The Leaderboard
Our ultra-fast Daily: Three takes on new products. Yesterday’s top ten launches. That’s it.
Make social fun again
They finally did it.
After talking about removing likes for years and testing across 7 countries, Facebook took the plunge and removed likes. Kind of. They gave us the option to, including the option to hide on a per-post basis.
While influencers and creators often rely on the visibility of likes, the cultural implications are one of the reasons makers and adopters have looked to bolster other social networks. They miss low-stress posting and authenticity, even though Gen Z would probably consider filter-heavy millennial posts from the early days of Instagram to be “cheugy.”
Though it has its problems too, TikTok has been the golden child of late with viral videos as simple as mouthing the words to a pre-recorded snippet. Newcomers interested in more authentic interactions include BitClout and Dispo. We’re still waiting to see if the former really takes off. The latter took a blow with some negative press, so much so that many took the opportunity to reference it while the newest buzzy social app, Poparazzi, blew up this week.
Poparazzi rocketed to fame on Wednesday after hitting #1 in the App Store on its first day of launch. Tech Twitter was going wild for Poparazzi’s onboarding flow but the main headline here is an app that does away with selfies. Instead, it opts for the approach of snapping a pic of your friends, literally requiring you to add friends and tag them in order to post.
Then Schmooze launched, an app where you match with others based on the memes you both like. Although Schmooze is a dating app right now, maker Vidya Madhavan first approached the idea as a way to foster new friendships. The concept sprouted after a LinkedIn chat with a new contact turned into an email thread of jokes and fun with a new friend.
Contrary to match apps based on profile pics and surveys, Schmooze feels much more authentic to how people really engage. Commenters wrote on the launch page:
We’ll have to wait and see if Facebook’s super flexible hide option is enough to keep users happy or if they’ll jump ship as products focused on authentic interactions gain traction.
Do you plan to use new hide features on Instagram or Facebook?
After talking about removing likes for years and testing across 7 countries, Facebook took the plunge and removed likes. Kind of. They gave us the option to, including the option to hide on a per-post basis.
While influencers and creators often rely on the visibility of likes, the cultural implications are one of the reasons makers and adopters have looked to bolster other social networks. They miss low-stress posting and authenticity, even though Gen Z would probably consider filter-heavy millennial posts from the early days of Instagram to be “cheugy.”
Though it has its problems too, TikTok has been the golden child of late with viral videos as simple as mouthing the words to a pre-recorded snippet. Newcomers interested in more authentic interactions include BitClout and Dispo. We’re still waiting to see if the former really takes off. The latter took a blow with some negative press, so much so that many took the opportunity to reference it while the newest buzzy social app, Poparazzi, blew up this week.
Poparazzi rocketed to fame on Wednesday after hitting #1 in the App Store on its first day of launch. Tech Twitter was going wild for Poparazzi’s onboarding flow but the main headline here is an app that does away with selfies. Instead, it opts for the approach of snapping a pic of your friends, literally requiring you to add friends and tag them in order to post.
Then Schmooze launched, an app where you match with others based on the memes you both like. Although Schmooze is a dating app right now, maker Vidya Madhavan first approached the idea as a way to foster new friendships. The concept sprouted after a LinkedIn chat with a new contact turned into an email thread of jokes and fun with a new friend.
Contrary to match apps based on profile pics and surveys, Schmooze feels much more authentic to how people really engage. Commenters wrote on the launch page:
“Love how this takes the superficiality out of the dating app game!" - Marisa Puli Reddy
“This dating app is exactly what we need: less focused on finely-tuning a curated picture of yourself and 'shopping' for others based on their carefully calibrated profiles -- more emphasis on aligning people based on something real…”- Joseph Morcos
We’ll have to wait and see if Facebook’s super flexible hide option is enough to keep users happy or if they’ll jump ship as products focused on authentic interactions gain traction.
Do you plan to use new hide features on Instagram or Facebook?
What the Creator Renaissance was missing
The creator economy is running wild and free, and people are taking notice.
Earlier this month maker Ollie Forsyth posted Antler’s Mapping of The Creator Economy, sorting over 220 platforms that are enabling creators to build empires.
