
Show HN: An audio only social network - dl_terp
http://currentlyapp.io/
======
richard___
Couple things:

1\. The sexual abuse story is unrelated to your app and feels like you're
trying to guilt the customer into using it. The best way to support victims
would be to donate directly to the NGO not use your app, and therefore this
story seems like a disingenuous marketing strategy.

2\. The problem with audio only social network is there's no way to "skim"
things. There's no guarantee that the audio story a user clicks on will be
interesting, and by the time the user figures out its not, you've just wasted
60s of his life and he's angry and wants to delete your app.

~~~
dl_terp
So for #2, I think that this is where you need to be selective on who you
follow. It won't be a Facebook where you have hundreds of people. Rather more
like 15 or 20 people you really care about and like their stories. I think
that's the niche that an audio only social network could fill.

~~~
problems
So... podcasting but with shittier content?

~~~
ovibos
In the same way that Tumblr is like blogging but with shittier content, or
YouTube is like cinema production but with shittier content

~~~
dl_terp
I just started clapping when I read this. Thank you ovibos for a good Tuesday
night chuckle. :)

------
cocktailpeanuts
Man, while I admire your story, this is not how you advertise your app.

"I'm building this because I want to fight sex trafficking"?? It just confuses
potential users what the hell this app is for. I actually read the whole
story, it's a good story, but in the end i was left puzzled (Is this app for
reporting sex traffickers to the authorities in audio messages?) AND kind of
annoyed that I spent the time reading the whole thing thinking that it would
describe what the app is for.

~~~
dl_terp
Thanks for this feedback. I'll switch which of the 2 stories shows up at the
front (as opposed to which one you must click on in order to read).

Sorry for the unnecessary frustration!

~~~
throwanem
> I'll switch which of the 2 stories shows up at the front

Good call. Maybe back off a little more than that, even. So I'm reading your
page and liking what I see. I would like to know more. Here's a thing that
might have more information, so I click it. Now I'm reading a surprisingly
affecting comic about a kid who's been sexually abused and the fight against
sex slavery. My mental and emotional associations with your brand are suddenly
a great deal more complex, and quite a bit darker, than they were. Your app
suddenly has a steeper hill to climb toward making me happy enough to feel
that using it is worth my while. If it fails to do so, and I don't use it,
your efforts toward your honorable cause are impaired thereby. Is telling me
about it really as important as maybe getting me to contribute to it in a
material way?

Don't get me wrong. I like why you're doing what you're doing. But maybe "not
what you want to lead with" understates the case on that one just a hair, is
what I'm trying to get across here.

~~~
dl_terp
may I ask if others feel this way? My sharing this is because I think it's an
important part of the story and why we created Currently, but I don't want it
to have a "dark aura" around the app by any means.

Does anyone else agree with the above sentiment?

~~~
likeclockwork
Honestly, it was a bit jarring to read a comic portraying you as some kind of
'anti-rape hero' at the bottom of a page about a weird app.

You didn't even tell us what happened to your friend! It seemed like you were
just using her story to aggrandize yourself. What happened to her? How would
she feel if she read this comic? Is she getting a slice of this pie too?

It just seemed kind of exploitative and in comic form...

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
It's also a very weird narrative.

If he is really so passionate about fighting sex trafficking, he should be
building something that solves that problem, not just another social
networking app and using that story to get attention.

I finished reading the cartoon and was like "wtf did i just read?" It felt
like one of those viagra ad spam schemes you find in various comment sections
on the internet where the commenter starts out writing something that sounds
very relevant to the story, and in the end somehow segues the narrative into
"buy viagra and cialis here [https://blahblah"](https://blahblah")

------
codingmonkey23
Here in germany I have never seen anyone using the audio feature of their
instant messenger until I moved to Berlin. I now see people in the subway
using WhatsApp to just send voice messages back and fourth, all the time. So
as a vim-user-kind-of-guy, I don't get it - but there seems to be a demand for
this kind of communication. Oh, right - and there is snapchat. Also don't get
it. Maybe I'm just getting old...

~~~
kriro
As a counterpoint of sorts: I have no idea how hard it is to type stuff in
Asian languages but voice chat messages seem to be very popular in many parts
of Asia (specifically China with WeChat).

