Show HN: Simple Postcard – Send a photo postcard from a text message | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Simple Postcard – Send a photo postcard from a text message

thesimplepostcard.com

145 pointsjastr85 comments

I have noticed a mild resurgence in postcards now that we are all officially sick and tired of text and email, and it's far more personal than asking someone to look at your Facebook photo album.

But...

Why do we send postcards? Is it for the pretty image? Is it for the message? Yes, but ultimately it's because you want to share an experience with someone that matters to you, and you want them to know that you are thinking of them as more than just a fleeting thought. Otherwise, a text message with an image or video suffices.

Bottom line: Simple Postcard would be a lot more interesting if we could physically write in them before they are sent. Just don't take this as a suggestion to use AI to put pen to paper and mimic our handwriting from samples, because that's plain creepy.

Too late: http://feltapp.com/ turns your touchscreen handwriting into movements by a robot with a felt pen.

Still, it's not quite the same. I want to press my pen to the paper. I want to screw up and scratch it out and remind whomever I'm sending my postcard to that I am a real human being that dares take an extra five minutes out of the day because I care about them.

But maybe if you're sending the same postcard to a lot of people, I could understand why this would be useful. Then again, I would probably just buy multiple postcards and write something different for each person.

Totally agree, which is why we're looking to solve this problem a different way. http://www.facebook.com/greetpoint - join our #handwrittenrevolution! :)

Hi, I clicked your facebook, then your home page, then "learn more" and I still didn't know what you did! I'm not going to sign up for an email just from a slogan.. I suggest you explain your product right on your FB & Homepage so visitors can understand.

> Why do we send postcards?

Because our mothers are scared of smart-phones :-)

A postcard sends an expression of how much you value that relationship. The postcard itself represents time spent by you finding a postcard, writing in it and sending it off during your vacation.

A picture posted to social media has none of this meta-cost and is "cheap".

I think in the early days of texting and social media, the act of using these tools was also high cost. Sending a message costs money, signing up for a social media account, bringing along your cell phone and uploading a picture wasn't always easy or cheap.

Decades ago, I think a long distance phone call was treated similarly for the same reasons. International calls even more so.

How about if they hire people with nice handwriting to write your postcards for you (and compose the message for a little extra) — kind of like the main character's job in Her.

If a postcard from me had nice handwriting the recipient would be very suspicious!

I just came back from a 10 day solo vacation to Europe. Rather than post updates on Facebook I sent postcards to close friends and family each day. It was a lot of fun taking time out of every day to go find a few nice postcards and send a handwritten note. I think the recipients really enjoyed it as well. I'm surprised postcards are around still-- but maybe they'll make a resurgence as people seek to rebuild stronger connections than social media facilitates.

I did this on an 8000km roadtrip around Europe. Every couple if days, I sent out 20 to 30 postcards.

Two years later, I still see them on people's walls.

The instagrams lay forgotten only dredged up by facebooks memory algorithms. Sometimes. Maybe. Even then only for me.

Postcards >>> social media.

My daughter hung her postcards over her bed. I caught her in the middle of the night looking at them with a flashlight. ;)

That is absolutely awesome! I think I might do this same for my daughter (and wife)!

must. resist. joke opportunity.

I make my own post cards by printing out a photo that I took on the trip. This lets me practice my local language skills trying to find a printshop and getting a photo printed and mailed. It is definitely loads of fun.

The downside of the idea here is that the postcards will presumably be sent from where-ever they are (e.g. some place in the US) and not from where you are (e.g. some place in Italy) so no stamp, postmarks, etc. as well as no handwritten note.

Perhaps on the plus side: a photograph you took vs. a professionally shot postcard.

Can I send a GIF? We don't have the technology to print GIFs yet. We have some interns working on it.

Hilarious!

Except there are a bunch of services that print gifs to lenticular prints for an animated effect.

Here's one, but there are others: http://gifpop.io/products/patakk-six

Except nothing. Simple-postcard doesn't have the tech, they aren't necessarily speaking for the state of affairs for the entire world.

