Matt Galligan

Slingshot - Facebook's new ephemeral photo/video app

Slingshot allows users send a photo or video with text or drawings to another person. The recipient, however, can not open the picture without acknowledging that they want to open it and “sling” another image back to the initial sender.

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Daniel Hanks
@rrhoover Guard it like the App Store guards chart rankings.
Greg Gilbert
I really like the website. I'll try it as soon as it becomes available on the French App Store.
Bram Kanstein (@bramk)
Only US App Store :( I don't get this strategy, they're g*ddamn Facebook - Scale baby scale!
Mark Abramson
I wonder if non-US users would be able to use http://www.producthunt.com/posts... to get access?
Brenden Mulligan
This app is a mess. The UX is crazy. Some places where triggers should be ("you have a new message from X, but you need to send X a message first") doesn't trigger you to send X a message. It actually does nothing. You have to go, take a photo, and then send it to X to see it. I love the onboarding. So simple. But overall using the app is a mess.
Romain Dillet
Slingshot isn’t overly complicated, you just have to learn how to use it, like when you launched Snapchat or Taptalk for the first time. Yet, Slingshot will probably fail because it's like Snapchat but 1) you have to re-learn how to use it, 2) your friends don't use it. There is no reward.
Onno Faber
After all the rumours I expected a more close resemblance. Taptalk and Slingshot have little in common. Actually this article by Shane highlights some of the important differences: https://medium.com/@shanemac/tap...
Ryan Hoover
@mulligan - I definitely agree the UX is a little clumsy but so is Snapchat's. The key is getting users over that "hump" where they get it and grow accustomed to its idiosyncrasies. That said, I need to play with it a bit more to have a stronger opinion. Here are some interesting design decisions and observations: - Doodle music - love it or hate it, the music when you doodle accomplishes two things (1) sets a playful, silly tone and (2) might inspire WOM (the "mario paint music" grabs attention). - "Locked" photos - to view a photo from a friend for the first time, you must send them a photo in exchange. While this adds friction to use the product, my hunch is that it increases engagement in aggregate. - Inviting people - Users can invite people via SMS but not Facebook. - "Just for you" - When a friend sends you a photo directly (and not to several people), it tells you it was "just for you." I like this. This is one of my complaints with Snapchat in that unless your friend mentions your name or makes it obvious, it's unclear how thoughtful they were in choosing to send that photo to me because of the one-to-many. On the other hand, it makes one-to-one flirting more obvious. ;) - "Hidden People" - I've had a few weirdos send me snaps on Snapchat before and I haven't taken the time to figure out how to block them. Thankfully you can hide people on Slingshot. P.S. I forgot to plug my username earlier: rrhoover (sling me!) P.P.S. Curious to hear @ogtfaber's (from Taptalk) thoughts on this.
Adam Sigel
Odd that I had to send my first sling to their team. I suspect this gets easier over time, but the whole "reply before you read" thing makes it hard to have an actual conversation (but maybe that's not what this is about?)
Bram Kanstein (@bramk)
@mark__a didn't work on Mac or iOS :( cool tool though! :)