Show HN: I made an open-source Loom alternative
cap.so
cap.so
- You refer to it as "screen sharing", but that makes me think of live sharing like Zoom etc. Wouldn't "screen recording" be a better description?
- The "get started for free" text in the header CTA flows onto a second line for me
- It would be good to have an embedded demo video on the landing page
Highly doubtful, I have been cheated out of lifetime guarantees so many times. Latest when the company is sold.
It also might not prevent them from amending the fair use terms of the subscription to require paying overage charges for unfair or abusive usage patterns, without unilaterally changing the monthly price.
1. QuickTime -> New Movie Recording
2. View -> Float on Top
3. Position face view where you want it to be.
4. Hit Cmd+Shift+5 to record the entire screen.
Voilà!
I think this will change as we shift to AI-assisted desktop / smart Siri.
- OBS
- The built in screen recording functionality in macOS itself
- ffmpeg (see http://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Capture/Desktop for details on doing screen capture with it)
If you record with Cap, we'll auto handle the segmentation of the video so it can be played back efficiently (so the whole video doesn't have to be download in one go).
You can also receive comments on your Cap link, reactions, and see the analytics data.
It just makes it easier. Do your recording, then receive your shareable Cap link in just a few seconds.
How does Cap compare to using a PeerTube instance to host screen recordings?
And actually now I am also wondering if Cap could be integrated with PeerTube so you could have which ever things Cap brings to the table aside from video hosting and have it either upload to PeerTube by API, or even having some version of Cap existing as a sort of plugin into PeerTube so that you could use it from within PeerTube
I would imagine the overlap of people who would use peertube and Cap is 0.
The 98% will not self host.
Playing an mp4 from a static file server buffers only the parts it consumes, including support for seeking. HTTP range requests work just fine.
Video messaging can also waste both parties times if the videos are too long compared to the message.
Video messaging can be infinitely priceless where a video can explain quicker what words can't.
Other platforms have been able to get a bit further, I think there is one made by vimeo or someone used for sales that is quite good at the video messaging itself.
OBS is for streamers. It could be set up in a similar way if you already have a twitch channel hooked into it. It won't be as polished and easy.
macOS doesn't have any upload or overlay function so it's not comparable.
ffmpeg is ffmpeg
That's surprising considering how Apple pushes iCloud integration...
But as for the feature itself: why on earth would you want a video uploaded somewhere else before you've even had a chance to watch it back at least once?
I'm not sure if there's a simple way to get the link of the video hosted online back into your clipboard automatically. That is one feature Jing was superior to Loom on.
What an excellent comment :D
“Interview with ffmpeg enthusiast”
Being able to reply to an email with a video quicker than typing is often a line I consider.
One feature request: When I press "Start Recording" via the browser, I don't want it to immediately start recording that screen. Give me a 3…2…1…Go with a sound so I can minimize my browser and show what I want to record. I don't all my videos to start with me fumbling for the Start button.
100%, this is a priority. Should have it done soon, as well as a "startover" button.
From context, I'm guessing it's not about textile manufacture?
my day is ruined and my disappointment is immeasurable...
Self hosting is coming soon, as well as the option to connect your own storage option (S3 for now).
appreciate you taking the time to check it out, and happy Sunday!
If every commenter had to admit the last time they shipped the context and perspective of the comments migth surprise you.
S3 Storage sounds amazing, especially if you can edit the URL and redirect it to backblaze or other s3 compatible stores.
I'll be looking forward to trying out the self-hosting to be able to host links from my own domain.
Do you plan to include any/all of the "pro" features on the roadmap in the open-source code?
I’m starting to think that this is a red flag when looking at a project when there’s no further information. It’s marketing-speak masquerading as a technical attribute, but without additional information could just be 100% incorrect. It’s also overly-generic… depending on the intent of the author, lightweight could mean CPU-efficient, small binary, feature-light, and so on, but when not qualified further it seems to be implicitly all of these and more, but most likely that’s not accurate.
My marketing pet-peeve aside, this looks nice and I will be trying it out. :) Congrats on your HN launch!
