Show HN: Waffle – Split-screen picture conversations with friends | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Waffle – Split-screen picture conversations with friends

wafflechat.com

68 pointsFinbarr31 comments

My first iPhone app created in collaboration with Karen X. Cheng. Took about 3 weeks to build, and 3 weeks to get approved. You can hit us up in the app by adding us (finbarr and karen respectively). Any feedback appreciated!

Hi Finbarr - looks awesome, but the "find out when" link for Android is broken for me (Chrome 37 on OSX)

Hey - this is a UX fail I think. When you click "find out when" it changes the form to be an email box instead of a phone number box, and focuses on the text field. Thanks for pointing this out - I'll add a transition effect for now.

Ah yeah my bad, I designed that. Thanks for the feedback.

Another thing that is confusing design-wise in the app is how to add friends. Right now you have to take a picture first and then add friends. We need an add button on the home screen.

Looks cool, can't wait till Android is working so i can try it out!

Likewise, got my wife on iOS to sign up, but shame I can't use it on Android yet. Hoping you can launch it there too soon, I really think this could be fun! Great take on picture messaging.

I'm a fan of this. Although I would say to anyone reading this that quality is preferred over speed. The length of time it took to make something doesn't add any value to the product overall; that is, just focus on making a kickass product no matter how long it takes.

I really think most of are going to look back and remember the times when people would brag how short a time frame it took to build apps. Like, that use to be a bragging point.

Regardless, tangent aside, I think it's cool that we're "hacking" new ways to communicate. Waffle is another example of that. People complain that we're just building more photo-sharing apps, but I think it's important to build new ways to communicate with each other; particular for young people.

It use to be phone or face-to-face. Now there's a plethora of interesting options(Snapchat, Secret, Email, SMS, Group SMS, Chatroulette, etc.). Hack the way we communicate with eachother.

Seems like they're also adding some interesting ways in the new iPhone watch as well.

Definitely agree on the quality. Thanks for checking it out and glad you like it. I only added that info as I frequently wonder how long apps/products took to build.

Most of the build time of Waffle was tweaks. There are a bunch of subtle details in the way it works that aren't immediately obvious.

Cool app, hate giving out my phone number though. Its funny how apple can be hard on people asking for email addresses to use an app but getting a phone number is totally okay.

Understandable. If it's any consolation, people in the app won't be able to see your phone number (it's used so waffle users who have you in your phone book will see you in their waffle contacts list), and we only ever SMS your number one-time to send you the confirmation code.

yeah, you see, i also do not like giving out my whole address book either.

That would be the normal way to do it at scale for this feature. Though with a small amount of users, I suppose they could just send the app a list of all the numbers they have and compare to your phone book...

What about - no ;P That's the worst idea I have ever heard ;)

Minor nits:

The "notify me when Android is ready" flow appears to not actually list my email address: http://imgur.com/NJU8QkZ

If I enter an invalid phone number, try again and use a valid one, then click try again, the "ERROR" messages don't go away. http://imgur.com/EHF4Es5 In fact, they build up: http://imgur.com/opkxW4G

You might also want to move the App Store icon up a little bit; it doesn't quite fit on my 13" Macbook Air in Chrome: http://imgur.com/mz6Jkma

Edit: Also, /try seems to notice when I visit it from my Android phone that I should just be asked for my email address. It would be great if the / page did it too so that I don't have to give you my phone number.

This is such a clever idea. I can seriously see this getting some huge mainstream attention. Nice work!

Oh thanks! Enjoyed your YC redesigns from a while back - I definitely learned from them.

Ah wow, thanks, really appreciate it.

Woa, I dig the remixing feature for replies. It's like communicating with emojis except with real-life photo thumbnails. This is more of a communication app than it is a gallery. Neat. I can see this catching on.

I like the concept a lot. I'm definitely going to give it a whirl.

To go meta for a bit, it's sort of interesting that this is getting such a positive reaction from a crowd that typically sneers at CRUD software. I'm actually genuinely surprised because I was expecting lots of elitist and condescending comments from people, along the lines of, "gosh, we don't need another picture sharing app, we should be curing cancer instead!" Instead I see lots of props and encouragement, which means that there may be hope for HN after all.

I'm actually really surprised from the feedback from HN as well. With stuff I've posted in the past, I'm used to a lot more criticism and like you was expecting 'not another photo sharing app' comments. Everything on here so far has been constructive / positive. Have been enjoying HN being a more positive place in general.

Feedback from HN can be unpredictable, but in this case I knew what the comments would be like because it's a great concept for an app.

What I like most about it is that encourages creativity. To extend this, do you think you'd extend the app to support drawing in the tiles? Also perhaps there could be a hidden tiles mode where all tiles are only revealed after the last one is in place.

I also agree with another commenter that it's important to know when a tile has been seen, but it looks like you have an idea on how to implement that.

Also, on the website homepage there doesn't seem to be any pictures of the app, I needed to go to the iTunes page before I saw how it looked, I'd say the homepage itself should be all you need to see to understand how the app will work.

I love it. I installed it yesterday when finbarr told me it was finally released, been having friends install the app, and we haven't stopped since then!

Very cool, what a neat concept! I haven't found another friend to install it yet, but one thing I would like to see (if it isn't already there) is a way to see whether or not your friend has looked at any of the squares yet. I'm not quite sure how that would be accomplished though or what it would look like. I could see this being a lot of fun though!

Thanks! Send one to us! Hit the "plus" button once you've taken a waffle and add username karen or finbarr

Yeah we haven't implemented "seen" receipts but that's a good idea. We show you which waffles you've opened but now which ones your friends have - we could probably use that same UI element (a dot next to the waffle)

Cool, simple, and creative. Bravo! I even love your app store icon. It's cute and eye catching.

Reminds me a lot of one of my apps - https://frameparty.com/

Nice job though, looks great!

Congrats on the launch!

Very nice, I'll be checking it out :)

really awesome. love the invite friends mms that gets whipped up.

What a cool concept.

Very cool!

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