Show HN: Open Hours – Let friends/colleagues know when you're available by phone
In real time, you can easily let your close friends, family, colleagues, or clients know that you’re free to accept calls. Just flip a switch. And you can find out who is free to accept a call from you.
We're building Open Hours because we believe spontaneous one-on-one phone calls are one of the most powerful and meaningful ways to stay in touch with the people we care about and collaborate with.
But they don't happen nearly as much as we'd like because we don't know when people we want to call are free and social norms prevent many of us from calling people in our social/professional network out-of-the-blue.
You can think of Open Hours as an alternative to texting a bunch of people “I’m free to chat. Are you?” anytime you’re available.
We think Open Hours could be a useful tool when you're commuting, running errands, doing light work in the evenings, or feeling bored. We also think it could potentially be useful for people in their jobs.
We’re looking for feedback on two main things:
* In user testing, our main challenge has been getting users to remember to turn on their availability whenever they’re free for phone calls with their friends. We know it's very hard to create a new habit. Any thoughts?
* We want to explore B2B use cases. Can you think of any industries or professions where someone would benefit from letting colleagues, clients, or customers know whenever they're holding "office hours?" We’re thinking about how we might make turning on your availability in the app part of doing your job.
Otherwise, we welcome any additional feedback on use cases and how this might address a pain point in your life.