Edit: that's pretty sweet tech though

They could contract one of those services to print it for them

Funny how this is a faux question with a faux answer from people who don't realize GIFs were first and foremost _still_ images.

I'm so old I didn't understand at first why they couldn't do it...I first and foremost think of a GIF as a still image.

Same here. My initial reaction was incredulity that they didn't write the one line of code it would take to convert to a supported format...

I don't know what it is, but there's something about this that i like. Maybe its the "do one thing, and do it right" aspect. (Though it remains to be seen if they do it right.) But I for one wish these guys good luck!

I hope you have some human doing image QC or I envision a long conversation with Postal Inspectors regarding all the dick pic postcards that you're sending.

BTW, that said, this reminds me a little bit of rather elegant app developed by Bill Atikinson, "Photo Card", which aims to convert photos in iOS to postcards on demand.

>Postal Inspectors

Those exist? I thought that nobody (including the government) was supposed to look at, touch, or investigate mail (except from prisons IIRC)

They're federal agents within the Postal Service.

Legally, you can't mail any "obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance"

Interesting. How do porn magazines, fleshlights, etc ship?

Inside a brown paper package or envelope, unlike a postcard.

So the inspectors can only look at the packaging, not touch them?

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that 'Jeff' is at least glancing at each photo before sending it out. (In between complaining about the name and the lack of an app, at least.)

Or maybe they're having the interns do it.

EDIT: That or they're using an algorithm. Lol love the dry copy.

I really enjoy the US Postal Service's $0.39 stamped postcards. There's a blank front, which makes it convenient to sketch what I'm seeing when I'm writing the message. (A few parks, like Yosemite, will frank the stamp from "Yosemite National Park", which is an even more special treat for the recipient.)

They are quite a good value for the money if you are ever in the USA and wish to correspond with friends and are artistic. :)

There was a similar thing years ago on HN that was like $4 for a postcard with the image you uploaded. It went defunct, though. I really liked the idea and did try to use it, but it was already in the process of being shut down by its creator.

yep. Maybe this one's a bit more simplified, but various iterations of this concept over the years (just search any app store for postcard apps):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8154009

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2437819

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10726897

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9003880

Always wondered why postal services don't offer something like this for letters that a sender requires be sent by mail, but giving it to the carrier digitally is okay.

If it was in major cities, literally be possible to send a letter same day.

Is there anything that falls into this category which couldn't be done with a fax?

- Signed receipt

- Proof of receipt

- Proof of ID

- Time of receipt

- Proof of address

- Etc

Does anyone requiring these accept a printed out version but not a fax?

A lot of these are requirements around the delivery metadata, not the item being delivered.

Oh I see, sorry I'd entirely misunderstood. I was thinking of it on the side of sending things to (say) a bank, rather than the bank sending things to you.

Interesting, thanks.

No, I was thinking of me sending things to a bank as well. Like supporting documentation for a loan application which must be received by close of business on this date or the loan will fall through - it may not need to be an original document, but it is in my interest to have third party confirmation that it was received before the deadline.

Sending to a regular person that doesn't have a fax machine

Do you regularly need to send someone a physical copy of something you have digitally?

Mostly to relatives who would prefer to receive mail than email. Otherwise I recently had to communicate with a health insurance company that didn't accept anything by email, and said the images of cancelled checks I faxed them were too blurry to read.

The UK's postal service offered exactly this, way back in the late 90s. They discontinued it after just a year or so.

Do you know why?

(Demand, tech, staffing, costs, fraud, legal, etc)

No idea. I always assumed it was through lack of use, but I'm only guessing.

I'm kind of surprised Kinkos doesn't offer that.

Very fun – I've already sent 5. The cost is very impulse-purchase friendly, and it's a lot easier than the effort of going to the store to get cards printed out and putting stamps on and such, though less personal because of lack of handwriting. Is the current price introductory pricing or do you think it would be sustainable long-term? Seems low to me for on-demand printing, but I haven't seen the quality of the cards.

Lob charges $0.70 per card, seems sustainable.

