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Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

onair.io

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Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#81

Post by bigmicro »

blakeburch wrote: post #72

I really like this idea, but not for the listed business use case. I don't imagine many people under 40 are likely to "hop on a quick call" to ask a question about a product that wouldn't already be handled by a standard customer support line. As a privacy nut, I love the idea of giving people a way to contact me without having to explicitly reveal my contact info. With a service like this, you could embed the call U…

This was our original focus and remains core. Currently, you can create and share unique links across channels for different purposes. In the medium term, we'll introduce disposable 'aliases', which are designed to be throw-aways, like Fastmail’s "masked email".

Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#83

Post by russ »

bigmicro wrote: post #66
russ wrote: post #61

This is super cool. One neat idea: when I'm in offline mode, I can clone my voice, provide some context data/sources, and have my AI clone answer calls for me. It can give me a summary of conversations it had each day and allow me to follow up.

We’re definitely heading in that direction and currently experimenting with LiveKit’s Agent framework. I’m guessing you’re Russ from LiveKit? If so, I’m a huge fan of what you’re doing! Would love to connect and explore ideas further ahmad@onair.io

Haha yup, I’m that Russ. Really appreciate your kind words. I’ll shoot you an email and let’s chat!

Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#84

Post by SoftTalker »

moralestapia wrote: post #75
carlgreene wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in my mid-30s and am definitely a “let’s just hop on a call” guy. So much quicker, easier, and less chance for miscommunication IME.

If you're a business, nothing beats "let's just hop on a call". For me at least, the first one that picks up my call is the one who gets my money. "Send us an email, here's our WhatsApp, ..." kind of thing, I don't even try.

I think more generally nothing beats being able to communicate with a customer in the way the customer prefers. If that's email, that's what you do. If it's a phone call, that's what you do. But I think as time goes on the number of people preferring a phone call will continue to decline. Time will tell I guess.

Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#85

Post by qntmfred »

i've been playing around with a similar concept over the last year as well

when i'm at my PC, I keep a google meet on all day. instead of slacking me, coworkers can go to my google meet link (which never changes cus it's a recurring event on my calendar) and talk to me immediately. far better than huddles because there's no "are you available for a huddle" friction. if i'm online, then i'm online and the permission to just come talk to me is implicit.

I also use it for family and friends. my wife, kids, sister and parents can always just go to my meet link if they want to pop in to chat. i've shared it with friends and former coworkers too.

additionally, every day I start a private youtube livestream (and sometimes public) and embed the stream on my website at kenwarner.com/online which is linked with a :large_green_cirle: in the header menu so people can quickly see that i'm online. when people find my website (usually from twitter interactions) sometimes people will join the meet to talk too. much more chill than most (text-based) interactions on twitter. even if the conversation started (on twitter) with some kind of disagreement, people act like human beings again (for the most part) when it's a video chat. it's fun.

i've often thought that it'd be neat if there were a service similar to calendly.com/username like you've done to let people talk/videochat any time. if enough people had such a thing, you could build a social media platform on top of it too. the digital public square today is still mostly text (twitter/threads/bluesky/etc) and the image/video platforms (ig/tiktok/youtube) are all still oriented around a one to many broadcast model. i'm a creator and you're an audience member. with monetization of the audience in mind. omegle was a sort of person to person videochat platform, but it was all random connections. this would be more directed in terms of who you decide to talk to.

hadn't thought of this idea as just targeted at business use cases, but it makes sense. hope y'all get some traction!

Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#86

Post by blakeburch »

nickpsecurity wrote: post #80
blakeburch wrote: post #72

I really like this idea, but not for the listed business use case. I don't imagine many people under 40 are likely to "hop on a quick call" to ask a question about a product that wouldn't already be handled by a standard customer support line. As a privacy nut, I love the idea of giving people a way to contact me without having to explicitly reveal my contact info. With a service like this, you could embed the call U…

Your idea seems to build on what people often do with virtual, credit card numbers. They use different numbers for different businesses. If they get ripped off, they can narrow down which business was used for that. On top of that, different points of contact might also have different, response policies. Like your existing customers vs targeted leads vs random people. You’d really want to know which were calling you.