We’ve been watching this growth for a long time although few had foreseen the Creator Renaissance in its entirety a decade ago. We caught up with John O’Nolan, founder of Ghost, who told us:
“We had no idea that this was going to take off in such a big way, but now that it has our team is solely focused on building new features for the creator economy.”
Although the boom has provided creators with an abundance of tools to monetize their skills, it can be easy to forget that beyond creativity, entrepreneurship is often supported by hustle, audience building, and data. Same goes for the passion economy. We’re seeing more mentorship for entrepreneurs in this space and products that help creators overcome fragmentation in the marketplace of creator tools.
For example, we recently wrote about Geneva and Garnet, two new all-in-one community platforms for engaging your community. Now today, Orbit’s launch introduces a “mission control for your community.” With Orbit, creators can measure and track their communities in a single view with integrations, API, or Zapier. Li Jin explained:
“Orbit... unlock[s] new insights about who are the most active and influential members, which channels are most important, and where they can improve their community programs. The result is a better experience for community members as well as a deeper understanding of ROI for community builders and business leaders.”
Though the content reaches beyond the passion economy, both Doing Content Right (a recent Maker Grant recipient) and The Embedded Entrepreneur are new resources for creators. The former covers everything you need to know about publishing online, from a writer with a resume including the Hustle and Hubspot. The latter contains actionable insights on how to build an audience-driven business.
The Embedded Entrepreneur maker, Arvid Kahl, shared one of his key lessons with our Community Program Manager Sharath Kuruganty:
“Involve people at all steps during building something… if you want to write for them, why not involve them in the process? Ask them what they want to read about. Ask them if what you wrote is intelligible for them.”
You can get more actionable insights from Kahl here.
Earlier this month maker Ollie Forsyth posted Antler’s Mapping of The Creator Economy, sorting over 220 platforms that are enabling creators to build empires.
We’ve been watching this growth for a long time although few had foreseen the Creator Renaissance in its entirety a decade ago. We caught up with John O’Nolan, founder of Ghost, who told us:
“We had no idea that this was going to take off in such a big way, but now that it has our team is solely focused on building new features for the creator economy.”
Although the boom has provided creators with an abundance of tools to monetize their skills, it can be easy to forget that beyond creativity, entrepreneurship is often supported by hustle, audience building, and data. Same goes for the passion economy. We’re seeing more mentorship for entrepreneurs in this space and products that help creators overcome fragmentation in the marketplace of creator tools.
For example, we recently wrote about Geneva and Garnet, two new all-in-one community platforms for engaging your community. Now today, Orbit’s launch introduces a “mission control for your community.” With Orbit, creators can measure and track their communities in a single view with integrations, API, or Zapier. Li Jin explained:
“Orbit... unlock[s] new insights about who are the most active and influential members, which channels are most important, and where they can improve their community programs. The result is a better experience for community members as well as a deeper understanding of ROI for community builders and business leaders.”
Though the content reaches beyond the passion economy, both Doing Content Right (a recent Maker Grant recipient) and The Embedded Entrepreneur are new resources for creators. The former covers everything you need to know about publishing online, from a writer with a resume including the Hustle and Hubspot. The latter contains actionable insights on how to build an audience-driven business.
The Embedded Entrepreneur maker, Arvid Kahl, shared one of his key lessons with our Community Program Manager Sharath Kuruganty:
“Involve people at all steps during building something… if you want to write for them, why not involve them in the process? Ask them what they want to read about. Ask them if what you wrote is intelligible for them.”
You can get more actionable insights from Kahl here.
Stripe’s first no-code product: Payment Links
Today’s Daily Digest was crafted in collaboration and sponsored by our friends at Stripe.
There’s no time to lose when you’re selling a product. You’ve got seconds and a few precious clicks.
Yesterday, Stripe announced a brand-new product to capture that moment. Stripe built Payment Links to make selling products super simple—create a link, share it, and get paid.
It’s Stripe’s first no-code focused product. Nearly 100 no-code products were featured on Product Hunt in the past year — the team at Stripe could see that the no-code movement isn’t slowing down. Even many developers love no-code, especially when it saves them from tedious, repetitive work.