That said, I also think the best way to communicate the intended vibe is also through screenshots (which you already have) and design. Looks awesome.
As a stand-alone adjective it's not as useful.
Make me remember the pain, and show me really clearly how your software will fix it right now. Screen studio does a good job of this.
Also being able to launch recording it without an account would be a great way to get someone to create a video, invest enough to create an account instead of come back to it later. Veed.io seems to have used this approach to great success.
Sucker me in and then raise the barrier. It is on the same level as those "create free account" but nothing is actually free except for the account creation process.
We have word for this: Demos. It could be a "free demo" account or an "account free" demo. Two different but easily understandable things which clearly communicates intent and value. Nothing Sneaky and no hiding weasels.
It just triggered me that this marketing funneling newspeak actually has become commonplace and generally accepted.
Change the wording to "launch demo (recording)" and communicate it clearly will make this grumpy fart happy. And yes: There is a subtle difference and therein lies the darkness.
The video and ticker are however great ideas as-is without me complaining.
I am saying to show someone a quick summary of what a demo would have (in seconds to earn more seconds to invite them to demo.
From an onboarding perspective, the goal is to remove friction for the user.
First at a feature, cognitive, and then emotional level. How to do this can be used for good an bad.
Demos are great. What I'm talking about is the thing that compels them to try it out, rather than "I don't really get what this does, an I'm not sure if I want to invest my time in yet another thing to be dissapointed", for example.
Demos take more time than a quick animation that shows step 1,2,3.
Conveying the ease of how it can work for them, to help them understand how the features can help hem, as well as address any existing is a simple call to action to get the features in front of them in the precious first few secons an ensure that communication is being improved
Plenty of open source alternatives. Can even bridge between matrix channels and discord
Meanwhile, Element as an app is also evolving rapidly too. Totally agreed that the onboarding has been awful in the past, but we're plugging away improving it and trying to make it more glossy and less neckbeardy, as per https://element.io/labs/element-x etc.
The fact is that Discord has raised $1B+ to run a centralised unencrypted comms platform; meanwhile Element is doing something ~10x harder (decentralised & E2EE) with a tiny fraction of the $. It takes longer, but the difference is that Matrix should last indefinitely, whereas Discord will get Eloned sooner or later.
I wouldn't say we've lost yet, but ymmv. I do wish we'd progressed faster though.
If your argument is at all trying to be even in the ballpark of “Matrix is accessible to normal folks” then you’ve immediately failed with this sentence alone.
And at the end of the day, that is what the comment you were replying to was saying, that Matrix will never win outside of niche spaces. And as long as it’s not as simple as a single app with a single brand for people to remember, it’s not going to succeed.
Just as the Web won without a single app with a single brand for people to remember, Matrix will eventually succeed too.
I wish you luck, but optimism and blind faith isn’t going to magically make WhatsApp et al go away.
Like I have tried discord a few times but I just cant "feel at home" with it. Its like too much content at once.
You can have bridge to discord from matrix so that solves one problem for now but again, discord and matrix feel like eons apart.
Irc pretty simple, one project, one channel.
I often wonder if a mattermost community should be backstop an integrate into a slack and discord community to let people use what they want, but you have your own history owned.
Discord seems nice but it also has to fit the audience. I find it convoluted for business or support type chats, but it is excellent for community building around digital experiences (like gaming)
- Analytics, I get notifications when a user views a video (useful for demos/sales)
- Post-capture editing
- Set 1.X speed by default on videos (significantly reduces video length)
I don't find the capturing element of loom very good. Their chrome integration is pretty bad, seems to not handle clicking/changing pages when capturing a tab.
I recently started using Screen Studio and have really liked it.
What about it is stunning to you?
The Steve Jobs-ification of marketing copy has hit epidemic proportions.
...ScummVM[1]?
It would be really nice if cap was client side and allowed you to save the video directly to your drive. That way you could remove the paid tier and make it free for everyone. Adding 1 or 2 more options for webcam shape etc could also be a good selling point.
After you stop recording you are instantly redirected to your shareable Cap.link.
