Comments on post “Anchor 2.0”
Mike Mignano
@mignano · co-founder, @anchor
Hello, Product Hunters! Mike from Anchor, here.
A year ago, we launched Anchor 1.0, a social audio product aimed at democratizing radio, right here on Product Hunt. The support we received from the PH community was incredible. Not only did we instantly gain an audience through PH, but we also received a ton of helpful feedback that helped shape our roadmap and the future of the product.
Think of Anchor 2.0 as radio 2.0. With this new version, we’re aiming to completely reinvent the radio format by making it easy for anyone to easily broadcast high quality audio from your phone, to wherever audio is heard, literally (currently iOS, Android, Alexa, Google Home, web, and in the car via Bluetooth).
The biggest thing you’ll notice is the new “Stations” format. In Anchor 2.0, everyone has a Station (sort of like a radio station): an audio Story that supports lots of different types of audio, through new creation tools:
* Record and broadcast your voice, via our signature telephone-mode recording
* Mix in full length songs, powered by the Spotify and Apple Music APIs
* Clip external sound bites. Donald Trump holds a press conference? Clip a sound bite then talk about it.
* Take call-ins from your listeners (like replies from Anchor 1.0, but moderated)
* Transition with interludes designed by world class musicians and sound designers
* Echo anyone else’s audio into your station
Other product features that we hope you’ll love:
* Applause: a Like you can hear. Since audio is consumed without visuals, we wanted to build an audio-first feedback mechanism. When listening to Anchor with your phone locked and in your pocket, gently knock on the back of your phone to trigger applause. Not only will the creator hear this positive feedback, but other listeners will too, making for a unique shared listening experience. If you haven’t downloaded the app yet, here’s a sample video of Applause:
* The Rundown: an A.I.-powered news and weather station, designed just for you and powered by Dark Sky. You have to hear it to believe it. (iOS only for now)
*The Dial: a new way to browse audio on mobile, inspired by a physical radio dial.
* Shareable Videos: audio is finally shareable on social media. All audio is instantly converted to video, making it easier to share on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Plus, the best videos feature captions via automatic speech-to-text transcription, powered by IBM Watson. Here’s a sample of some audio that The Outline recorded:
* Archive and Export: at any time, you can archive your station so you can listen to it privately forever. You can also export any archive in case you want to take it off-platform or publish it as a podcast.
* Lots of fun product easter eggs. Hint: pay close attention to the falling emojis you see when listening to Anchor.
* The same onboarding you all loved last year, but with a much faster workflow.
There are tons of other improvements you’ll notice once you start using the product. We hope you’ll download it and give it a try.
Feel free to AMA about the new Anchor - I’ll be here all day. Thanks!
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Alex Bouaziz
@bouazizalex · Entrepreneur, MIT Grad
@mignano Congrats on the launch - the app looks slick!!! We also use the clap icon as our like :) Thanks for making users more familiar to it before we launch ahah
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Mike Mignano
@mignano · co-founder, @anchor
@bouazizalex Awesome! Clap is the new like! :)
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