Cute idea
Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
11–20 of 49 posts
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#12Looks great - I'd also be interested in a chat app that lets users move their camera in a 2D space, even across "rooms", so you can form small social groups. I know you can do these things in 3D in things like Mozilla Hubs but 2D would work better for most users
This is exactly https://spatial.chat
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#13Interesting! I built something really similar last month, though less polished: https://happyhour.ianwdavis.com/ In my case, I let people create groups ("tables") on the fly and hop between them at will, rather than forced mixing. There's a list along the side that shows which people are at each group. Groups with fewer people sort to the top, to encourage people to join those. I built on top of Jitsi and the meet.ji…
Nice! I like that you create parties for anonymous users – that's been in my backlog but I haven't devoted the time to allowing totally anonymous party creation yet.
I'll have to take a look at Jitsi – I've been using Twilio's Programmable Video API.
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#14Hello again, HN! I'm Andrew and I recently built and released Mixaba – it’s a new way to mix and mingle with people you already know online. Since the shelter-in-place orders started rolling out in the US I've had the opportunity to attend remote happy hours and larger remote social events. During those video calls I found that oftentimes the conversation felt a little out of cadence or stilted because there would be…
Thanks for building this! Curious to know why you went with random mixing, rather than self-sorting. I expect the timed random mixing would feel sort of heavy-handed, though I haven't tried it so maybe I'm wrong. Also -- what did you use for the video chat component? I'm assuming you incorporated some existing software/service?
I went with random mixing to add a little variety to the experience. I know personally when I'm at a party I get stuck in a rut and end up talking to the same people over and over. A tool like this where you're warned when you'll mix but you don't know who you might end up talking with next helps with meeting new people.
I also figured it'd be easier to add features like self-sorting later on after I proved out the random mixing idea.
I mentioned it in the other comment but yes, I'm using Twilio's Programmable Video API https://www.twilio.com/docs/video
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#15Interesting! I built something really similar last month, though less polished: https://happyhour.ianwdavis.com/ In my case, I let people create groups ("tables") on the fly and hop between them at will, rather than forced mixing. There's a list along the side that shows which people are at each group. Groups with fewer people sort to the top, to encourage people to join those. I built on top of Jitsi and the meet.ji…
Nice! I like that you create parties for anonymous users – that's been in my backlog but I haven't devoted the time to allowing totally anonymous party creation yet. I'll have to take a look at Jitsi – I've been using Twilio's Programmable Video API.
I didn't realize Twilio did video -- I'll have to take a look!
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#16Very interesting. I got the same idea, but execution always beats ideas :).
The key challange for your product is not technical, but go to market strategy. How users might discover your app?
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#17Very interesting. I got the same idea, but execution always beats ideas :). The key challange for your product is not technical, but go to market strategy. How users might discover your app?
You're so right. I have a long history of building things and then struggling to getting them to market. It's definitely a weak area for me. Right now I'm trying to get the word out there and get as much user feedback as possible before doing any more development – the bones are there, I just need the users to tell me what should be better.
A potential area of opportunity is around meetups.
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#18Interesting! I built something really similar last month, though less polished: https://happyhour.ianwdavis.com/ In my case, I let people create groups ("tables") on the fly and hop between them at will, rather than forced mixing. There's a list along the side that shows which people are at each group. Groups with fewer people sort to the top, to encourage people to join those. I built on top of Jitsi and the meet.ji…
Wow, this is exactly the project I have been working on for the past few weeks, down to the abstraction of "tables," "starting a new table," and shuffling around at will! I was even building on top of jitsi. Mine was going to be called "lunchbox"...
It's amazing to me how many people had this idea, and that it seemed not to exist before. I am curious how far we can go to make video chat feel as good as in-person socializing.
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#19Looks great - I'd also be interested in a chat app that lets users move their camera in a 2D space, even across "rooms", so you can form small social groups. I know you can do these things in 3D in things like Mozilla Hubs but 2D would work better for most users
I made a janky open source version of this. I haven't gotten around to polishing it. https://github.com/boconnell/spatially-aware-video-chat
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#20Really cool idea! I've tried the zoom breakout rooms, and they get the job done for my use case, but its a bit clunky and doesn't seem to support shuffling of groups at a regular interval