~~~
mpeg
Voice messages are massive everywhere in Asia though, even in places where
they mostly use latin alphabets or English like Malaysia, Singapore,
Philippines ...

------
perilunar
What? You built an app so you could ‘rescue’ people from prostitution because
your friend was sexually abused at home? I don’t see the connection.

If you want to help prostitutes then listen to them, and support
decriminalisation, not ‘rescue’.

What you do with any profits are not my business, but this is a real turn off.
Just leave it out.

------
switchstance
Not to be a jerk, but as a video guy, this promo video needs some work.

1\. The Premiere Pro "Morph Cut" doesn't really work that well and can easily
be spotted. See :38 for an example.

Morph Cut Overview:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOvDwiE0qSo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOvDwiE0qSo)

2\. The tracking/compositing of the app on the phone screen is very crude. :59

3\. The audio needs a lot of work. I'm on a laptop with no headphones, and I
hear the bad ADR work. "Your stories" at 1:28 stands out the most.

~~~
messutied
On a related note I was expecting to see you guys using the app in the video,
it would be nice to see examples of real life use of it, Im not totally sure
how/if I would use it

~~~
dl_terp
Would you prefer this video instead? It's more serious which is why I didn't
use it.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91mt9ZRLGpI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91mt9ZRLGpI)

------
doke01
Built something very similar for the web using widgets back in 2006-7, along
the time twitter was taking off. iPhones were just coming on the scene and
there was no app ecosystem yet so we built one of the most advanced flash
widgets ever. It worked amazingly well, but we just couldn't get the traction
needed at the time. Overall, i think the timing was off. I've seen many
similar ideas over the years ,but yours is the closest to our original. I have
years of thinking about this type of service under my belt so if you want to
chat about some of the ideas we implemented beyond what you have now, let me
know.

~~~
dl_terp
I'd absolutely love to! Darren@currentlyapp.io is my email. I appreciate the
offer

------
superice
This is awesome. Although the Android app has some rough edges it gives off a
very personal and connecting vibe. I think the shades of blue and green you
chose feel too cold for what the platform is supposed to be, the app feels
very cold initially... but then this amazing thing happened: I started to
listen to the Ocean. The Ocean to me feels like something from the movie "Her"
(2013): these are other peoples stories and lives I'm listening to, and that
is both really odd and really cool. It feels very personal, and I think this
might be exactly what many people are missing nowadays: just taking 5 minutes
out of your day to empathize with others, and since it's audio only you could
do that while in the car, or while working, or while cleaning your house. I
haven't yet tried this with family or close friends, and I think it might feel
too personal at that point. Then again, I'm not that socially capable, so that
might be just me. Perhaps it takes some getting used to.

As I said before though, there are some rough edges. The written text in the
app feels... unprofessional, which might not be a bad thing necessarily. I
think you tried to find a light tone to connect with users, but you haven't
yet succeeded in striking that light hearted balance between connecting with
your users and talking with the confidence of a business. The colors look
somewhat cold for what feels like a very warm app. And on the tech-side there
could be some improvements, like detecting 'empty' waves: apparently people
happen to accidently send out a wave without any meaningful sound whatsoever
into the world, and I imagine detecting that is something that could be done
automatically. By the way, sound quality is okay, but make sure you don't
neglect it. This idea will only work if you forget that you're listening
through a device, if it's anything like a phone call I think that might be to
robotic.

Something I just thought of: how do you plan to tackle the language barrier?
Is the Ocean going to consist of English-only spoken text, or are you going to
tag waves with a language and filter based on what the user is using?

~~~
dl_terp
Thanks so much for the feedback. I'm asking the developers about automatically
removing blank waves. That seems like a big win. Otherwise we might have to
have it as an option under "report" and rely on the community (at least
initially) to mark a blank wave as blank.

As for the language barrier. Yes, we're going to be english only to begin
with, then I think we'll make versions for other languages.

I'm trying to think of the best way to simply message this right now. Let me
know if you have any great ideas.

