Show HN: Knock – The sweet spot between a call and a text

knock.dexetra.com

11 points·narayanb··4 comments

I don't understand what (or rather how) it does from reading this: "Knock is a message which acts like a call. When you knock a friend, your friend receives a call, and can see the text written on the screen. You get a response within 60 seconds."

- Do they get a proper phone call or an alert via the app? - If proper phone how/where does it display stuff on the screen? - What guarantees that I get a response within 60 seconds?

I would consider using images for each of the steps above rather than text.

Update: just seen the animation below which makes a few points above clearer. This should be above the explainer text paragraph (which could still do with sharpening) rather than below imo.

Thanks for the tip. We will update the page. The basic idea is that 70% of the calls we make daily can be replied with a yes/no/location (Where are you?/Should I bring milk?/Are you coming for the dinner? etc) Knock app tries to simplify this problem, if both users have knock installed whatever message the user sends is captured as a (Simulated) call on the other screen with the message overlaid. Instead of (answer/reject) there are (yes/no/location) options. Like a normal call, the phone rings for 60secs within which if you don't respond it becomes a "Missed knock".

Awesome now I understand what it does and when I'd use it. This is much clearer!

So it's a text message that fires your ringtone, basically?

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