Edit: Stripe charges a hefty 2.8% + 30ct, so 35ct fees for that. 1ct for Twilio. $1.06 in costs, so a $0.94 margin. Seems ok for a (probably small maintenance side project)

Wow. I really love this idea. Simple and impactful to the receiver. Really makes people reminisce the days before technology took over our lives.

Excellent idea for parents and grandparents that may not be into computers and the internet. Even for those that are, having a physical photo and note show up in the mailbox would be a great thing to brighten their day.

I've received really nice feedback from mothers and girlfriends!

There aren't any example shots of the post cards.. How do these things look? I've stayed away from similar products because they have logos and unwanted crap on them.

Good idea, I'll add some samples in a bit.

There's nothing on them except what you add.

OT: Who is Jeff from New York that is being quoted three times in the website?

Just a friend and beta tester with lots of good ideas!

Given the tone of the site, I assume it's the creator's friend, or maybe the creator. Personally I think it's a hilarious change from the fake-looking testimonials you usually see on startup sites.

Edit: yup. :)

Also a Social Network quote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEgk2v6KntY

Neat idea. I wonder if the scaling/cropping algorithm is smart enough to handle 4:3 images without chopping people's heads.

It's pretty basic. We scale and crop the minimum amount to fit the card.

It would be pretty cool to try something more advanced like facial rec or seam carving [0]!

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NcIJXTlugc

https://github.com/jwagner/smartcrop.js/

Is there a preview before paying? (Sorry, if I missed that in the FAQ).

No, not at this time, but please let me know if a card doesn't come out to your liking.

> Only in the US. We'll support international postcards soon.

I can't wait!

I've been using Postagram (https://sincerely.com/postagram) for a few years to send a card to my grandmother regularly from my smartphone. The cards look great, cost $1, and have the image in a perforated square which can be punched out of the card, with the description on the back. They have a solid app with tracking and history. Hard to beat that, but maybe the feature that Simple Postcard has is fitting the image to a 4x6 area (full front of the card) rather than the smaller square (3x3", I think) on the Postagrams.

I love this idea. My cousin and I have been sending each other postcards frequently for years. She's always good about sending them often while I'm only good at purchasing neat postcards with the intent to send them.

I assume it's built using Twilio + Lob API?

https://lob.com/services/postcards/pricing

Yes :) and Stripe. All held together by Django.

I just sent a picture postcard to a friend for $2.

This was a really nice speedy flow.

For some reason I expect the sms interface to be more human and cheeky. I guess it's the weird AI chat bot trend.

What Payment Gateway are you using? If I'm not mistaken this qualifies as a micro payment (< $5) and the transactions fees can be rather high on a $2 purchase.

Stripe

It occurred after sending the MMS, that this page could simply be an elaborate attempt to flood some guy with random pics.

I would recommend buying a 5 digit MMS number, to add some more obvious legitimacy to the service.

I'll look into that! Thanks.

Edit: Short codes cost $500 on Twilio :O

https://www.twilio.com/help/faq/short-codes/can-i-send-or-re...

The swiss post does allow you to send any picture as a postcard, even for free: https://postcardcreator.post.ch

"How do you fit my photo to a 4x6 card?

We use an algorithm to scale and crop your image to fit the card.

Can I send a GIF?

We don't have the technology to print GIFs yet. We have some interns working on it."

This is a prank, right?

I'd probably take it more seriously if they had a terms of service and privacy policy.

I remember seeing something similar being pitched on one of the Shark Tank episodes, excep t that I think it was a phone app where you had to install it on your phone

Why do you need pay after you sent the text? A lot of TV shows make you pay for the amount as part of the charge for the text for example.

TV shows are integrated with carriers.

Exactly! I looked for a way/API to integrate with carriers but couldn't find one.

Well you could use a service to do it I believe. However the service fee would be large compared to it's price.

I believe Twilio supports this starting around $1M.

For GIF postcards, they should print as lenticular images! The GIF would actually play as you angle the postcard.

What kind of progress are the interns making?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com