With Stripe Payment Links, you don’t have to code your own payment page or do any coding at all. Sellers create a link with the Stripe Dashboard and add any product or service that they’d like to sell (even a subscription). Then they can customize a Checkout page with a logo and colors and generate a URL. That one-stop shop that can be tweeted or shared with customers. (Or, if you so choose, you can embed the link on your site or basically anywhere.)
It seemed to hit the right spot for many in the Product Hunt community:
Stripe’s annual conference, Stripe Sessions, is in three weeks—and you can probably count on them talking about Payment Links, no-code, and more new products then.
While you wait, you can demo Stripe Payment Links in this tweet. Or click below to get selling.
There’s no time to lose when you’re selling a product. You’ve got seconds and a few precious clicks.
Yesterday, Stripe announced a brand-new product to capture that moment. Stripe built Payment Links to make selling products super simple—create a link, share it, and get paid.
It’s Stripe’s first no-code focused product. Nearly 100 no-code products were featured on Product Hunt in the past year — the team at Stripe could see that the no-code movement isn’t slowing down. Even many developers love no-code, especially when it saves them from tedious, repetitive work.
With Stripe Payment Links, you don’t have to code your own payment page or do any coding at all. Sellers create a link with the Stripe Dashboard and add any product or service that they’d like to sell (even a subscription). Then they can customize a Checkout page with a logo and colors and generate a URL. That one-stop shop that can be tweeted or shared with customers. (Or, if you so choose, you can embed the link on your site or basically anywhere.)
It seemed to hit the right spot for many in the Product Hunt community:
"This is absolutely brilliant. I can definitely see myself using this for so many projects. Congrats to the team for the awesome launch!" - Hassan
"That’s innovation" - Mohamed Mess
"I haven't tested but this is exactly what Stripe users want, a zero code solution to receive payments." - Joaquim Ley
Stripe’s annual conference, Stripe Sessions, is in three weeks—and you can probably count on them talking about Payment Links, no-code, and more new products then.
While you wait, you can demo Stripe Payment Links in this tweet. Or click below to get selling.
For your next move... or suntan... or photoshoot
Product ideas are often sparked as a result of friction in a specific use case, but sometimes the result is endless possibilities.
That seems to be the case with Shadowmap. Maker Georg Molzer launched the product today, which is an interactive 3D maps app for visualizing solar shadows. He explains that the idea came to him on a dark and cold winter day in Vienna where tall buildings and low sun give rise to seasonal depression.
Molzer set out to make shadow data available for everyone, which he explained came with challenges.
You can give Shadowmap a go for free (there’s a pro account for SaaS professionals) and let Molzer know how you’re thinking of using it.
That seems to be the case with Shadowmap. Maker Georg Molzer launched the product today, which is an interactive 3D maps app for visualizing solar shadows. He explains that the idea came to him on a dark and cold winter day in Vienna where tall buildings and low sun give rise to seasonal depression.
Molzer set out to make shadow data available for everyone, which he explained came with challenges.
“Creating a web application that is on the one hand capable of processing large amounts of data while on the other hand performing real-time 3D visualization brought some obstacles... I wanted Shadowmap to be intuitive and familiar to use.”
The challenge paid off with positive feedback and people sharing their use cases like apartment hunting, solar planning, design, tourism, and photography. The Product Hunt community has started contributing their own:“Many Chinese believe in "Feng sui", also known as Chinese geomancy. This tool could be helpful to find a dream home that matches good feng sui 😅” - Ken Moo
“Great product @molzer I see a great use case for Vastu compliance in India.” - Girdharee Saran
“Really great app and very handy, especially when you are a filmmaker as I am.” - Lucas Riklin
“As I work with Wine Imports the use-case for weather-sensitive products such as Rosé are clear.” Andreas Bøggild
You can give Shadowmap a go for free (there’s a pro account for SaaS professionals) and let Molzer know how you’re thinking of using it.
500 more years for humanity
The meme says it all.
“CAPTCHA,” which stands for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart,” was coined by a group of computer scientists at Carnegie Melon University originally to help Yahoo! keep bots out of its chat rooms. One of those computer scientists, Luis von Ahn, went on to start reCAPTCHA (and later Duolingo) which was acquired by Google in 2009.
