

Show HN: remote access to your Android phone with Shynk - samkline
https://shynk.com/

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danielhunt
I really do love the idea behind these kinds of services - SMS from a desktop
browser window? Awesome.

But I _really_ don't want to pass all of my personal traffic off to a rndom
new startup's server. How can you convince people to use this and trust you?
Does this kind of thing rely on the serial over sharers to just connect their
Google account up, and willingly pass off their private messaging?

Maybe I'm being overly critical, but this is precisely the kind of thing I
would want to run myself, not give to someone else to run.

 _edit_ It seems I jumped the gun a little - their FAQ says that they
explicitly don't store the messages on their servers, making them a dumb pipe
to just send data. Still, my instinct is to wonder who else can see my
messages :/

~~~
moe
_But I really don't want to pass all of my personal traffic off to a random
new startup's server_

And rightly so. Just use EasySMS for the SMS thing (it runs entirely on your
phone, no third party involved) and one of the six dozen Filesharing/Samba
apps that run over Wifi _without_ going through a remote party (personally I'm
using the samba app with the red icon, don't recall the name right now).

Sorry @shynk, but your app is broken by design and the proper solutions have
been available in the app-store for years.

~~~
evanpurkhiser
Another option for SMS from your computer is to use Google Voice. If your with
Sprint you can link your number and call and text from your browser.

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mirsadm
How does this differ to something like Airdroid (www.airdroid.com)? It's not
really clear to me and I can't run it at the moment.

Airdroid is almost perfect and the screenshots on the Play Store don't show
your app in a good light.

~~~
samkline
That is the most common question I see (it's been asked on reddit a lot, too).
It is similar. One of the main differences is that Shynk works over mobile
networks, not just over wifi. This lets Shynk provide other functionality,
too. e.g. sharing files publicly and connection tunneling.

As I continue working on Shynk, you'll see their feature sets diverge a little
more. I'd like to implement some more features that take advantage of the fact
that Shynk uses the public internet.

As for the screenshots: they're not too beautiful, but the app itself is a
pretty minimal part. After you log in, you should be able to forget about the
app and just use the website's interface.

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rodh257
Nice job, seems to work well. I love airdroid but it annoys me that I am
constantly having to reconnect after I walk out of wifi range. If this gets
around that issue then I'd swap.

One comment I had is that if I was to download this app on my device, the
initial experience could be improved somewhat. The first screen is a login one
and it says to go to your website, sign up and come back to the app. I did
this on my mobile browser (chrome) and it was a bit clunky to sign up (I had
the feedback/need help button hover over the form a bit). Perhaps instead of
that, you could have a registration function right in the app? even if it was
just a web view with a mobile optimized signup web page loaded. That way I
don't have to leave the app.

Not a major thing but thought I'd offer you some feedback.

~~~
samkline
Thanks for the feedback!

It should get past the wifi range issue, as Shynk was designed with that in
mind. It will automatically reconnect when it can (even if that means using
3G).

In-app registration is definitely something I've been planning on
implementing, but it hadn't been asked about before, so I hadn't prioritized
it.