------
fiatjaf
This seems like a much saner social network.

Also, the comics at the end of the page are great, the drawings, the
narrative, everything.

~~~
dl_terp
thank you :) those were very difficult to get created.

~~~
fiatjaf
Oh, it wasn't you?

~~~
dl_terp
Thoughts, mapping, idea, verbiage: all me

Actual design work: no way in heck I could ever make something that looks that
good ;)

------
rabbyte
watching that promo video the value proposition is you get to hear about all
the dick moves your friends are pulling on each other.

edit- read the comic, I'm even more confused.

~~~
duckarmada
Well, there's one comic that is his motivations for building the app, which
while admirable, but I'm not sure if appealing to my pathos makes me want to
use the app any more than I would have otherwise. The other comic is better
directed at why I/you might want to use it.

~~~
dl_terp
So in your opinion, I should make the "What is Currently" the front one, and
the "Why I Built It" one as the background/secondary?

Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

~~~
manmal
Nah it has flair. I find it charming, and the comic about sexual trafficking
really got me. Keep it up!

~~~
dl_terp
I'm thinking I'm going to change it, because some others have pointed out
that, if you come at the comic thinking you're going to get the reason behind
the app itself, it's misleading. But I'll keep it as the secondary one you can
click on :)

Thanks for the great feedback guys! You all rock! As I've said before, tshirts
all around! (to those who want them and use the app) ;)

------
nvahalik
It's called Ham Radio. ;)

~~~
xd1936
When my Ham buddy passed away two years ago, I was unable to hear our local
club's last call discussion for him. I wasn't able to get to a radio at the
time. I wish someone had been willing to step up with some technology and at
the very least, record it.

Point being, sometimes more modern technology can be better than the old
stuff. If he had instead had social circles interested in a more modern
platform, then maybe I could have been a part of it. I'm all for people like
the OP here trying to innovate in the audio space. I think the medium has a
lot to offer.

~~~
jonah
You could have used AllStar Link or EchoLink to connect to your club's net via
the internet or mobile device.

Also, many clubs record their nets and post the archives online. (Mine does.)

[1] [https://www.allstarlink.org/](https://www.allstarlink.org/) [2]
[http://echolink.org/](http://echolink.org/)

------
sdegutis
Remember when people used to visit the people they care to listen to, and
would actually sit down, and physically listen to them? But now our lives are
too busy and filled with non-stop schedules so we just don't have time
anymore. And even if we did have time, we'd feel like we were wasting time.
We're missing something vital in life with all this technology running it for
us. I think this app is inspired by the developers realizing we need that
basic human need, but without fully realizing what it is. So they came up with
a way to sort of do the exact same thing, but asynchronously, and as a social
media app.

~~~
shuntress
Many of the people I care to listen to live far enough away from me that to
'actually sit down, and physically listen to them' is a multi-day endeavor.

~~~
dl_terp
exactly. This isn't to replace real friendships / community, but to help you
stay connected with those you can't speak with / visit regularly

------
jrowley
Reminds me of a very cool paper I heard about at ACM Dev 2014.

"A Mobile Application for Interactive Voice Forums:Design and Pilot Deployment
in Rural India"

[http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/um/people/thies/dev14-cg...](http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/um/people/thies/dev14-cgnet-app.pdf)

Researchers built a landline/cellphone based social network. It could be
especially useful for rural areas with low literacy rate.

------
phirschybar
The idea of an audio-only social network got me clicking. I was imagining
something music-based. But, IMHO, having read about it on your site, I am much
less interested.

~~~
dl_terp
Yeah, we're going after the "stories" angle right now, but if we ever pivot
I'll let you know ;)

------
mankash666
Maybe I'm wrong, these are just my observations:

1\. Millennials prefer text to voice. My millennial friends don't answer phone
calls, but promptly reply to texts 2\. Voice is an older generation mainstay.
But their affinity to social networks is low.

In my estimate, the target audience is rather small in ℅. However, since the
planet has 2B smartphone users, there might be a play.

~~~
aymeric
I think #1 can easily be fixed with automated transcription on all audio
messages.