Working on some new points to the landing page now :)
> Cap is currently in public beta, and is available for macOS and Web. Windows and Linux builds are in development. Join the Cap Discord (https://discord.gg/y8gdQ3WRN3) to help test future releases and join the community.
Ppl who discover a category of software might hesitate to try it out while looking for alternatives to compare it against.
It also helps the author be aware of other features that might be of interest to them.
Cap.so would still remain my first option to try out. It's unique compared to another good screen capture, screenity.io, which is more locally run in the browser.
People discussing other alternatives to Loom, or alternatives to what the author created is besides the point, to the extend that there might be helpful comparisons and questions. Could be just me tho, which is totally fair.
The "I'll pass" at the end was pretty negative but I agree with the rest of their sentiment.
Advertising is just as much about showing people they have a problem as it is about telling them you have a solution. But by positioning the product as an "open-source Loom" you've immediately lost the first half of the benefit of advertising. Everyone knows what a Coke is so I can get away with calling my new beverage "a healthier cola". Loom isn't so well-known.
Super cool, I’m looking forward to trying it out.
Welcome to the Thunderdome.
This is the same "killer feature" of Twitch (or more generally video game streaming).
So that's all to say, I really recommend you include that in your landing page somehow. Screen sharing is frankly meh, a slide deck is fine, you can use Quicktime or similar to share. But the key is automatically overlaying a circle of your webcam on top of whatever you're recording to share.
I suppose the other feature of importance is a simple URL to share it. I don't see if that's possible via Cap. How do I share these videos to my colleagues?
Loom still came up short against a predecessor, Jing, which would also copy the url into your clipboard. You hit stop recording, open an email, paste, and write your message and send. No need to wait while it was uploading, etc.
I honestly have never used Loom. I don’t know what it is. Do you really want me to have to go look up “the competition” just to know who you are?
The target customer is a business who is making demo videos and needs these kinds of tracking/collaboration/commenting features.
Folks interested in open source maybe want a better offering, don’t want to be locked in, want more favorable pricing, or want a self hosted version.
As someone who has used loom, the value proposition is clear from the title without even going to the website.
Loom had a head-start, but other companies (e.g. Vimeo) copied the feature pretty quickly.
And also, more importantly, this is a “Show HN” post, so reasonable for people here to question the comparison.
It is unfortunate this is being discussed rather than the product.
Calling it a replacement screen recording tool like Loom is probably ideal to hit both markets.
Loom made the work around the recording step easier, something that other options seem to be adopting.
Still, lots of people recorded lots of screens before Loom, kind of like loom.
Camtasia, Jing, and plenty of other tools out there. Jing in particular would record and upload automatically and put the link to the video in your clipboard, years in advance of Loom registering potentially questionable patents to parts of that.
Loom was ultimately acquired by Atlassian as a video capture tool for JIRA, etc an won't likely grow much feature wise for the masses. It will be great for that. I'm still a paying customer of loom.
There are a lot of features missing in Loom though that is going to spark a lot of alternatives to continue from where Loom left off. If anything Loom's growth seemed to have stalled relative to how much they were acquired for.
Average people are using apps like tiktok to produce videos instead.
Calling it a screen recording tool is a good thing. A lot of people don't even know how easy it is to do a screen recording on a computer.
It's easier for us at the start to get some attention from Loom specific users by mentioning Loom directly, but it's not a sustainable strategy going forward.
Will update the marketing copy etc over the coming weeks/months to be more about the problem we're solving specifically.
“Screen recording software that emphasizes simple sharing. An open source alternative to Loom”. Still super simple but is more useful to people less exposed to your world.
Also [0].
> "probably not good enough / won't get in" - you'd be surprised at how many people feel that way, whether because of impostor syndrome, lack of credentials, whatever—and often they turn out to be among the best founders. So this a terrible reason not to apply!
Maybe it's not a terrible reason not to apply. /shrug
I personally find that most of the time when a coworker posts a video I don’t even need to watch it to get all the information I actually needed.
One could argue that what you’re doing is inconveniencing your coworkers and ensuring anybody using a screen-reader can’t actually consume your videos.