@parkerwightman I'm a huge supporter of live chat and have been using Olark for awhile. I like your mobile first approach as support through chat should be accessible on demand. Where do you see live chat going?
@toddg777 Hi Todd! We were avid Olark users until recently as well. We wanted live chat that was more seamless with a native, mobile experience, complete with easy-to-digest visitor information. These features are somewhat available through Olark's IM integration, but it's a bit awkward sometimes due to being limited by Jabber protocols, especially on mobile. We wanted to bring that information front-and-center in its own app. We think there's still plenty that will still choose Olark for its IM integration, as they should, but this launch has shown there's many who appreciate a fully-native experience with unique features that controlling our own protocol brings.
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Very nice implementation, clean. @parkerwightman can you expound on "Built on our own, custom chat service means we can add features other chat services can’t." Are other chat protocols e.g. Jabber that restrictive?
p.s. add a mute button for the notification sounds during active chats - don't want to interrupt the Product Hunt Podcast.
@mark__a We'll definitely add that, had that request again just now :-)
Jabber in some ways is restrictive, yes, particularly with group conversations. For example, a very common scenario for us is having two agents talking to the same customer. Seeing the typing status of the other agent is crucial but often not implemented in Jabber clients (not sure if it exists in the protocol or not, just know most clients don't implement it). We're also able to add features like "read at"/"delivered at" a la iMessage, as well as more visibility of what other agents are doing (which agents are looking at which customers in the visitor list, etc).
Olark and other Jabber-centric chat options get around some of these limitations by having !bang and /slash commands that print out information and perform commands that aren't built into the Jabber protocol. Controlling our own protocol makes implementing these features easier for agents to use and discover, making for a more integrated experience.
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Hunter
This is one of the most simple and neat live chat solutions I've seen recently. Going native with real-time push notifications is smart :)
@eriktorenberg olark has a lot more restrictions on the free plan (concurrent chats, monthly chats, etc...). They also don't have an official iOS app yet to my knowledge (although these guys don't yet technically either, but it's their direction).
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Hunter
@eriktorenberg It feels much simpler(less functional), since the product is just in its inception. Twist around push notifications(get push each time visitor writes to you) feels differentiated. (I'm not a user of either).
This is awesome! Olark really forces people into a paid plan by offering a very limited free plan, so I've been looking for a chat solution for side project sites to keep costs down. I'll be using this!
@eriktorenberg Firehose Chat developer here, @miles_matthias hit it on the head for the most part. A much better free plan and native Mac + iOS app (waiting for review...) with push notifications make for a very pleasant chatting experience. Feels just like texting. Plus stuff like CSS-level control and removal of all FC branding for paid plans is nice too. The Features section lists the key features pretty well on https://firehosechat.com/ as well. Enjoy!
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