~~~
kalleboo
If you're just going to transcribe it, why not just use Siri/etc in the first
place?

------
scandox
This is something I would definitely be interested in, but like some others I
am instinctively put off by the back story. There is no doubt it is an
important story, but its role here, especially on a product homepage, feels
very ambiguous. If this was a blog post somewhere else talking about your
motivation then sure but here it definitely feels like marketing.

------
benoliver999
There used to be a social network called Audioboo that did just this. It was
really cool, and in the early days of smartphones it was really novel to hear
from people.

Now it's just a podcasting platform, but I'll definitely be trying this out
because I miss the old days...

EDIT: The 'boos' are still online, you just need to know the URLs
[http://boos.audioboo.fm/attachments/1543/Recording.mp3](http://boos.audioboo.fm/attachments/1543/Recording.mp3)

------
tyingq
I had finally listened to my last voice mail some time ago. What's old is new
again.

------
tgb
I was immediately reminded of the fiction podcast LifeAfter (or lif-e.af/ter
as they like to style it, making it hard to search for). An audio-only social
network is a major plot device, though obviously slightly contrived to give
them an excuse for most of the action to happen verbally to make a good
podcast.
[https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lifeafter/id1045990056?m...](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/lifeafter/id1045990056?mt=2)
Even your marketing is similar to that in the show.

------
rootedbox
problem.. most people aren't good story tellers.. people are ok decent of at
least taking pictures of something to create a story without words.. hence
snapchat and instagram stories.

~~~
dl_terp
Yeah, I've thought about that. But I'm hoping on two things. First, that if
you are just sharing it across friends, it doesn't matter the "skill level" of
the sharer. Second, that there will be enough value even if you're just a
listener, getting to listen to a personal podcast of your friends' stories.
But this hinges on there being enough sharers in the first place, not all just
listeners.

I appreciate the thought here!

------
gm-conspiracy
Could this be further segmented into types of audio?

For instance, have a social network specifically for user-generated/recorded
farts?

Rank them in multiple dimensions (geolocation, time, genre)?

Thoughts?

~~~
dl_terp
I've thought about a tagging system for topic, but to begin we're trying to
keep everything as streamlined as possible (shortest amount of time between
creating the story and having it out there).

~~~
gm-conspiracy
Ah, I see.

I was thinking more along the lines of re-branding the same app multiple times
for different genres.

I like the tag concept.

------
jonheller
This is one of the best app landing pages I've seen in a long time. Though I
have to admit I haven't even watched the video at the top, the rest of the
page gets straight to the point clearly explaining and demonstrating the app,
and the comics at the end are wonderful.

Also, I can't believe I haven't seen this social network idea executed before.
Seems at least like one worth exploring.

~~~
hellbanner
Well, WeChat supported group chat with Audio over a decade ago. It wasn't
exactly a "follow" model but you could be apart of multiple groups with
varying members and post audio messages, GPS coordinates (eg when meeting up),
text, video, etc.

------
evincarofautumn
I’ve wanted to build something like this for a while, down to the 1-minute
length restriction and follow/reply interaction. (And to go with it, a small
low-power smartphone without a screen!) The main thing that stopped me was
that I was working at Facebook when I came up with it.

However, I probably won’t be using this for one reason: waves are ephemeral,
deleted from their servers after a week.

~~~
dl_terp
May I ask why having the waves deleted after a week is such a disappointment
to you? (And if anyone else thinks the same?) I'd love to know your thoughts /
reasonings behind this statement.

~~~
TACIXAT
I screenshot and save just about every Snapchat between my girlfriend and I. A
lot of them are great pictures of our dogs, memories from vacations, a lot of
junk but sentimental junk. At least have a feature to save your own waves,
then maybe something enabled to allow your friends to save your waves. Maybe
your friend tells a great story, you save it, they pass away, what a great
memory to have of someone.

