

Hello, PushBullet - push anything to your Android phone from your browser - Guzba
http://blog.pushbullet.com/2013/01/20/hello-pushbullet/

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nickpresta
Pushing files is interesting, but addresses, notes, and lists are easily done
already.

Pushing an address:

1\. Search address on Google Maps

2\. Open up Maps on Android

3\. Click on "My Places" from dropdown menu

4\. Swipe to Recent

Pushing notes:

1\. Create notes in Google Drive

2\. Open on Android

Pushing lists:

1\. Create list in Google Drive

2\. Open on Android

Pushing websites:

1\. Open website on laptop in Chrome

2\. Open Chrome browser on Android

3\. Select the "Other Devices" tab

4\. Open website

I suppose you could push files via Drive as well.

Pretty cool though; I may give it a try.

~~~
Guzba
I agree there are easy ways to do most of PushBullet's functionality through
other means but I think there is a lot of power in not just actually getting
the list on your phone with Google Drive, but actively pushing it into your
notifications.

Glad to hear you'll give it a try :)

~~~
apoorvp
Downloading it as I speak.

Not everyone knows how to push using those apps and I hope this makes life
simple. :)

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forcer
I have installed it. time will tell whether I will actually remember to use it
when I need it.

One thing you should definitely fix - once you install Android app and run it
for first time, it tells you that you need to sign in using your G account. I
thought the reference is for the web-app since the android app already listed
my G account email address at the bottom of the screen. In the web-app I
checked I am signed in and yet I could not do any push. So I was frustrated
why the wep-app does not recognize my android device. I touching the android
app randomly and finally a random click on my email address made the
connection.

Its definitely not obvious how to pair the device with the web app. You should
make some button in the app

Otherwise I like it :)

~~~
Guzba
Thanks a lot for the feedback. I 100% agree I need to make pairing more clear.

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BHSPitMonkey
How does the data get from point A to point B? Does everything pass through
your servers? Do I have any reason to feel that my URLs/maps/files couldn't be
snooped upon by yourself or anyone else?

~~~
Guzba
Good question. I use Google's Cloud Messaging to actually deliver the pushes
but the data in a push is not plaintext, and the push sometimes doesn't even
have the data at all (the GCM message is just a tickle). All interaction with
PushBullet app servers is done by https. Overall, I don't think I've done
anything stupid but I wouldn't trust PushBullet to anything you consider
prudently private.

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grncdr
very interesting. If this had an API and/or a chrome extension I could see
myself using it a lot. If you're looking for collaborators ping me (email in
my profile)

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moreati
Slightly OT, rather than Chrome to Phone I use
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/qr-code-tag-
extens...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/qr-code-tag-
extension/bcfddoencoiedfjgepnlhcpfikgaogdg), so I can send a URL to anyone in
the room with a smartphone. Admittedly they have to install something like
Google Goggles first

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camtarn
Giving this a go - I do have solutions for most of these things (Evernote for
notes, Maps' built-in syncing, etc) but this sounds like it might be
convenient, especially for files.

One small thing... when I started the app, it fired up my Twitter client O.o
What's up with that?

~~~
Guzba
Nothing in PushBullet should fire up your Twitter client. :? Very strange.

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spinchange
Downloaded app, installed, and added push URL to bookmarks bar. It's awesome
as is, but as others have mentioned, any kind of browser extension that would
facilitate capturing selected text to send as a note or in one of the given
formats would make this superlative.

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arpit
For those asking for an API for something like this, take a look at
PushOver(<https://pushover.net/>). While PushOver doesn't support files, it
does have a nice API and can also be used in IFTTT recipes.

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jaggs
Doesn't work for me. Latched to my email and shows my phone on the dashboard,
but when I try to push something nothing appears on the phone. I've tried
pushing the sync button too. Is it US only? Or does it need wifi on the
computer?

~~~
Guzba
I did see in the logs that someone's Google account wasn't playing nicely. I
should be passing along error messages better, hah. If you wanted to message
me the Google account you signed up with, I'll look into it.

~~~
jaggs
Yeah got it. Two factor authentication. That will kill it stone dead, won't
it?

~~~
Guzba
I bet your right. Too funny, you'll never think of everything you should test,
right? :)

~~~
jaggs
Heh, ain't that the truth. :)

[Update: I apologize greatly. Both my test pushes just arrived perfectly in my
notifications bar. Nice!!! ]

~~~
Guzba
Glad to hear they made it though the pipes!

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rsingel
How does this differ from the Chrome to Phone plugin?

~~~
yoavfr
Just installed it. It's not a about pushing specific urls, but instead you
push specific predefined data types. The ones available right now are "Note",
"Address", "List", "File". Pushing is done by visiting the site at this time,
though I can imaging a browser extension is in the works.

Personally, I don't think I'll use it - I use dropbox when I want to sync a
file with my phone, Evernote for notes and lists, and just Chrome to Phone for
addresses (via google maps) or urls.

~~~
bostonvaulter2
I'm glad that it's not just through extensions, that was the major thing I
didn't like about Chrome to Phone (since sometimes I use public computers).

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absolon
Please add feature to direct picture send to phone. Now I have to save it to
disk than using "File" to send to phone. Anyway great idea.

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yesimahuman
I still email myself things, or text myself something, which sucks. This seems
like a serious replacement for that. Wish it was on iOS!

~~~
helloimben
I could definitely use something like this on iOS as well.

As a designer, I'm constantly making things I want to be able to show to
others at any given time, so I constantly email mockups to my phone. The
process currently sucks, and this would be really helpful.

~~~
guptaneil
Sounds like Dropbox would help you with your problem.

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gekko68
So what's your business model? How do we know that you won't sell our e-mail
addresses you get by signing in via Google account?

~~~
gekko68
No answer?

I guess the business model is to sell the e-mail addresses after all.

~~~
Guzba
No, its not. I just haven't had the time to get that far. It's a hard problem
but selling emails isn't an option.

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iosnoob
Applaud a great start! Add iOS support and a chrome extension and reverse
direction as well and I'd use this all day every day.

~~~
derwildemomo
There's something quite similar for iOS already, it's called beamapp [
<http://getbeamapp.com/> ].

~~~
ipedrazas
Is it ready yet? it never worked for me :(

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fidz
Why minimum version of PushBullet is android ICS? How about people that still
use Gingerbread or below?

~~~
Guzba
I optimized around getting the app out and supporting devices pre ICS got cut
for now, that's all. (Holo theme + new apis means cleaner code and in my
experience with other apps, ICS+ is much less quirky so I can guarantee a
better quality of experience with much less effort)

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voltagex_
Would love an API so I can push IRC alerts to my phone. Growl integration
would also work well.

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tapan_pandita
OMG, yes! I was wondering why it wasn't easier to do any of this! Downloading
now.

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EFil
Hello, why is the file limit 5MB? can you make it bigger?

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jdangu
Care to explain the difference with Chrome To Phone?

~~~
treeform
Pushbullet is a superset of Chrome to Phone. Chrome to Phone can only send
link while push bullet can send other Media as well such as addresses and todo
lists.

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o_sam_o
Nice!

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