As essential as CAPTCHAs have become, memes and complaints are all over the internet. There are news articles about difficulty snagging newly-released concert tickets and CAPTCHAs altogether not working on websites for vaccination bookings. There’s also Reddit groups like /r/captcha and /r/CaptchaArt. And of course, the memes. Although Google explains that with its CAPTCHAs, the company is using all of our frustrating experiences to train its AI and improve its products, sometimes people just don’t have the time to spend.
Other than memes, we’ve seen makers respond in a couple of different ways. The first is to bring us joy — like this DOOM Captcha that was launched over the weekend. Just kill four enemies and you’re cleared. Maker, Miquel Camps Orteza, made it clear this is just for fun.
"Don't take this too seriously this is a little project for fun, if do you know how to code it's pretty easy to break the security of this."
Orteza also released Squat Captcha last year, which uses a webcam and desktop environment to force someone to do squats before continuing their online transactions.
On the more serious side, the team at Cloudflare has made it their goal to get rid of CAPTCHAs completely. The company uses back-of-the-envelope math to calculate that humanity wastes about 500 years per day on CAPTCHAs, starting with the average 32 seconds it takes a user to complete a CAPTCHA challenge.
Cloudflare has put together a new way to prove you’re a human through what it calls “Cryptographic Attestation of Personhood.” It involves touching or looking at a device, supported through USB security keys like Yubikeys.
This is only an experiment right now so you won’t see it in many places beyond the Cloudflare website, and there are potential pitfalls. For example, Ackermann Yuriy of Webauthn Works told VentureBeat that this method could be gamed by using something as simple as a drinking bird toy to touch the security sensor — which is not a human.
Still, the idea offers an alternative solution, and one that has benefits for those with visual disabilities. For now, you can get nostalgic and...
“CAPTCHA,” which stands for “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart,” was coined by a group of computer scientists at Carnegie Melon University originally to help Yahoo! keep bots out of its chat rooms. One of those computer scientists, Luis von Ahn, went on to start reCAPTCHA (and later Duolingo) which was acquired by Google in 2009.
As essential as CAPTCHAs have become, memes and complaints are all over the internet. There are news articles about difficulty snagging newly-released concert tickets and CAPTCHAs altogether not working on websites for vaccination bookings. There’s also Reddit groups like /r/captcha and /r/CaptchaArt. And of course, the memes. Although Google explains that with its CAPTCHAs, the company is using all of our frustrating experiences to train its AI and improve its products, sometimes people just don’t have the time to spend.
Other than memes, we’ve seen makers respond in a couple of different ways. The first is to bring us joy — like this DOOM Captcha that was launched over the weekend. Just kill four enemies and you’re cleared. Maker, Miquel Camps Orteza, made it clear this is just for fun.
"Don't take this too seriously this is a little project for fun, if do you know how to code it's pretty easy to break the security of this."
Orteza also released Squat Captcha last year, which uses a webcam and desktop environment to force someone to do squats before continuing their online transactions.
On the more serious side, the team at Cloudflare has made it their goal to get rid of CAPTCHAs completely. The company uses back-of-the-envelope math to calculate that humanity wastes about 500 years per day on CAPTCHAs, starting with the average 32 seconds it takes a user to complete a CAPTCHA challenge.
Cloudflare has put together a new way to prove you’re a human through what it calls “Cryptographic Attestation of Personhood.” It involves touching or looking at a device, supported through USB security keys like Yubikeys.
This is only an experiment right now so you won’t see it in many places beyond the Cloudflare website, and there are potential pitfalls. For example, Ackermann Yuriy of Webauthn Works told VentureBeat that this method could be gamed by using something as simple as a drinking bird toy to touch the security sensor — which is not a human.
Still, the idea offers an alternative solution, and one that has benefits for those with visual disabilities. For now, you can get nostalgic and...
"This is my last attempt"
It gets cold out there in your inbox.
Yesterday a team of indie makers launched Warmbox, an inbox warming tool to prevent your emails from landing in the spam folder. According to Warmbox, that’s where 51% of emails go every day.