Edit: Just downloaded it and see that you can save waves. Nice.

~~~
dl_terp
Yes, right now you can save a wave and it'll stay for I think 6 months, but
I'm talking to my devs to see if we can get it to save to the users phone for
the long term (not limited). We'll see what happens with that.

------
Raed667
The landing page is really great, and the effort shows, the concept will also
work for a number of people.

However, this is not for me as I find audio intrusive, where I would either
annoy people around me to record/listen to something, or fetch earphones every
time.

Even if it is not for me, I'm sure that there are a lot of people who would
enjoy this and put it to good use. Good luck!

~~~
dl_terp
I greatly appreciate it! If you know anyone specific who would enjoy it,
please feel free to send them to us ;)

------
adityar
Sounds nice - hope I don't get stuck in a recording loop to get it just right
- like the perfect answering machine message

~~~
dl_terp
As of now (maybe in 2.0) we actually don't have a way for you to listen to
your wave before you submit it in order to fight this "perfection anxiety". We
want to try to be organic in this hyper filtered / photoshopped world as
possible. It bothers some people but seems to be freeing to others :)

------
ameesdotme
Next to the comments made by other users, it seems like the app just uploaded
my address book without explicitly asking me. This was a really scary
situation and resulted in an instant uninstall to hopefully stop it from
uploading.

Not the way to handle this.

~~~
dl_terp
Were you on android or iOS, I was pretty sure it requested access for both,
but I'll look into it for sure!

------
anateus
Reminds me of party lines and voice bulletin boards, perhaps created without
awareness of them?

~~~
dl_terp
I haven't heard of these, (so you're right, created without awareness of them
;)

Could you send over some links so I could get further ideas and have a better
understanding of the competitive landscape?

Thanks!

~~~
anateus
At this point, they're historical rather than part of the current competitive
landscape, but in their time they were vibrant communities. Studying them is
useful much as studying IRC would be useful for someone creating something
like Slack.

------
fpig
Dude, remove the rape shit from the web site for a mobile app. Why you would
think putting that stuff up there was a good idea is beyond me.

I am guessing you put a lot of effort into that comic and feel bad discarding
it, but just do it. Sunk cost.

------
phusion
After discovering Discord and having a large group of Facebook friends who are
on the other side of the country or out of the country, I'm intrigued... but
that could just be the intriginol I took this morning.

~~~
dl_terp
I'd love for you to try it out and let me know how it goes. My personal email
is Darren@CurrentlyApp.io

------
vvs29
Hey, Just trying out your app, is there a place you would prefer your feedback
and bug reports or would you prefer to still use the email mentioned in the
play store?

~~~
dl_terp
please use the email mentioned in the play store, or send them to me directly
at darren@currentlyapp.io

------
smnplk
I watched the video. Are they selling waterproof phones ?

------
cdevs
Who do I hand this $40 to save someone from their pimp?

~~~
dl_terp
I've never found the source of that statistic, but a non-profit I work closely
with is called The Exodus Road. Through them it takes $3000 to fund the
investigative work leading up to a brothel raid. They then estimate that for
every pimp they take down from that raid (they often take down multiples as
well as saving young girls), they save 200 girls into the future. So doing
that math it comes out to $15 per girl saved from entering the industry by
taking down a pimp.

Figures change as do metrics. But I think at the time that figure might have
come from IJM (International Justice Mission), but I can't be certain.

------
superquest
Quite similar to [http://ense.nyc/](http://ense.nyc/) from Venmo founder Iqram
Magdon-Ismail ...

~~~
dl_terp
Thanks for this! I'll definitely check it out! Are there any features that
ense.nyc has that you wish we had?

------
plantsoftware
I was hoping that the interface would be audio as well

~~~
dl_terp
Unfortunately not, but we're working very hard right now so that iOS's voice
over works flawlessly throughout the app. That way the blind and visually
impaired community can use it as well.

------
hanselot
Also, before I could even listen to one story your app tried to force me to
watch a 20 second ad. Needless to say it is now uninstalled.

~~~
dl_terp
Weird, that shouldn't have happened. You're not supposed to get any ads until
you've listened to at least X amount of waves. May I ask what platform you
were on?

------
ComodoHacker
Add Instagram-style fancy audio filters and it might take off. But beware, the
new ICQ is already doing this and much more.

