Yodel

Videochat Messaging. It’s facetime, on your time.

1 follower

Videochat Messaging. It’s facetime, on your time.

1 follower

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Launch tags:iOS•Messaging•Streaming Services

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Hunter

Yodel lets you can send videos, photos, and gifs to your friends, and as soon as they open your message, the app records them as they watch and respond. It’s a bit like facetime, but with the freedom to talk whenever you like. Super fun, and perfect for my busy schedule. I’ll say more during my LIVE Chat today, but go check it out!

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@hbarnes thanks for the post! We made Yodel to connect friends in the spontaneous conversations we have face-to-face, but never seem to get on our phones. Whether it’s a friend laughing at your dancing, a critic scrutinizing a new logo, or your family’s surprise when you tell them you have investors, there is something special about seeing these moments as they happen. Yodel gives you all the fun of a live videochat, with the freedom to talk whenever you like. We call it videochat messaging, and we think you’re gonna love it. We’re building this for you all, so let us know what you think! BTW you can add me as a friend on Yodel if you want someone to try it with! Username: @seth

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11yr ago

Looksy for iMessage

@sethforsgren @hbarnes As someone intimately familiar with this idea (I launched a reaction messenger app last year before pivoting) I think the hardest problem is how to create a new habit when the payoff (getting back the video "reaction") is fun, but ultimately not that engaging. Sarah Perez at Techcrunch wrote a great article tackling these questions titled "Battle of the Reaction Messengers" so check it out -- hopefully you guys can figure out how to make this concept succeed, but be prepared for a tough battle: users out there want that "ah-ha" moment much more quickly than you are likely delivering it.

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@dannyjespinoza Thanks Danny, we’ve been playing with @getonlow ourselves! We’re working hard to create a habit that people want to come back to every day, but it is a challenge. We view reactions as a valuable part of the conversation, but equally important as the realtime responses and quick back and forth you can have on Yodel. Sometimes the reaction is epic, but sometimes it just gives you the context of what you said last, almost like reading the text you previously sent someone before reading their response. It would be awesome to chat more about your experience with low and blush

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11yr ago

Terrible horrible no good very bad ideas

@sethforsgren @hbarnes Reminds me of the original blab. Even has the same tagline "facetime on your own time". Seth if you ever want any insights on what worked/didn't work for us, lmk.

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@shaanvp I’d love to chat Shaan, I’ll shoot you a DM later. I stumbled upon Blab’s old marketing stuff yesterday for just that reason hahah. I’ve enjoyed blab.im in it’s new form, nice work.

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11yr ago

Strikingly

I used Yodel when it was in beta. It was surprising for me to realize that it offered a unique and valuable way to communicate with friends. Personally, I find snapchat too manicured and broadcasted. People take 5 pictures to get their reaction perfectly. Sometimes it's a conversation, but sometimes it just seems like a humblebrag. I also dislike mass-snaps. I like phone calls, but they are hard to schedule and only happen infrequently. Yodel has helped me fill in some of these gaps. One thing I found a bit tricky with Yodel was getting used to such a different form of communication. I definitely messed up my first few. Learning the etiquette for a new communication platform can be awkward, but I think I have it down now.

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@eawharton We hope it surprises a lot of people! Great to hear that you got the hang of it. We’ve made a ton of changes to our onboarding to get people over the barriers to entry. Like lots of apps, it’s been all about trying to get people to something of a ‘magic moment’, where they have 3+ friends on the app who use it consistently. Once we get people there, they tend to stick around!

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11yr ago

Klutch

@eawharton Yeah. I feel that the reactions just aren't half as interesting as the initial message sent (which is where Snapchat excels). But on the other hand, it's clear these guys have some money to bring onboard NBA Champs and kickass Yodelers. So maybe their marketing efforts will work. Although, I don't think the average person will have any clue what the app does because the video doesn't explain it well. It looks like real-time video chat but they never show the async video messaging part. Need to clean up the messaging. They could stand to lose the "humor" in the video as it takes away from the unique functionality.