Warmbox works by automatically sending emails from your inbox and interacting with them, as engaged leads would do, in order to generate perfect inbox activity to increase your email deliverability. There is plenty of competition in inbox warming and email deliverability. According to maker Arthur Peter, this is how Warmbox's plug&play SaaS is different:
“Warmbox warm-up is based on a +10,000 private inbox network, from different email service providers, from +100 countries, aged from 2 weeks to few years and using different sending IPs, with a mix of different ESPs…”
Peter goes on to explain that many competitors use a peer-to-peer warmup model which may create some risks with privacy and hurt deliverability due to interaction with spammers.
Of course, a warm inbox is just the beginning. We took a look down the sales cycle and surfaced 9 more new tools to help you close.
Cold Email Templates - 150 “battle-tested” templates for marketing and sales
Cooby Insights for WhatsApp - Analytical report for insights on your WhatsApp chat threads
WhatsApp Actions for Hubspot - Send WhatsApp messages from Hubspot workflows
Walnut 1.0 - Tailor your demos for different use cases; track and gather insights
Navattic - An alternative to Walnut for building, sending, and tracking shareable demos
Cohere Voice - Engage prospects with live video on your site
Shoutout - Tap into your social proof with a “wall of love”
Crikle - Record notes, use checklists, and sync all your findings to your CRM
The Remote Sales Team Playbook - no explanation needed
Yesterday a team of indie makers launched Warmbox, an inbox warming tool to prevent your emails from landing in the spam folder. According to Warmbox, that’s where 51% of emails go every day.
Warmbox works by automatically sending emails from your inbox and interacting with them, as engaged leads would do, in order to generate perfect inbox activity to increase your email deliverability. There is plenty of competition in inbox warming and email deliverability. According to maker Arthur Peter, this is how Warmbox's plug&play SaaS is different:
“Warmbox warm-up is based on a +10,000 private inbox network, from different email service providers, from +100 countries, aged from 2 weeks to few years and using different sending IPs, with a mix of different ESPs…”
Peter goes on to explain that many competitors use a peer-to-peer warmup model which may create some risks with privacy and hurt deliverability due to interaction with spammers.
Of course, a warm inbox is just the beginning. We took a look down the sales cycle and surfaced 9 more new tools to help you close.
Cold Email Templates - 150 “battle-tested” templates for marketing and sales
Cooby Insights for WhatsApp - Analytical report for insights on your WhatsApp chat threads
WhatsApp Actions for Hubspot - Send WhatsApp messages from Hubspot workflows
Walnut 1.0 - Tailor your demos for different use cases; track and gather insights
Navattic - An alternative to Walnut for building, sending, and tracking shareable demos
Cohere Voice - Engage prospects with live video on your site
Shoutout - Tap into your social proof with a “wall of love”
Crikle - Record notes, use checklists, and sync all your findings to your CRM
The Remote Sales Team Playbook - no explanation needed
Project management for X
This newsletter was crafted by us and sponsored by our friends at monday.com.
Artists love to sing about white blank pages full of possibility. For riding off into the sunset or starting a relationship, they're cool. When you’re starting a new project, “overwhelmed” may actually be the dominant feeling.
The makers at monday.com picked up on that. One of the key goals of their latest Work OS management platform is to provide premade solutions that are tailored to support your team and project needs. You can start from scratch, or create your ideal workflow. To start the makers produced 200+ templates based on how real teams manage their projects.
Beyond templates, monday.com’s been expanding its Apps Marketplace, giving thought to the tools specific teams need to power their projects. Marketers may look to connect LinkedIn, Eventbrite, or Jotform, Devs can integrate with Github or Jira, and Sales will probably head straight for Salesforce and Slack.
By using integrations and automations, teams can create a centralized hub for all their activity, and combine data and information with new features that drive productivity including:
Dead set on leaning into specific spaces for teams, the makers at monday.com also introduced Workspaces to allow teams to create segregation within your company’s account. That means that teams can focus on their workflows without the clutter and distraction, but still retain connection to other departments where it counts.
