
Show HN: Friendtainer – Get reminded to meet with friends regularly - miloszpp
http://friendtainer.com
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hoodoof
Careful with this one - I think Facebook own the patents on friends - their
lawyers aren't keen on non-Facebook software that involves relationships.

But seriously - it's a really good idea - make something of it before you get
Zucked.

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jbpetersen
That sounds like a good one for the EFF to take on if it's true.

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startupdiscuss
This should be expanded to include all kinds of touches (emails, calls, social
media contact), and all levels of friends, and have it automatically update by
going through your email, facebook and twitter.

You could charge $5 if you said it was for contacts, and networking. Or $20/mo
if you said it was for sales.

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miloszpp
Thanks, these are some nice ideas. However, I specifically didn't want it to
be marketed as a tool for sales since then how would you differentiate it from
a CRM?

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startupdiscuss
The positioning of the product is a matter of how you describe it, where you
advertise, and what you compare it to. With the name you have, and with the
use cases, it is pretty clearly "for" friends.

However, that shouldn't prevent you from adding those other features.
Especially auto-capture is key rather than logging.

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iamwil
You need a context to reach out to your friend, even if you got reminded. If
you get nagged, and you don't have a reason to reach out, it's unlikely that
you will. It should be coupled with recent news they had, or something you
read recently that they might be interested in.

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o_____________o
I would use this for my large family if it were an app that imported my
contacts and automatically reset the maintenance timer when I phoned with
someone for > 5 minutes.

Maybe it could have an option to also remind you when it was someone's
birthday.

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miloszpp
Author here. Thank you for some great feature ideas! Currently, it's
implemented as a PWA so integrating with the phone book is not an option.
However, it should be fairly easy to do with hybrid app approach. I will give
it a thought.

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uberneo
I have never thought that this day will come and finally we need technology to
remind us about meeting our friends. Its sad. On the side note nice little
well executed project.

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exclusiv
I'm personally bearish on it too because I'm a firm believer that most people
aren't meant to be in your life forever.

So many people spend a lot of time trying to maintain a lot of light
friendships that they get sidetracked from really meaningful ones.

They'll attend their friends' events to show their face but they're hardly
there because they have 3 other events they feel they need to show their face
at for 30 minutes each. Thanks so much for your meaningful attendance...

“If you accept a dinner invitation, you have a moral obligation to be
amusing.” - Wallis, Duchess of Windsor (1896-1986)

If you can't be amusing - don't show up.

Apart from my personal view on the concept - this application is probably
better suited for biz dev.

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meagher
> So many people spend a lot of time trying to maintain a lot of light
> friendships that they get sidetracked from really meaningful ones.

Completely agree. It's an easy trap to fall into because you need time to put
these relationships in perspective.

Tangentially related:

10 Types of Odd Friendships You're Probably Part of
([http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/10-types-odd-friendships-
youre...](http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/12/10-types-odd-friendships-youre-
probably-part.html))

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jtraffic
I recently had a desire to get in touch with people from my past, and reached
out on LinkedIn because I'm not on any other network. Man alive was that ever
a rewarding experience. I was blown away. I got 4 of 4 responses back (even
the consultant who works 100+ hours a week and who I haven't seen in 10 years
replied.)

I think if the app caught on it could potentially be a platform for more.
Like, "Too many neglected friends? Time for a party."

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miloszpp
Author here. Nice one, I will keep that in mind.

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aakriti1215
I've been looking for something like this for a while.

It would be cool if this integrated with social media platforms automatically
to figure out when we communicated with someone via text/email/facebook
message.

Also, I would have probably liked this more if it was an app, though I know
not everyone will agree with that.

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netsharc
I once used such an app, but uninstalled it when I realised the nagging didn't
help me. Googling "app to remind you to contact friends" shows that this idea
isn't that unique:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=app+to+remind+you+to+contact...](https://www.google.com/search?q=app+to+remind+you+to+contact+friends)

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Rondom
Good idea.

Not sure about the experience from a mobile, so take it with a grain of salt.
I tried this with Firefox on Desktop.

When adding a new friend, there is a feld labled "Name" (in grey). I somehow
assumed that clicking "Name" focuses the name field. I actually went back and
forth because I thought it is a bug. Some sites use pre-fill text-fields with
the label (this is bad and should be avoided, because the label is no longer
visible once you have filled in something). I guess I got accustumed to this
anti-pattern or it is because there is no visual distinction between the label
and the actual text field until you actually start filling in something.

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miloszpp
Author here. Thanks for feedback, I will definitely look into this.

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pcmaffey
The next, obvious step, is a bot that reaches out to your friends for you.

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devoply
Step after that is a replicant that shows up to the meeting for you.
Maintaining friendships has never been this easy.

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bbcbasic
And regifts: Virtual presents you can receive on an occasion, hate, and send
to someone else on their occasion such that you don't seem cheap.

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throwaway_374
Is it just me that is jaw-droppingly astounded at why this is getting any love
at all as a concept? Really great execution and design, but I simply cannot
get on board with the concept. It is literally specialised calendar alerts and
has no USP whatsoever. I'm amazed people are actually suggesting they would
pay for this service.

I honestly thought this was a parody app as a social experiment performance
art to highlight social media behaviour. Sorry, love the design and execution,
but product has zero intrinsic value.

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bbcbasic
I wonder if their is a danger we'll become robots responding to massive Todo
lists. E.g. work emails, personal emails, voice mails, apps telling you to
exercise, meet up with a mate or post a blog or have sex (ok last one is a
straw man, sorry!). I can imagine any fun and spontaneity being sucked out of
life by too much Todo tech.

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kjbflsudfb
Not meaning to be cynical of the work done here, but I don't know if I
understand the overall concept. If you aren't staying in contact with a
particular friend "enough" then maybe you aren't really friends? Sort of a
natural selection of your friends.

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sfeng
In my experience it's very easy to grow separated from people you don't see
organically. That doesn't mean you don't want to be close with them, or
they're not important to you, just that life without help won't throw you
together anymore.

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prawn
And that help might be a schedule (work friends, social sport, regular get
togethers with others who have kids) or it could be an app/site prompting
contact. However you can make it work, do it IMO.

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isomorph
Great! I need this. I asked a friend about it when I first thought of making
this for myself. My friend said he achieved the same thing using some customer
relationship management software and then decided to stop using it. Not sure
why. I've signed up.

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erezsh
I like it! I can get caught up in my own hobbies and interests and I forget to
keep in touch.

There's a lot of missing features:

* Change friend name

* Add notes

* Remove friend

* Import friends (they are already on my facebook, so why not)

* Send message (can open a messenger link, for example)

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miloszpp
Author here. Thanks for the suggestions!

You can actually remove a friend - just slide the list to the left.

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david90
It's sad you need to be reminded to meet a friend with an app.

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maggiedean
My exact same thought. Sadder still is that someone like me could probably
benefit from such technology.

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nikmobi
I'm getting an error about it still being in development mode when I try to
log in with Facebook.

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miloszpp
Author here. Thank you so much for spotting this, it should be fine now.

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Rondom
Another one: How can I change my password?

