HangoverApp – Share pics without Internet, only visible if all devices present | Hacker News Reader

HangoverApp – Share pics without Internet, only visible if all devices present

hangoverapp.com

99 pointsxenophin71 comments

I don't hate the app really.. I just kinda hate the culture that produces this app. Am I just getting old?

To be clear, the culture that's producing this app is people trying every permutation possible for app ideas, throwing them out with cliche landing pages, and marketing them on channels like this or Reddit or Product Hunt.

I think there is a 0% chance that the creator is actually a partier who needed this and so he built it.

The two cultures are terrible.

The cultures that try and experiment with different ideas?

Rather than spending 18 months building and 'perfecting' and idea in private then releasing it to real people, doesn't it seem more efficient to Throw 10 ideas/'micro mvps' at the wall and see what sticks? Seems fairly solid to me.

They're satisfied with creating apps for problems no one is really experiencing en masse. I mean it's neat that they're building these things, but I'm driven by problems I encounter that can be solved by software or education. We're just very different yet similar people.

Ugh. "Throw feces at the wall and see if it sticks" is the culture that gave us post-a-day blog spam instead of sporadic thoughtful writing, and github spammers pushing out whatever half-done garbage they typed in on a manic Saturday to be abandoned by Monday.

As the saying goes, "there's a reason you have two ears but only one mouth."

And what exactly is wrong with people getting lots of practice writing and lots of practice coding? You don't need to read what they've written.

I still need to determine whether it's worth reading. Private diaries/libraries are still useful, both for the writing and for the lack of publication.

That's why there should be a way for people to voluntarily designate that what they are writing is not worth reading!

I know sometimes I want to respond to something, but know that my response does not contribute anything useful, and so I wish I could respond in a way that would only be shown if someone opted in to seeing messages self-described as useless.

Or you could identify an activity or perceived problem space and spend a week or two doing real user research and be able to come up with 3 ideas that would kick the crap out of each of those 'micro mvps' because you'd be starting from real user needs. Also, if you were solving a real problem for yourself, that'd be halfway to it as well but never under-estimate the value of a little bit of user research.

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't know if that's a fair reduction.

In the app world we initially thought more everything was better. When apps that took things away (twitter took away characters, snap chat took away permanence) showed up, we realized that sometimes less creates a better social situation.

I love the sentimental value of photography but dislike it's massively redistributable nature. Consider for example this app for... sexual pictures taken with a lover.

> Download HangoverApp and register with your mobile phone number. (It’s secure and anonymous!).

(Emphasis mine)

lolwut?

It's explained in their FAQ: the only information they ask from you to register is your phone number.

Yeah, I think the person quoting the FAQ has found the FAQ.

Good thing there's no way for someone to trace my phone number back to me.

Are there any free emails that work without requiring a cell #?

Is this a serious question?

Guerilla Mail for one.

Sure, and if the provider insists and you don't want, just provide a fake tel number...

They call/text to confirm.

Meet the online SMS receivers... http://www.receive-sms-online.info/

See the reply - have you tried? You need a phone number to get an email and you need a drivers license to get a phone number...

web.de’s freemail, same with gmx’s freemail.

Unless something has changed recently, Gmail in some (most?) countries outside of US.

Like: http://www.anonymbox.com/ ?

Do any free emails require a cell number? In my experience they pester you for it regularly, but continue to work fine without.

Well now we know how they make money.

Are you authenticating by using the Wifi and Bluetooth addresses for input? What would stop someone from spoofing the known devices if so?

Just wondering about the setup.

Everyone has to be in the same place? I can just hand my phone to someone else and let them see something, no data exchange or app required.

Alternatively, the discussion below seems to point out that screenshot blocking is ineffective. If all devices are in the same room, a swift punch to the mouth and taking someone else's device could remove that possibility.

It cuts both ways.

the point is that you have to be together to unlock the photos. It's not that you're sharing photos locally, as seems to be your issue with the app.

But why would I want to take a photo that needs to be "unlocked"? My phone already has a camera on it, and I can already not share photos. I genuinely don't understand what this app is doing.

If you think about homemade porn, it makes some sense.

>If all devices are in the same room, a swift punch to the mouth and taking someone else's device could remove that possibility.

This assumes that you are aware that the screenshot was taken.

The idea of requiring people to be on the same physical location is really nice. It could be used by a more useful app.

Anyone else wondering why you don't just physically show ppl the pictures if you are in the same location as them?

The idea is that you can only access the pictures if everyone of the group is physically present. Sort of how multiple people need to turn a key at the same time to launch a nuclear missile.

We understand the idea. The only usage we can imagine, sharing a private photo, seems way harder in this app than just passing someone your phone.

It seems like you don't understand the idea. This ensures that all parties consent to the content being viewed by any other party.

Does installing this app somehow disable the regular camera app? Not sure how it ensures anything.

