Ohhhhhh, it may not be new, but I assure you - it is mind-blowingly awesome.
The problem it solves is app fatigue. I get this isn't a problem I have, but let me run you through the list of messaging apps I use.
- Slack
- WhatsApp
- HipChat
- Facebook Messenger
- Intercom
- Kik
- Social Media DM's
- Skype (for messaging)
- Google Hangouts (for messaging)
- WeChat
- Multiple Emails
- I'm probably forgetting some because there are so many
It may not solve a problem for everyone, but if nothing else - it will be a lifesaver for me! :)
I alluded to this a little bit, but I'm happy to clarify further. As I mentioned, if the people want something - they will get it. We saw this with Snapchat. Facebook tried to squish them, buy them, then squish them again. They couldn't take them down. Same thing would have happened with Instagram if they didn't buy them.
Our workaround will be working with the networks we can. There are hundreds of messaging apps boasting over a million active users. If we can get half of the top 100, we become dangerous. Once we get that major market share, we start to make partnerships to get the integrations we couldn't before. While we do that, we will begin to unify other things like email, phone calls, and video chat.
I have dealt with some Israeli tech companies, and those guys know what they are doing. This is just the beginning. The tech scene there is absolutely booming.
Sorry, it got picked up by 'Hacker Noon', so I thought it would be relevant again for 'Hacker News'.
Text messaging is dead, which is why we are solving for chat. The idea has yet to be executed on, but we feel we have the formula. We are still early in development but have coasted through some major integrations. Just because it hasn't been done, doesn't make it impossible.
What I do is I look at the products I absolutely love. Then I think about if the concept can be applied to any other industry.
Think Uber for... (But seriously, don't do 'the Uber of [anything]'.
My latest side project I was thinking about a product I love and I thought about how I use Buffer for social media management. They have made my life, so much easier! From there I thought about if the concept could be applied to any other industry. I realized the messaging industry had nothing like it! Needless to say, I am not working on 'the Buffer of messaging', but that is where the idea spawned and I refined it from there.
Great question! This has been something we have really struggled with. We want to be as user-friendly as possible and to so we need to give some things up. We aren't going to store messages, blast ads, or anything intrusive like that. For this reason, we have a few options.
Option number on is we release a free version with limited capabilities and a upgradable version from $.99-$4.99. This isn't the desirable route because the more users we have on our network, the better it will work. We want to encourage anyone and everyone to join.
Option number 2 (the route we will take) will mainly consist of monetizing businesses who want to use the platform. Much like Snapchat, this will consist of sponsored content, geo options, and other business-centric features. This option will require us to scale quickly, but I am pretty sure it is the route we are going to take.
For the first few months we are going to bootstrap it and focus on user experience and not focus on monetizing users at all. As we scale and grow our user base we can start focusing on things like that.
If you are a marketer, it's awesome. It is hand picked, curated content that is pure gold.