Hey Product Hunt!
I'm co-founder and CEO of MoonRoof Labs, the company behind Hynt.
Big thanks to @_Jacksmith for hunting us today!
What is Hynt?
Hynt is a way to get reminders and trigger smart home controls at just the right time and place. It’s powered by a tiny device called the Hynt Token.
The Token is a Bluetooth LE device with a coin-sized footprint that you can drop anywhere. The battery lasts up to two years, so it doesn’t need power. Once in place, the Token uses Bluetooth signals to mark that physical spot for the app (iOS & Android) to find later. The app enables your phone to sense its proximity to a Token and use that information to present helpful reminders or trigger smart home controls through IFTTT. We plan to bring the power of micro-location services to a world of apps through our API, and great reminders are just the beginning of what's possible.
We're proud to introduce Hynt to the world today— as a tool for better reminders. AMA!
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@bleistern I read this comment and instantly pre-ordered... but then when my order completed I saw "Tell 5 friends about Hynt, and earn 2 months of free Hynt Plus". Uh oh. Hynt Plus. What is that? That sounds horrible.
So I went back, actually read the website, and now I understand better why these are priced at insta-buy level. $40 to get in the door (holy crap) and then ~ $50 a year to use IFTTT (oh. damn.). If I had any hope that Hynt would get new features or integrations in the future it is clear that that would require premium.
I can't blame you for wanting to have a sustainable business model, but now I need to decide whether there is a good reason not to cancel my pre-order. What do you think?
@paul_brenner hey Paul! First, I want to thank you for your order. Your assumption is correct that In order to support the continuing development of new features, we needed to go with the subscription model. IFTTT today is just one part of the Hunt Plus service which includes the SMS assistant and the iMessage app. We plan to add new features in the future that add even more value without increasing the price. We want to provide a product that is accessibly priced but at the same time offers power users a great feature set. The only way to support the development of those features is to go with a subscription model. No hard feelings if you cancel your order but we hope you'll stay tuned!
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@bleistern Thanks. I'll still give them a try and see how everything plays out. I just looked a little closer and saw the "get two months free with annual billing" which softens the subscription pain a little bit. (I can't imagine how frustrating it is to be a founder and build a web site that answers all questions and then have customers just 100% not read what is on the site).
In doing some soul searching on this I realized that, for no reason I can understand, $4 per month is just over what I feel comfortable easily adding to my life as a subscription. I'm not saying I wouldn't pay $4 per month, maybe I will love Hynt and decide that $4 is a bargain. But at that level (or even at $40 for the year) it just means I'm putting a huge amount of thought into it instead of just opening my wallet.
Now, this is completely irrational, but if it was $3 a month I would say "whatever, I can live with that". I have no clue why the extra dollar a month pushes me past some invisible barrier that makes me really think hard about this purchase. Maybe that means you priced it perfectly because I'll eventually come around to paying a dollar more per month than I really want to? Maybe the opposite will happen? And of course this is one single persons perspective
I don't know. I really doubt that you can share any info about how you settled on $4 a month (was it cost based? Did you figure out that $4 is exactly the right number to make me think this hard? Did you set out 5 boxes with 1-5 written on them and then see which one a cat would jump in?). But if you can, I would be super curious to learn more.
@paul_brenner We just tallied up the cats in each box 🤣 -- in all seriousness though, we did a lot of research on price and conducted some surveys of our own as well. In the end, we made our pricing decision based on those data in conjunction with a few tests we did on our landing pages which allowed us to gather real-world data that we could extrapolate and use in our projections.
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@bleistern any plans to support Google Home and Todoist?
@bleistern and his team do fantastic design (on both the hardware and software side of things). I got a chance to see these units in real life; they're very tiny and well designed.
This looks awesome. Triggering things through IFTTT is definitely the way to go. Can you also interact with the token by touch? Given that it is a physical object, and I sometimes don't have my phone on me, might be a nice way to, for example, turn on my lights in that room or put my smart home into my sleep theme.
@kunalslab hey, Kunal! Thanks for the question-- The Hynt Token itself does not have a button on it, but we are planning support for Apple Watch integration which will allow you to trigger Hynt reminders and smart home controls even if your phone is not on your person 👍
@bleistern time to buy an Apple Watch! Why wouldn't I use the IFTTT app on my watch then? I would see if there's a way to include physical interaction that doesn't impact the low-power design.
@kunalslab the decision not to include a button makes the product simpler and easier to jump right into using. It also lowers the cost slightly and elongates battery life by a factor of two. There are many connected button products including Flic and Pop. Setting up and configuring these products can get complicated, and we didn't want to add that process to the already complex idea of presence detection.
@bleistern good arguments and interesting to hear your thoughts. Regarding the setup process, I'm sure you can defer that and make it simpler if you ever build a product with physical interaction.
@dackermann many in our community have said the same! We think Hynt could be really helpful, especially for those with different executive function abilities.
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@bleistern Funny thing is, I used to market BLE beacons for Panasonic. I always had this application in my head and hoped that someone would make it a reality.
@sandrojazzar Great question. The innovation behind Hynt is primarily in the setting and receiving of reminders. On the hardware side, let me say that our goal is to get Hynt into as many homes as possible, and that means focusing on a few key use cases (instead of every possible benefit of micro-location) and price. The key differences are (1) Price: They're selling each Dot at $21; we're offering Hynt in a pack of 3 for $39. (2) Battery life: Hynt lasts up to 2 years; Dot claims 1 year. (3) Attachment: Hynt has a magnetic back and also ships with adhesive pads; Dot can be mounted only using adhesive. (4) Extras: Hynt doesn't have an LED or built-in button; dot does. Note: The use of both of these features does effect battery life significantly in our tests (our prototype had both a button & LED). That's why we left it out for version one.
I love how simple this seems to set up and actually use, compared with other "smart gadgets". Can't wait to get my hands on it.And well doneexplaining how Hynt works 👍
@dannyfiorentini -- I wonder if this would help replace some of those sticky notes you mentioned your dad used! We've come a long way since SeeNote so I thought I'd give you a shout. Feedback (especially negative feedback) is welcome! 🤔🙏
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