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@huntergray Thanks for your thoughts Hunter. The video was a lot of fun to make, and on as tight a budget we could manage ;) We hope it peaks people’s interest enough to click through and learn more. At the end of the day, we could have the best marketing ever and it really doesn’t matter compared to people enjoying the app and wanting to come back and use it again and again. We’ll keep working to communicate the value of the app as we learn and grow!

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11yr ago

Strikingly

@huntergray I found the same thing initially when I was Yodeling with other first time Yodelers. People would stare blankly during the reaction. However, as I (& others) got used to it, I found that people started to use the reaction times differently. As we got used to the new technology, social norms formed around how to use the reaction time. As for their onboarding, I really cant comment since a person only gets onboarded once :) FWIW, I do think the video is funny

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11yr ago

Riffusion

Maker

Here’s our video, starring my favorite yodeler in the world:

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11yr ago

An interesting concept! However, is there a way to turn off the automatic recording of reactions? Knowing that I'm being recorded the second I view something is going to force me to pause for a moment before viewing a video. That seems like you're introducing an element of friction in the habit formation.

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11yr ago

@spinoodle I agree. But at the same time, do you think reactions will be as genuine if you have the time to review the video and only then record the reaction? I feel like it would take away from the experience.

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11yr ago

Ditto

This is an awesome product. What has been the most interesting feedback that you guys have received from users so far?

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@javaughn12 Appreciate it Javaughn! Some of our most important feedback has been about the onboarding for a new messaging experience like Yodel. We used to use text to communicate what was happening, but that was generally a fail. We’re doubling down on quick video demos this time after seeing positive feedback with that in beta versions.

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

Thanks Nicholas! Recording as soon as you view a message is definitely a new experience, and can be weird at first. We don’t have an option to turn it off though. We hope people come to see it like talking in person. You don’t really think about your reaction when you speak face-to-face, it just happens. Everything on yodel is ephemeral, so even if your reaction isn’t pretty, it’s only lives once. Hopefully the fun of seeing your friend’s reaction in turn lowers the barrier to jumping in yourself.

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@sethforsgren @spinoodle Forgot to press reply for this message!

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11yr ago

Upcoming

@sethforsgren Definitely interesting concept. But doesn't this increase the barrier for those who receive because now they need to inherently make another decision: "Am I in presentation condition right now?"

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11yr ago

gesture.ai

@drew23 yeah receiving is definitely a second thought. When you look at it as FaceTime on your time, it changes the dynamic of the app though. I hate FaceTime because I don't always want to be looked at. But with this I can choose when you look at me. Which I think is pretty cool. It'll be interesting to see the adoption rate for yodel.

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@drew23 It is for sure a barrier for some of our users, and we’re still iterating to make people comfortable while giving them a truly unique experience. We’ve seen it as a barrier that users may hit, but once they send a few videos, the barrier dissolves (getting them to send a couple videos is still not easy). One of the really fun aspects is that you can start responding to people’s questions and such during your reaction, which can actually make it one of the fastest ways to communicate, since you’re actually participating in the moment as you watch a message.

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11yr ago

Loom

I really enjoyed Glide (http://www.glide.me/) when they first came out and tried getting all my friends on it, but it didn't work out very well. I loved how with Glide it begins recording and there are no redos. It makes the interaction much more authentic (although the onboarding process was notably lacking). My friends ended up SnapChatting each other instead. Always very happy to try out a new video messaging chat app. I would love to eventually have a large part of how I interact with people be light, low-friction video messaging. :-)

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11yr ago

Yodel

Maker

@vhmth Glad you’re up for trying a new experience Vinay! We think it’s pretty fun to chat without all the editing and curating that we often feel is necessary elsewhere. There’s a lot of communication that happens even when we’re not exactly sure what to say, and you get moments of that on Yodel which can be pretty fun.

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11yr ago

Glide

@vhmth I hope you're willing to give Glide another shot. We've put a lot of effort into simplifying the onboarding recently and have already seen the app installed on more than 20M devices, with millions of users sending billions of messages to date.

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11yr ago

Loom

@sethforsgren @vhmth Awesome! Giving it a try now.

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11yr ago

Loom

@chaimhaas @vhmth Downloading Glide again too. Going to try both out and comment here with my thoughts.

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11yr ago

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