Some of the Product Hunt community chimed in during the monday.com 2.0 launch to share their experiences:
“We had hundreds, no, thousands of parts to the project that needed taking care of over the past few months, and monday.com made keeping track of them super-easy. Excited to see the platform evolving!” - Nick Smith
“I've spent some time on Airtable and others, and found monday.com to be more intuitive” - Michael Cipriano
monday.com offers a free trial so if you’re the type that gets excited by making test Gantt charts and watching your automations populate (kindred souls), you can give it a go by clicking below.
Artists love to sing about white blank pages full of possibility. For riding off into the sunset or starting a relationship, they're cool. When you’re starting a new project, “overwhelmed” may actually be the dominant feeling.
The makers at monday.com picked up on that. One of the key goals of their latest Work OS management platform is to provide premade solutions that are tailored to support your team and project needs. You can start from scratch, or create your ideal workflow. To start the makers produced 200+ templates based on how real teams manage their projects.
Beyond templates, monday.com’s been expanding its Apps Marketplace, giving thought to the tools specific teams need to power their projects. Marketers may look to connect LinkedIn, Eventbrite, or Jotform, Devs can integrate with Github or Jira, and Sales will probably head straight for Salesforce and Slack.
By using integrations and automations, teams can create a centralized hub for all their activity, and combine data and information with new features that drive productivity including:
- Gantt charts
- Kanbans
- Email to platform contributing
- Quote generators
Dead set on leaning into specific spaces for teams, the makers at monday.com also introduced Workspaces to allow teams to create segregation within your company’s account. That means that teams can focus on their workflows without the clutter and distraction, but still retain connection to other departments where it counts.
Some of the Product Hunt community chimed in during the monday.com 2.0 launch to share their experiences:
“We had hundreds, no, thousands of parts to the project that needed taking care of over the past few months, and monday.com made keeping track of them super-easy. Excited to see the platform evolving!” - Nick Smith
“I've spent some time on Airtable and others, and found monday.com to be more intuitive” - Michael Cipriano
monday.com offers a free trial so if you’re the type that gets excited by making test Gantt charts and watching your automations populate (kindred souls), you can give it a go by clicking below.
Google’s answer to Notion
Less than a week ago Notion rolled out its API into a public beta and a few days after that, the Notion integrations started rolling in including G-Suite related products like Gmail to Notion.
Google’s not planning to play second fiddle though. Yesterday was its annual Google I/O developer conference. One of the biggest announcements was Smart Canvas which is not a new product but a host of updates that make its Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides more collaborative.
Smart chips (i.e. @mentions) now work for documents too instead of just people. Combine that with pageless docs, emojis, connected checklists, and table templates and you’ve got a collaborative workspace that jumps back into the future alongside competitors.
Not content with taking on just Notion, Google Sheets is getting a timeline view and teams can now edit content from a Google Chat room, which combined with other tools gives it some lite project management potential. There’s also now a quick way to present your docs directly to Meet, and in the fall Google will add Meet directly into Docs, Sheets, and Slides so you can meet and collaborate side-by-side.
Google had told us they were working on updates to Google Meet last month which included standard Zoom features like background replacements, improved pinning (and multi-pinning), streamlined controls, and higher quality meetings. They’ll soon be adding live captions and translations too. That may cause concerns for Otter.ai.
Smart Canvas wasn’t the only buzzy news of I/O. Google announced that Android has surpassed the milestone of 3 billion devices. Those users can try out the beta of Android 12 today which Google itself says is “the biggest design change in Android's history.”
Google has unified Android software and hardware ecosystems under a single design language which it’s calling Material You (a progression of its Material Design system introduced in 2014). The updates are heavy on personalization which has been a priority for Android from the start. Users can customize the color palette and adjust things like size and line width. Designs will follow you across the entire OS and not just on your phone but to Chrome OS, wearables, and other Google products.
Not last and not least, Google introduced LaMDA, a new natural language processing technique that makes AI conversations more natural-feeling by better responding to unusual or unexpected queries — i.e. if you’re talking about planets and you change the topic, it won’t be thrown for a loop. This could mean better interactions for your toddler and AI in the future.
For today, you can get started with those smart-er chips and checklists in Google Docs or let us know what you think of the updates.
