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Comment by eorge_g | Hacker News Reader

Hi, I'm the maker!

I would love any feedback or ideas that you guys have.

Where is the data stored? How is this funded? If out of pocket, why, and how will it be funded beyond that? Would I be unwise to use this with such an unclear future or funding source? Are the videos encrypted at rest with a key as part of the link and never stored? Why not add all of the details about storage, privacy, etc in a clear and upfront way on the website (e.g. a FAQ is fine)?

What languages did you write it in? What stack did you use for your backend? What format is video stored in? What format is it played back in (ie, real video or chopped up video like HTS/DASH)? Can I users get access to direct video file links? How much does bandwidth cost you? Did you chose to use an existing CDN or roll your own? Is this only for Apple (tm) smart phones? Is it only for smart phones?

How do you intend to make money?

Great questions! We learned a ton doing the video work on this never having worked with video encoding before.

We built front end using React Native (ejected from Expo), backend API using Rails (as that's our most comfortable stack). The video encoding processing is handled by Amazon Elastic Transcoder, hosting the videos on s3.

There's a sneaky amount of transcoding involved in the simple app, but it's all cheap at a few dollars a month so far with some use.

We're not using a CDN atm but are looking at using cloudfront. Right now it's only on Apple phones, but since we build the front end in React Native building for Android is on the roadmap if there's customer demand!

Why did you choose to use React Native if you weren't planning to use it for cross-platform purposes out of the box? Why not use swift or objective-c and then port to Android if there's customer demand?

> Why did you choose to use React Native if you weren't planning to use it for cross-platform purposes out of the box? Why not use swift or objective-c and then port to Android if there's customer demand?

There's lots of reasons someone might want to start with Expo while developing an app. If their team doesn't have native experience, it's far more accessible than needing to maintain a native stack (or two should they support Android).

It also supports the ability for OTAs out of the box, which allows them to be responsive to feedback / bugs / feature requests.

There's more to RN/Expo than "do you plan on releasing a cross-platform product at once". Even if their road map is "Apple now, Android later" the decision would still be justified.

How does this differ from Apple's native "Copy iCloud Link" feature?

Good question, I would say the biggest difference is the vine-like recording interface that lets you record multiple clips and merged them together. It also never requires you to save it on your phone. Not sure if the icloud feature allows you to record direct to the cloud but that may be an advantage as well.

> the biggest difference is the vine-like recording interface that lets you record multiple clips and merged them together

How do you view prior clips? Once I start a new clip I don't see a way to go back (it could be I'm missing something that's colored as I keep my iPhone SE in black and white mode)

The website says:

> Hold-to-record mode lets you string clips together so that you can collect your thoughts between recording.

You can probably hold-to-record multiple times in a single movie (don't have an iPhone to test). Seems like the easiest and most straightforward way to do it, just no re-ordering of recorded clips.

What is the use case?

How much is too much video for internal storage? 1 GB? Why an app is needed if default camera apps have single clicking sharing to Google Drive?

And if the storage is the problem how is streaming 1 GB over wi-fi or 4G?

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