------
youdontknowtho
Wow. That's a genuinely neat idea. Not sure about the delivery because I don't
have an IOS device anymore.

~~~
dl_terp
we're hoping to do a web-based version. Would this work for you?

~~~
youdontknowtho
I would be interested in giving it a try, sure. Are you going to have a
pseudonym policy or is it real name only?

------
skoocda
Very cool! Reminds me of Voxer

~~~
dl_terp
Thanks! Appreciate it!

------
navalsaini
There was another app launched in India with a lot of fanfare 2-3 years ago
([http://bubbly.net/](http://bubbly.net/)). Though I have never received an
invite from a friend or someone on it. (Just sharing)

------
Nexxxeh
Is there a web-based version too? Or is it Android and iOS app only?

~~~
dl_terp
At this point only Android and iOS app only.

Is there a reason you need web-based?

~~~
Nexxxeh
I would rather use the device I've assembled from my choice an almost infinite
combination of parts, permanently hooked up to a hifi-grade 5.1 system with a
subwoofer that's bigger than my head, and a boom mic and pop filter.

As opposed to a device picked in no small part (excuse the pun) because it's
small enough to fit in my small hands. It has a speaker the size of my
fingernail and a microphone that's even smaller again.

I use my phone when I can't use my laptop or workstation. It's a compromise
device, and while I love and heavily use my phone, it's not a replacement.

Everything on my PC is better than on my phone. The screen, the input devices,
the audio input, the audio output.

Plus a decent web client is always going to be more portable and will let you
catch people on whatever device they want to use. You can get it on Windows
phones and tablets, Linux devices, PCs, Macs and consoles.

A web-based version may also enable me to hack in a convenient workflow. Heck,
I'd be tempted to hook it up so I could use it while stuck in traffic. And
maybe if I get addicted to the platform even add a Twilio number so I can use
it if I'm stuck without mobile data somewhere. Not a proper substitute for an
API, but good enough in the beginning.

~~~
dl_terp
That was an amazing response. You've put me over the edge, i'm getting on this
right now :)

------
aethertron
Sounds like VoiceTree from LifeAfter (a fiction story podcast).

------
ezekg
Looks interesting. Have you gotten this submitted to Product Hunt?

~~~
dl_terp
I haven't yet. It's on the to-do list though. I might try to do it tonight.

------
blobman
I would use this, if it was available on Windows Phones.

------
juiced
How do you make money/finance this app?

~~~
dl_terp
It will be an advertising based revenue model.

~~~
petra
Just a side remark: there are a lot of boring jobs where looking at the screen
isn't allowed, but voice communications is possible(and maybe using earphone
buttons).

For them a voice-based social network sounds like a great idea.

------
austinmid1
Very cool! Super stoked about this.

~~~
dl_terp
Austin, if you (or anyone else on here) sign up and send me your tshirt size
and address (Darren@currentlyapp.io) I'd love to send you some swag for
checking us out and repping the product. :) (oh and these are nice Tee's, not
Gildan ;)

------
huntersmith
Have you checked out sparemin.com?

~~~
dl_terp
I haven't. I'll look into it!

Is there anything specific they do that you wish we did?

------
lindi7
this is SO AWESOME. can't wait to use it!! incredible story behind it too.

------
thatwebdude
Irony in an audio-only app using a full-size video hero on their website.

------
miles_matthias
Anchor?

~~~
dl_terp
Can I just say, when I found Anchor on ProductHunt I nearly died. Their theme
and even some verbiage was the same.

But in reality they're going after more of the podcast audience / angle. I'm
trying to position currently as between friends with stories as the backbone.

I think Anchor is awesome and fully support them, but I think there are a lot
of key decisions that have and will continue to be made that will push us
further and further apart :)

------
jayajay
This is a cool idea. I see people on youtube recording themselves painfully
while driving and stuff, and the entire video is just them in the front seat
driving. With this, you can rant while doing activities that require your
entire visual field (washing dishes, laundry, errands, etc.)

Edit: hellban, post invisible. (content good). classify bad content vs. good
content, hellban bad content specifically. possible improvement to an umbrella
hellban