Google’s not planning to play second fiddle though. Yesterday was its annual Google I/O developer conference. One of the biggest announcements was Smart Canvas which is not a new product but a host of updates that make its Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides more collaborative.
Smart chips (i.e. @mentions) now work for documents too instead of just people. Combine that with pageless docs, emojis, connected checklists, and table templates and you’ve got a collaborative workspace that jumps back into the future alongside competitors.
Not content with taking on just Notion, Google Sheets is getting a timeline view and teams can now edit content from a Google Chat room, which combined with other tools gives it some lite project management potential. There’s also now a quick way to present your docs directly to Meet, and in the fall Google will add Meet directly into Docs, Sheets, and Slides so you can meet and collaborate side-by-side.
Google had told us they were working on updates to Google Meet last month which included standard Zoom features like background replacements, improved pinning (and multi-pinning), streamlined controls, and higher quality meetings. They’ll soon be adding live captions and translations too. That may cause concerns for Otter.ai.
Smart Canvas wasn’t the only buzzy news of I/O. Google announced that Android has surpassed the milestone of 3 billion devices. Those users can try out the beta of Android 12 today which Google itself says is “the biggest design change in Android's history.”
Google has unified Android software and hardware ecosystems under a single design language which it’s calling Material You (a progression of its Material Design system introduced in 2014). The updates are heavy on personalization which has been a priority for Android from the start. Users can customize the color palette and adjust things like size and line width. Designs will follow you across the entire OS and not just on your phone but to Chrome OS, wearables, and other Google products.
Not last and not least, Google introduced LaMDA, a new natural language processing technique that makes AI conversations more natural-feeling by better responding to unusual or unexpected queries — i.e. if you’re talking about planets and you change the topic, it won’t be thrown for a loop. This could mean better interactions for your toddler and AI in the future.
For today, you can get started with those smart-er chips and checklists in Google Docs or let us know what you think of the updates.
One community tool to rule them all
You can find a community for almost anything, almost anywhere these days. As new tech launches and grows it enables new connections, but the variety of apps, features, and UIs has also led to fragmentation. Makers have taken notice.
Yesterday a community platform called Geneva launched itself to #1 Product of the Day. Geneva pulls together real-time chat, forum-style posts, audio, video, and live broadcasts into a single tool — many of the features that communities love and use regularly to connect with each other.
It’s hard to compress the use cases of Geneva into a short list (running clubs to retail teams, for example) but Li Jin, VC investor and tech thought leader, explained the implications of a platform designed explicitly to foster community.
“In a larger sense, Geneva is a new kind of digital infrastructure — the foundation upon which a new breed of cloud-native groups, clubs, communities, and even cities will be built over the coming decades.”
Geneva has been in a public beta and early adopters gave us a glimpse into favorite uses and benefits.
“I use Geneva for so many different things. My favorite home is for my fantasy basketball league, it has all the features that we could possibly need.” - Jason Fiedler
“It's like a friendly discord, or a less work-oriented slack.” - Emmett Shine
Geneva does have competition. You might recall that another product in this space launched a week ago and also received a warm reply from the Product Hunt community. Garnet is a tool centered around community and enables users to build their own custom video, audio, and text chat rooms while picking and choosing what features they want. Maker Carlos Diaz-Padrone explained:
“The idea is to be able to fit to the needs of any community online. Most [communities] are currently forcing Slack or Discord plus 5 other apps into this purpose. But that comes with a lot of friction because they weren’t really designed to be multi-purpose community tools.”
There are also a few older players in the game as well. One commenter noted they use Mighty Networks to build and manage their community. Mighty Network, and tools like it, are largely used to enable creators and brands to offer experiences to their communities. It's only a matter of time before we see stories about how creators and brands are leveraging tools like Garnet and Geneva for their businesses functions too.
Yesterday a community platform called Geneva launched itself to #1 Product of the Day. Geneva pulls together real-time chat, forum-style posts, audio, video, and live broadcasts into a single tool — many of the features that communities love and use regularly to connect with each other.
It’s hard to compress the use cases of Geneva into a short list (running clubs to retail teams, for example) but Li Jin, VC investor and tech thought leader, explained the implications of a platform designed explicitly to foster community.