Precisely. I'd love that same level of virtualization but for calls.

Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#87

Post by sealthedeal »

SoftTalker wrote: post #55
nutanc wrote: post #50

Had launched something like this in 2016. We had called it as ering.me, so you could have an url like ering.me/handle. Used it in email signatures, web calling etc. It didn't pick up at that time or we didn't market enough :) Hope the market is mature now and products like this succeed. All the best.

I'm not really surprised. The people who grew up with phone calls and who like to "hop on a call" to work out issues are all aging out. They are in their fifties at the youngest, if not already retired. It's my experience that far fewer younger people reach for the phone as a first means of contact. It's not preferred, and they try to avoid it. And by "call" I mean direct, synchronous, real-time conversation. Whether…

You're right, we struggle with this at our company, getting CS to just pick up the phone and call the customer. Sales, no problem, but any other function of the business they dont prefer phone.

Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#88

Post by tomwphillips »

SoftTalker wrote: post #55
nutanc wrote: post #50

Had launched something like this in 2016. We had called it as ering.me, so you could have an url like ering.me/handle. Used it in email signatures, web calling etc. It didn't pick up at that time or we didn't market enough :) Hope the market is mature now and products like this succeed. All the best.

I'm not really surprised. The people who grew up with phone calls and who like to "hop on a call" to work out issues are all aging out. They are in their fifties at the youngest, if not already retired. It's my experience that far fewer younger people reach for the phone as a first means of contact. It's not preferred, and they try to avoid it. And by "call" I mean direct, synchronous, real-time conversation. Whether…

Hmm, I’m not sure about this. I’m in my 30s. Use lots of Slack huddles at work, with colleagues of all ages, and I caught up with a couple of friends this week on regular phone calls.

Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#89

Post by SoftTalker »

the_sleaze_ wrote: post #60
ahmadtbk wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The nice thing about real time calls is they help avoid confusion, convey more emotion and information than most messages can. There is less ambiguity usually during a real conversation. Conversations tend to resolve very quickly because in the span of five minutes we can go back and forth on multiple questions, get clarity and finalize how we want continue. Some things require this but not everything. There is a bal…

Of course all points are correct - and yet > nearly half [of gen z] admit that speaking on the phone makes them feel anxious (49 per cent) > an awkward phone call is one of the top three things they would most want to avoid (42 per cent) That being said I'm quite confident there is enough of a market that doesn't dread talking on the phone that this company could do very well for itself and its founders financial goa…

For me, my reluctance to use the phone is that 90% of the phone calls I get are spams/scams or to put it most kindly, unsolicited. I have just developed a visceral dislike for answering phone calls. My phone is set only to ring if you're in my contacts list. Everone else goes to voicemail (I guess -- I never set it up and I never check it).

When I was young we had a landline at home and yes there were some telemarketing calls but they were not the majority. Most calls were from friends or family or legitimate other purposes. That's not how it is today, at least in my experience.

Part of it is that anything other than a local call used to cost money. So there was a financial disincentive to robo-call thousands of people hoping that you'd find one rube.

Re: Show HN: OnAir – create link, receive calls

#90

Post by Twistyfiasco »

SoftTalker wrote: post #89
the_sleaze_ wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course all points are correct - and yet > nearly half [of gen z] admit that speaking on the phone makes them feel anxious (49 per cent) > an awkward phone call is one of the top three things they would most want to avoid (42 per cent) That being said I'm quite confident there is enough of a market that doesn't dread talking on the phone that this company could do very well for itself and its founders financial goa…

For me, my reluctance to use the phone is that 90% of the phone calls I get are spams/scams or to put it most kindly, unsolicited. I have just developed a visceral dislike for answering phone calls. My phone is set only to ring if you're in my contacts list. Everone else goes to voicemail (I guess -- I never set it up and I never check it). When I was young we had a landline at home and yes there were some telemarket…

How do you handle calls from unknowns like Doctors, hospitals or clinics?
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