One question that I get asked a lot is what is the difference between Donut and Snack.
Snack and Donut are both Slack bots that pair people, but thats where the similarities end. They are different in when, how and what happens after people are matched:
* Donut pairs people to have planned conversations in future. Donut does not facilitate the conversation; it simply matches two people based on pre-defined rules to chat over Slack at pre-defined times.
* Snack matches people to have serendipitous conversations _now_ (when they request it). We pro-actively pair people based on their current availability and interests, host the video and facilitate the conversation with ice-breakers.
One is something you'd do once a week (Donut) and the other is something do multiple times a day, or whenever having a break from work (Snack). You should try both to see which one you prefer more. So far I've heard that Snack has a lot greater engagement than Donut (but then the feedback could be biased because it was by Slack orgs who ditched Donut to begin with!).
As every product maker, I appreciate feedback about your experience if you've tried it and publicity. If you can help with either, comment or email (gajus@gajus.com).
The part that I haven't figured out yet is how to create viral growth loops. Once people see the app, they are pretty willing to try it. But there is nothing within the app that would encourage users to promote their use of the app outside of the Slack organization. In essence, this means that app's growth depends on word of mouth and discoverability through Slack directory. On the bright side, both of these channels are proving to be pretty effective.
Loads of folks during testing asked me about the technical stack used to build this. It is all Node.js + PostgreSQL + Twilio. I didn't use any framework for Slack bot (I've learned about https://slack.dev/bolt only _after_ I've built this). The only major frameworks are express.js and Slonik. Everything else is vanilla.
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This is really cool! A great way to re-introduce spontaneous conversation. Been thinking a lot about this lately, but solved it in a very different way.
Great idea! It's similar to Donut, which my team likes to use, but feels like a lower commitment which is great. I miss the spontaneous conversations we would have in an office
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?makers do you have any plans to integrate this with Google Chat?
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