Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#1

Post by EthanLannan » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

This platform is an experimental social network solely based on soundclips. SONAR is meant to encourage genuine conversation and entertainment. I believe audio culture in the form of this app could create a community that is safe, smart, and more human than many of the current social media platforms.

Show HN: My new platform. Check it out
sonarmobileapp.com

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#2

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#3

Post by druadh » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 5:34 PM UTC

Interesting thought that audio clips (rather than a comment in text format) may remove some of the anonymity in social media situations, which would hopefully lead to slightly more civil discussions and a less toxic environment overall.

Is there limit on audio clip duration? Any controls on decibel level? I would hate if one clip ended up being like 4x louder than the rest out of nowhere.

Last item that bugs me in terms of social media audio -- Do you have any autoplay enabled? I truly hate when I unmute a single video in a newsfeed, which then unmutes all videos in the newsfeed and proceeds to auto-play them when I start scrolling again -- very, very frustrating (happens on Insta and Google News iirc)

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#4

Post by caaqil » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 5:36 PM UTC

Perhaps this post would be better with "Show HN" title.

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#5

Post by hunter2_ » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 5:43 PM UTC

One thing that visual media (text, image, silent video) offers but audio typically struggles with is the ability to skim; to spend way less time than the content really deserves, in an effort to figure out if you should take a deep dive and engage. Do you have any plans to cater to people in a rush, whatever their reason might be? For example, news radio broadcasts (think AM radio with 10 minute cycles) often use automatic processing that doesn't just speed up the recording, but actually cuts out silence, so the individual words themselves aren't faster, but the clip as a whole is faster. Maybe automatic transcripts, too?

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#6

Post by Gehtio » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 5:45 PM UTC

Perhaps a try to mimic clubhouse I guess.

Wish you luck, because I'm not sure people want to share just voice.

And wasn't there some news that clubhouse doesn't work out?

As feedback though: I think only the audio track visualization is not very enticing.

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#7

Post by andy_ppp » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 5:54 PM UTC

hunter2_ wrote: post #5

One thing that visual media (text, image, silent video) offers but audio typically struggles with is the ability to skim; to spend way less time than the content really deserves, in an effort to figure out if you should take a deep dive and engage. Do you have any plans to cater to people in a rush, whatever their reason might be? For example, news radio broadcasts (think AM radio with 10 minute cycles) often use aut…

One of the millions of features I had penciled in for my podcasting app - that didn't survive a rewrite in typescript - was the ability to detect different speakers and skip to the next one. Probably even topic based could work too if you can convert the audio to words at specific instances, subject detection may or may not work well I guess. Worth a try.

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#8

Post by danielvaughn » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 6:25 PM UTC

andy_ppp wrote: post #7

hunter2_ wrote: post #5

One thing that visual media (text, image, silent video) offers but audio typically struggles with is the ability to skim; to spend way less time than the content really deserves, in an effort to figure out if you should take a deep dive and engage. Do you have any plans to cater to people in a rush, whatever their reason might be? For example, news radio broadcasts (think AM radio with 10 minute cycles) often use aut…

One of the millions of features I had penciled in for my podcasting app - that didn't survive a rewrite in typescript - was the ability to detect different speakers and skip to the next one. Probably even topic based could work too if you can convert the audio to words at specific instances, subject detection may or may not work well I guess. Worth a try.

I actually know someone developing technology for this use case. She's hearing impaired and is trying to build an application that transcribes voice to text from a variety of people in a single conversation. Very helpful for her in social situations where she can't lipread multiple people at once, especially if they're wearing masks obviously.

https://imanyco.com/

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#9

Post by thepangolino » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 6:25 PM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: Show HN: My new platform. Check it out

#10

Post by FailMore » Tue, Jan 25, 2022, 6:31 PM UTC

hunter2_ wrote: post #5

One thing that visual media (text, image, silent video) offers but audio typically struggles with is the ability to skim; to spend way less time than the content really deserves, in an effort to figure out if you should take a deep dive and engage. Do you have any plans to cater to people in a rush, whatever their reason might be? For example, news radio broadcasts (think AM radio with 10 minute cycles) often use aut…

I agree.

I built https://taaalk.co which looks a bit like Sonar but for text based long-form conversations - so skimming is possible.

The current site is content-less as I had to change servers.

Previous content can be seen on archive.org (https://web.archive.org/web/20210316214650/https://taaalk.co...)

I'm going to be reuploading the content and getting the community started again, so if you want to sign up to it please do and I will email you when it gets going. (A good place to sign up is on the Start a Conversation page, where you can leave your details for other Taaalkers to start talking with you).