Hey @Virtualgoodz, thanks a lot for the feedback!
Basically FireChat's Nearby feature and the protests happened here in Istanbul inspired us to create Flows. It is using the same MultipeerConnectivity framework as FireChat.
The differences from FireChat are these;
- Flows doesn't have any servers so there is basically no registration, data logging etc. All data is on users' devices which can be deleted. It only collects anonymous analytics, like page views and crash reporting data and you can turn them off easily via settings.
- You can create different #flows inside the app which are similar to the channels in IRC. And they can be private. If you choose so while creating, other users in the network has to create a #flow with the same name to join the conversation. If it is not private, it is visible to everyone immediately when you send the first message.
- Every user has a username and a unique colour signature (consisting of 3 colors) which they cannot change. So if there are 5 guys with the same username in the flow, you can distinguish them somehow.
- This is a side project of two guys :)
And thanks a lot for the website feedback! @kee_ross is the talent who is behind it
Cheers!
When I read, "chat with people nearby without an internet connection," I was waiting for a snarky punchline. ;)
@frkncngz / @kee_ross - I can imagine the crowded concert use case but when no one knows about Flows on day 1, how do you make it valuable for people? Are there one-to-one use cases for this where internet-connected chat apps don't work?
EDIT: I just thought of one: schools. Some high school campuses block cellphone reception indoors. I can imagine using this with friends in the back of the classroom in this situation. :)
@rrhoover hey there, thanks for the feedback!
Yes there is that, people has to know and download it beforehand. We are thinking about this and open to any suggestions.
The first couple of use cases we thought were protests, concerts (festivals especially), travelling abroad, camping, subways and post-apocalyptic stuff (just in-case) :)
Also thanks for the school example, we didn't think about it before! :)
@frkncngz@rrhoover
Get the schools, you'll get everyone (especially when the parents will try to spy their kids)
Report
@frkncngz@rrhoover Disasters are definitely a good use for this. Considerable research already goes into establishing mesh networks in case of disasters in which the infrastructure becomes unavailable for some period of time. The problem is that usually specialized equipment is required. Something like Flows could help remove this requirement by achieving mesh on a commodity device that most people already have. Can you also deliver Internet to users on the interior of the disaster by relaying from those on the edge of the disaster? That would be really cool (if not a violation of TOS :P).
@tacomanator actually relaying the connection is one of the first things i thought before even started developing Flows and it seems it is somehow possible with the framework that i use (MultipeerConnectivity).
It needs a bit of work but it is on the top of the list!
@frkncngz Congrats on the launch, love the idea of an anonymous color-code.
Curious how FireChat managed to get such a big uptake in HongKong. Who drives the adoption, what's the best target audience for this kind of product? I'm thinking political science students or political associations. Shouldn't be too hard to reach out to such a vertical.
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