Nice. One suggestion, put demo video on the page.
Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
41–49 of 49 posts
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#42Nice. One suggestion, put demo video on the page.
You got it!
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#43Hello 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…
How do you fund this? I got semi-far with some friends on building a project similar to this, however, we stopped halfway through because we realized that video hosting quickly becomes quite expensive; without a monetization plan, there'd be no way we could stay afloat. Looks great!
I'm bootstrapping a similar project, video chat but with various games.
At cloud pricing you'll be paying $100/TB, but there are plenty of alternative providers that can give you great deals. Hetzner for instance charges $1/TB for their VPS solution.
You can also cut back on video detail depending on the project - you don't need to send 720p streams for something a bit more experimental or with other things happening.
Combined that's low enough that ads should easily cover the bandwidth.
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 r…
What was the point of using Twilio's API if you were using WebRTC already? Wouldn't it have already worked without twilio?
I love the idea of the random mixing! I have the same thing happen where once I find a group I just stay there, even if I want to try meeting more people
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#45Feature suggestion! Allow two participant types, with separate links to join the same event, and then add the ability to (best effort) match type 1s with type 2s. So you could use it for (straight) dating, where the types are male and female, or mentoring/office hours where the types are mentor or mentee, or investor or investee, or like “meet an American” where the type a is American and type b is not, etc, etc, etc…
Thank you, that's a very interesting suggestion. I haven't heard that one yet. I like the idea of putting more options behind the shuffling, it could make it more engaging and offer focused-but-not-forced random encounters.
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 r…
What was the point of using Twilio's API if you were using WebRTC already? Wouldn't it have already worked without twilio? I love the idea of the random mixing! I have the same thing happen where once I find a group I just stay there, even if I want to try meeting more people
Twilio's API offers an abstraction on top of WebRTC that handles the peer connections etc. So my interaction is more with Twilio's API than WebRTC directly.
Thanks! It's definitely a struggle of mine. It's more comfortable to stick with a group that you're already accepted into than go try to get accepted again.
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#47Similar to https://virus.cafe (HN submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23408144)
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 r…
BTW, I just stumbled across the AWS Chime SDK: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/business-productivity/customers...
Sounds similar to what Twilio offers, but at about 1/6th the price -- might be worth a look if costs are a concern...
Re: Show HN: I made an app for large group video calls where people shuffle around
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 r…
BTW, I just stumbled across the AWS Chime SDK: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/business-productivity/customers... Sounds similar to what Twilio offers, but at about 1/6th the price -- might be worth a look if costs are a concern...
Great find, it aligns with the rest of my stack too so I might find myself experimenting with that.