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Show HN: Pop.com – Video Calls, in 3D

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Re: Show HN: Pop.com – Video Calls, in 3D

#2

Post by jsherwani »

Pop founder here. We’re a team of 5, and folks from our team have built products like Screenhero, Slack Calls, and most recently, Screen.so.

Pop lets you have a video call in 3D, with positional audio. It works in a browser, without any download. The experience is surprisingly fresh, and the social dynamics are quite fun.

You can feel like you’re part of a group, you can see who’s looking at you, you can go to the side with someone and have a separate conversation, without interrupting the current conversation. You can share a screen that floats in space (and always faces the viewer). You can even bow to say hello!

We use Mediasoup for the WebRTC backend, Ionic/Angular for the frontend, and BabylonJS as our 3D framework.

Also, as an experiment, we’re hosting a virtual launch party at [EDIT: 6 hours later, and we're done! Thanks to everyone who came by!].

Happy to answer any questions here too, of course!

Edit: there are more screenshots here: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/pop-9

Re: Show HN: Pop.com – Video Calls, in 3D

#3

Post by sbarre »

Your homepage doesn't explain anything about what I should do when I land on it.

What's a space? What's going to happen if I create or join one?

Why would I want to do this?

Or is this intentional and you're soft-launching or just doing some testing?

edit: I clicked create a space and you immediately ask for access to my camera.. but there's no explanation of why you're asking for it, or what I'm getting out of it.

I feel like there are huge assumptions about users understanding what's about to happen..

And before I grant access to a remote site to my camera, I want a better idea of why I'm doing it, and what you're doing with the feed.

Re: Show HN: Pop.com – Video Calls, in 3D

#4

Post by jsherwani »

sbarre wrote: post #3

Your homepage doesn't explain anything about what I should do when I land on it. What's a space? What's going to happen if I create or join one? Why would I want to do this? Or is this intentional and you're soft-launching or just doing some testing? edit: I clicked create a space and you immediately ask for access to my camera.. but there's no explanation of why you're asking for it, or what I'm getting out of it. I…

That's a fair point, here's a little more information: https://www.producthunt.com/posts/pop-9

Re: Show HN: Pop.com – Video Calls, in 3D

#5

Post by Raphmedia »

Here's a screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/VVt0zCU.jpg

In short, you move around in the virtual space and your avatar's head is your webcam feed. There is also positional audio, so your position changes who you hear. User can also apparently spawn screen share windows in the sky.

Give it a try, it works and feel better than it looks. It is very similar to what you'd find in a VR chat application but it works surprisingly well from the browser with just the mouse.

(Completely unaffiliated, simply gave the demo a spin.)

Re: Show HN: Pop.com – Video Calls, in 3D

#6

Post by ghostpepper »

Have you done any measurements of capture-to-display latency?

I've been interested in why Discord feels more natural than Zoom and so far I think it comes down to latency. As far as I know Zoom targets 150 ms, but audio-only platforms can get closer to 25-50, which can make the difference between what feels like using walkie talkies versus a real face-to-face conversation.

Any plans on how you will monetize this if it takes off?

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