Joe takes a picture. I want to see it. But, oops, Billy isn't here to complete the nuclear launch procedure. So I turn to Joe and say "hey, text me that funny picture of Billy." What happens next?

It might work if they delete the original photos (if that's still possible on modern devices).

Or it could require you to manually delete the phone's regular copy of the photos, which your "friends" can verify since they're in the same room.

Well, probably the photo is supposed to be taken with the Hangover app in the first place. I don't know app development, but does an app that accesses the camera _have_ to store the photo alongside photos taken with the normal camera app?

My impression was: group of friends are in vegas having a "Hangover (the movie)" style night and agree to only take photos with this app. That way, come the morning they can all review them, but only when they're all together.

Obviously, if they take photos with their normal camera, or if all apps have to save photos to the filesystem and can be seen by the built in photogallery app, this doesn't work. Maybe the app uploads them to the Hangover site and then automatically deletes them from the phone?

“If your startup failed, it’s because it didn’t solve a tier 1 problem for a large enough audience" - Mitchell Harper. I'm having trouble understanding what problem this solves.

I'd also love to know what the triggers are for people to use this app.

Also hangover... the name entails a totally different kind of application.

Good luck! If i were you I would take time to talk with your target market to validate your idea.

It's like a security mechanism for spicy material. What stays in Vegas (defined as a group of individuals) does a better job of staying in Vegas if collocation is a requirement.

Another angle is a groupon type service. Do something fun together, get a coupon for food/drink/another fun activity that unlocks when all members on the group reunite in a month. Create mechanism for 'chaining' to encourage stickiness. People get slight push to maintain friendships they might let otherwise let slip away.

Sure, I see what you're saying ionforce, and thanks for the clarification.

I still don't see the point...Hangover only works when you 1. go to the same place with 2. the same people, and 3.you want to lock content with those people

I ask how often does this use case occur?

What do you think ionforce?

I'm pretty sure the "Hangover" reference is to the series of (NSFW) still photos that played over the credits at the end of the first Hangover movie. Where they state "we're just going to look through these one time."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBuwZEMMAOM (NSFW)

hahah hilarious...I thoroughly enjoyed the video :)

They claim to protect against screenshotting- is that possible? I was under the impression that it was not something app developers were able to prevent.

I know that Signal (formerly Textsecure) won't let you take a screenshot of any text messages.

That's android.

Except that it can't prevent you from taking a picture of that phone!! It's security through inconvenience!

No technology prevents a 3rd phone from taking a picture of the screen of a different phone.

You could try blinking different parts of the image on and off really fast.

Video then. You can't defeat the analog hole.

I actually tried that for a contract project about 10 years ago. It didn't work. If you blink slower than 20 times per second it's really annoying to the user. And if you blink faster than 10 times per second it's pretty easy to take a picture with a long exposure and get the whole image. So there is no blink speed that offers even marginal protection without making the image useless.

What's the second phone doing in that scenario?

I think the implication is that the 1st phone is the sender and the 2nd phone was the receiver, to parallel how you generally label 1st/2nd/3rd-person or -party.

But I definitely had a laugh about someone holding a crazy 5-phone contraption just to copy images.

It's impossible to 100% protect against copies of media being made.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_hole

IIRC Snapchat detects when a screenshot has been made by spotting that the touch event for a finger held down is suddenly cancelled. Maybe they're doing this, then deleting the screenshot?

Though, is it even possible to delete camera roll items for 3rd-party apps?

Edit: Ah, they just notify, not prevent, much like Snapchat:

> They cannot save it to their camera roll; and you will be notified if they ever take screenshots.

Edit 2: The old trick Snapchat used doesn't work since iOS 7. Instead, it hooks a newly-added notification that a screenshot was taken.

If you don't trust the other end of the communications, just don't hit send... Anything else is BS.

I think it's a neat concept that could be flushed out a bit. Maybe instead of pitching it as a way to take control of potentially embarrassing media, pitch as an excuse to get the group back together again. I'd love to see more social apps that encourage, well people being social.

You mean like the app Groups? :-)

Here's a similar concept for more general secrets (although could be used with pictures) that might be easier for the HN community to "get": Core Secret https://appsto.re/us/MVFMP.i , http://cryptorobots.com/coresecret/documentation.en.html.

Can someone give examples of how this app could/would be used? In what kind of situations, and what the benefit of using it would be.

Private nudes?

nudes/sextape

In what world do these people have phones but no access to the Internet? Like why is that the first piece of information about the app? No one uses their devices like that!

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

but, what happens if one of the devices are lost? how about if all the users are present via authentication and are close to each other via bluetooth or geolocation?

Doubt they got trademark permission from Warner Brothers.

Why would they have to? Just because there happens to be a movie called "The Hangover"?

It's pretty obvious that the name is playing off the movie.

Hangovers were around a long time before the movie.

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