I didn't realize you were working on an app, @maxstoller! (I also see a few familiar faces in those app screenshots: @msg, @nchirls).
We've seen a ton of apps designed to help friends make plans and meetup, Swarm being one of the more recent, big launches. None of them have stuck with me and Swarm in-particular is disappointing in that you look slightly lame when creating an event and no one replies. I like that you only show "green" to people you select to avoid this self-conscious embarrassment.
That said, why'd you build this, Max? :)
*ding ding!* word of the day: sleuthed
To follow @msg's point, the app is entirely reliant on having friends that use it (there's no single player utility like Swarm's check-ins). Other than word of mouth, how are you planning to grow the user base or at least make it easier for people to get their homies on the service, @maxstoller?
@rrhoover I hacked an sms invite together by copy/pasting this message and texting it to my homies: "Yo. Install this app. It will help us meet up more often: Red/Green
https://appsto.re/us/u9_u3.i -❤️💚 Jordan"
Would love a nicer invite mechanic...
@msg@rrhoover Right. Your experience completely hinges on your network buying in. It's a hard problem to solve.
I'm working on an update that includes:
(1) An invite mechanism for users who want to recruit friends.
(2) The ability to green people from your contact book that don't have the app installed. They'll instead receive a text message.
Thanks for trying it out!
This is so well-designed. To me, one of the most interesting aspect is that you don't have to "green" everybody when you come out of being "red." This is such a subtle way to create what ends up being spontaneous, throwaway subgroups of people. I've already noticed it today when I was trying to find a time for a quick phone call and wanted to communicate that I wasn't ready yet, but when I was ready, it wasn't time to turn on availability for everyone, just the person I wanted to call.
My second favorite part of the app is the thoughtful use of deeplinking. The design decision to leave messaging people you already know to the place where it's done best -- existing sms app -- means Red/Green enhances existing behaviors instead of interrupting them. @workflowhq, an app that launched on @producthunt recently, is an example of using deeplinking in a way that makes consumers' lives easier. The way Red/Green sends you directly into a text message with the person you are now ready to communicate with is another.
Great job with this. So many of my texts are for coordinating when actual in-person or over the phone conversation is going to happen. I'm looking forward to communicating less about communicating.
"Red/Green, an iOS app that launches today, is looking to simplify telling your friends that you’re down to hang out. Like Yo — remember Yo? — it’s a dead simple app that gives you a simple social binary. You set your status to green if you want to chill, and red when you’re busy. When you set your availability to green, the app gives you a way to set a status and asks “what’s the plan?”" Go @maxstoller
There was another app identical to this one 3 years ago which let you turn your status on and off but didn't get traction. I'm blanking on the name unfortunately but it was literally the same thing. One thing I regularly saw in this space was that the inner circle of the average person is not more than a couple people. In such situations, texting was sufficient.
Where this starts to make sense (and get responses) is among larger groups. One other lesson from my own experience in this space: people want personal invites to things. A broadcast is easy to ignore. What are you doing to promote/encourage responses from individuals?
P.S. Sorry for the rambling response. Just have a lot of thoughts on this space!
Why not just build an entirely sms based version? If your friends don't have the app, it texts them via the app and you see their replies in the app.
Could be much more personal on boarding.
@toobulkeh I'm not sure about entirely SMS based, but you should certainly be able to green friends that don't have the app. That'll be in the next update. Thanks for the feedback.
@talkaboutdesign Other than Twilio, it's custom. It's not US only, but there's a client-side bug in the phone number validation logic that's causing it to reject non-US numbers.
Thanks for checking it out!
Product Hunt
Red/Green
Product Hunt
Wildcard for Android
Red/Green
Visor
Red/Green
Red/Green
Ghost Pepper 🌶️
Red/Green
Hear and Now
The Nifty
Red/Green
Red/Green
Widgetly
Red/Green
Widgetly