's speech.
- restricted to an extremely expensive piece of permanent hardware, that you *must* have accessible nearby
- requires 1:1 device:employee ratio
- no way to parse transcripts, or otherwise document/search *anything*
The absolute _last_ thing I need in the workplace is one more way for people to break my concentration, let alone one that I can't search through and refer back to later.