“In a larger sense, Geneva is a new kind of digital infrastructure — the foundation upon which a new breed of cloud-native groups, clubs, communities, and even cities will be built over the coming decades.”
Geneva has been in a public beta and early adopters gave us a glimpse into favorite uses and benefits.
“I use Geneva for so many different things. My favorite home is for my fantasy basketball league, it has all the features that we could possibly need.” - Jason Fiedler
“It's like a friendly discord, or a less work-oriented slack.” - Emmett Shine
Geneva does have competition. You might recall that another product in this space launched a week ago and also received a warm reply from the Product Hunt community. Garnet is a tool centered around community and enables users to build their own custom video, audio, and text chat rooms while picking and choosing what features they want. Maker Carlos Diaz-Padrone explained:
“The idea is to be able to fit to the needs of any community online. Most [communities] are currently forcing Slack or Discord plus 5 other apps into this purpose. But that comes with a lot of friction because they weren’t really designed to be multi-purpose community tools.”
There are also a few older players in the game as well. One commenter noted they use Mighty Networks to build and manage their community. Mighty Network, and tools like it, are largely used to enable creators and brands to offer experiences to their communities. It's only a matter of time before we see stories about how creators and brands are leveraging tools like Garnet and Geneva for their businesses functions too.
10 better ways to learn
Over the last year, we wrote here and there about growth in EdTech investment as social distancing made space for new forms of learning. Lately, the stock market has brought some people to question if EdTech has run its course.
TechCrunch reported on recent declines in notable edtech company stock. For example, Coursera has shed about half of its value after its IPO in March and is now trading close to its IPO price. Meanwhile in the private market TechCrunch estimated, based on Crunchbase data, that we should expect around $5.1 billion in venture capital investment in this space this year — up from $2.06 billion last year.
In the Product Hunt community, we continue to see tech-driven concepts add more value to EdTech and LearnTech. In the same way that remote work and telehealth seem poised to remain more popular than ever, it seems likely that this space will continue its growth, driven by science-backed concepts and machine learning instead of school closures.
Here are ten innovative products we’ve seen launch in this space in last three months.
Traverse - An app using science-backed methods for learning and applying new skills and concepts
WarmMachine - A website that maps domain concepts in machine learning to help self-learners plan their learning path
Harken - Flashcard app that uses spaced repetition to help you learn
ASH - Inspired by the Pokedex, an AI pocket field guide for kids to discover nature
Jax – A chatbot that teaches you JavaScript and React with chats, flashcards, and quizzes
Alpe Audio - Audio courses designed with to help you learn while on the go
Ace ASL - App using AI to practice and learn American Sign Language
Sutle - A platform for saving and organizing online resources into a directed path
TeenUp - A learning platform for teens by teens to help them learn from their peers
Pressto - A website that teaches kids media literacy and writing skills while building a newspaper
TechCrunch reported on recent declines in notable edtech company stock. For example, Coursera has shed about half of its value after its IPO in March and is now trading close to its IPO price. Meanwhile in the private market TechCrunch estimated, based on Crunchbase data, that we should expect around $5.1 billion in venture capital investment in this space this year — up from $2.06 billion last year.
In the Product Hunt community, we continue to see tech-driven concepts add more value to EdTech and LearnTech. In the same way that remote work and telehealth seem poised to remain more popular than ever, it seems likely that this space will continue its growth, driven by science-backed concepts and machine learning instead of school closures.
Here are ten innovative products we’ve seen launch in this space in last three months.
Traverse - An app using science-backed methods for learning and applying new skills and concepts
WarmMachine - A website that maps domain concepts in machine learning to help self-learners plan their learning path
Harken - Flashcard app that uses spaced repetition to help you learn
ASH - Inspired by the Pokedex, an AI pocket field guide for kids to discover nature
Jax – A chatbot that teaches you JavaScript and React with chats, flashcards, and quizzes
Alpe Audio - Audio courses designed with to help you learn while on the go
Ace ASL - App using AI to practice and learn American Sign Language
Sutle - A platform for saving and organizing online resources into a directed path
TeenUp - A learning platform for teens by teens to help them learn from their peers
Pressto - A website that teaches kids media literacy and writing skills while building a newspaper
