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Hum

letshum.com

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Re: Hum

#31

Post by wpietri »

jitl wrote: post #5
dalek2point3 wrote: post #2

Google Wave 2.0?

It's got a lot more focus than Wave had at launch. Wave's big problem was that it introduced so many new features at once, in one product. No one could figure out what to do with it, and it was very confusing. This looks much more focused, although its unclear what it offers over Hangouts or FB messenger. The only feature it seems to add over facebook's product is a focus on conversation subjects versus social groups…

Was that Wave's issue? I thought it was that it was a solution in search of a problem.

Which does make me wonder what problem Hum is solving. What group is saying, "X is really painful for us"?

Re: Hum

#32

Post by rrradical »

I don't get the need for a subject line. You're always going to read a message from friends. They can screen the first line of the first message if they want. If I want to start up a new conversation with a friend group, it should just tack onto the last conversation with that friend group.

Re: Hum

#33

Post by thaweatherman »

mjackson wrote: post #20
mxpxpx wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's Hum's relationship with Email? Will it be integrated in any capacity? Also, not in a technical manner, but how will Hum be different than any other chat program?

Hum is able to both send and receive emails. People who receive stuff you send over email will be able to reply using the usual reply button, but it's not a full-fledged email client. The email integration is there to make it easy for folks who'd like to use it with their existing network of email contacts. In addition, every Hum user gets an email address at letshum.com that they can use for incoming email.

This didn't address the question of how Hum will be different than any other chat program

Re: Hum

#34

Post by zyxley »

Given that I started using Slack (slack.com) last week, what in Hum would tempt me away from it? Slack fits pretty much everything I would want in team communication (being more or less private IRC with persistent history, full history searching, file uploads, etc), and has straightforward APIs and preexisting integration with assorted software and services.

The only thing I'm seeing Hum offer that Slack doesn't have any equivalent to is the email integration, and if I'm emailing somebody external to my team or company I'm not going to want to treat it like a chat anyway.

Re: Hum

#35

Post by 1stop »

thaweatherman wrote: post #33
mjackson wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hum is able to both send and receive emails. People who receive stuff you send over email will be able to reply using the usual reply button, but it's not a full-fledged email client. The email integration is there to make it easy for folks who'd like to use it with their existing network of email contacts. In addition, every Hum user gets an email address at letshum.com that they can use for incoming email.

This didn't address the question of how Hum will be different than any other chat program

Yeah, it kind of did.

Which chat program do you know can send a message as an email? And receive chat messages via an email address?

It seems the idea behind this, is that it's a "persistent chat".

Re: Hum

#36

Post by eps »

pazimzadeh wrote: post #12

Why announce the product before shipping? I added my email to the list, but I probably won't remember what the product is when you finally release it. The copy could use some work, you should be able to pare down a lot of the text. Also, you could increase the font size for maximum comfort. Why is the product name capitalized? When I see HUM I think "H. U. M."

> you could increase the font size for maximum comfort

Oh, god, no. It is very well sized as it is.

Increase your display DPI instead.

Re: Hum

#37

Post by eps »

mjackson wrote: post #9

Hey all! Co-founder of HUM here, and happy to answer any questions you may have about it. We've been cranking away on this product for the better part of the past year and are very excited to be rolling it out over the coming weeks.

You should mention this in your HN profile. Your other comment here was in gray because it looks like astroturfing.

Re: Hum

#38

Post by peteforde »

fournm wrote: post #29
mjackson wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make some excellent points about using email in a support organization. To be fair though, Hum isn't designed to be used by employees in a call center. Instead, Hum addresses a much more fundamental shift in communication patterns that is already in full swing. Conversations are getting shorter and shorter, and more to the point. Most teens I know never check their email. Many of them don't even have email addres…

It's rather hard to believe that any number of them wouldn't have an email address, considering everything they would use in place of it requires an email address to sign up for. Are they mostly talking to friends via email? Probably not--I don't think that's ever been the case with teens--but I can't imagine that they just flat out do not have an account anywhere.

My non-scientific research suggests that the "teens don't have an email account" is 100% myth.

There's no research to cite because as you rightly concluded, if you don't have email then you don't have Facebook or much else.

Re: Hum

#39

Post by User8712 »

1stop wrote: post #35
thaweatherman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This didn't address the question of how Hum will be different than any other chat program

Yeah, it kind of did. Which chat program do you know can send a message as an email? And receive chat messages via an email address? It seems the idea behind this, is that it's a "persistent chat".

Doesn't Facebook chat integrate with email in the exact same way?

Re: Hum

#40

Post by hu_me »

mjackson wrote: post #13
peteforde wrote: post #6

Putting aside my own aversion to yet another opportunity to ramp up my continuous partial attention deficit, this strikes me as a solution looking for a problem. One of my smartest friends noticed that when his support team answered emails quickly, the customer would treat this as an implicit invitation to shift the support thread into a support chat, via email. They added a 3-hour delay before support sees any email…

You make some excellent points about using email in a support organization. To be fair though, Hum isn't designed to be used by employees in a call center. Instead, Hum addresses a much more fundamental shift in communication patterns that is already in full swing. Conversations are getting shorter and shorter, and more to the point. Most teens I know never check their email. Many of them don't even have email addres…

IM / text conversations are shorter but they also drift from one topic to the other. Generally chats are grouped based on people while emails are grouped based on topics. Categorizing them with subjects wouldnt really be practical.
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