Roll

The new standard in social money

1 follower

The new standard in social money

1 follower

Roll is infrastructure for social money. It allows issuers to own, control and monetize the value of their social interactions across all platforms.

Launch tags:Android•iOS•Photography

Launch Team

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Product Hunt

I've been using Roll for the past few weeks and love the branding and simplicity.

@pdavison - Roll is MUCH different from your location-based app, Highlight, which exploded in popularity a few years ago. Where did the idea for Roll come from and why didn't Highlight work out?

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

@rrhoover Thanks! Actually, Roll came out of some work we were doing on Highlight 3.0! With Highlight, our goal has always been to help you learn about the people around you. With Highlight 1.0, our focus was on surfacing mutual friends and interests. With 2.0, we added new bits of context about what the people around you were doing - like whether they were walking or driving, and what music they were listening to. With 3.0, we started thinking “Wouldn’t it be interesting if you could learn about people by seeing the photos they’re taking?” Photos have always been a hugely important part of Highlight, and this had just become technically possible to do with iOS 7. The idea was a bit too crazy to fit into the Highlight product, but it was interesting enough that we kept thinking about it, and eventually decided to prototype it as a separate app. We got a few friends on it and the engagement was really good, so we eventually decided to polish it up and release it. We love Highlight and still deeply believe in the vision behind it, but I think we’re still in the early days of that space! Back in 2012, battery life was an issue. Social norms still have to be established. Hyperlocal distribution is notoriously tricky. It's definitely going to happen, but there is still a lot to figure out!

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11yr ago

@rrhoover @pdavison Highlight was ahead of its time. Battery life could not keep up with the app, and this was pre-Tinder where people were not quite conditioned yet to feel comfortable with geo-location sharing. Sonar was another great app like this that would have had more success if it launched today. I actually think Highlight set the stage for apps like Tinder, Happn, etc. Excited to try this out.

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11yr ago

Product Hunt

@pdavison @andythegiant I agree, it was a little ahead of its time but do you think now (or in the near future) people will be comfortable and want to meet others nearby serendipitously? cc'ing @xsvengoechea from Sonar and @badeen from Tinder.

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11yr ago

@pdavison @xsvengoechea @badeen @rrhoover For sure. I think a spring of apps will begin to pop up connecting people with shared mutual hobbies, interests, tastes. I bet @elan_miller also would like to get in on this convo.

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11yr ago

@pdavison @badeen @rrhoover @elan_miller @andythegiant I still love the idea of friend serendipity but I think what was missing from our first round of solomoapps was action IRL - i.e., it's great to find others who share similar interests with you, but what do you actually do with that knowledge? Dating and networking are two very actionable next steps when you find shared interests....but what about everyone else? I think we're still early stages in understanding what people want to really connect over, and how.

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11yr ago

Origami

Cool idea, and I think it'll do well, but I don't need another way to share photos one at a time. I have iCloud, Facebook, Dropbox, Flickr, tons of others on my phone. My biggest sharing issue is that I need to share MORE photos FASTER. Last Friday, I took ~ 40 photos of my friends at a party. That meant I had to find the best ones to share with everyone there and/or find a way to get everyone's email. Which meant, I didn't share any. Too much work. And how many times do you see people take photos of the same group of people with 2 or 3 phones. Why? Because sharing those photos is such a pain in the ass that they know it's never going to happen, so they double the work and use a second camera. Share more photos faster is the future.

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

@andrewwarner We couldn't agree more, and that's actually the exact philosophy behind Roll. As you point out, selecting from a traditional grid view feels like work, so most of us just don't do it. Showing photos one at a time might seem inefficient, but we think it makes the experience really fast and focused, and as a result, users end up sharing a lot more. In other words, Roll was not designed to help you pick the top 3 photos of the 40 you took. It's for sharing the other 37 ... and for getting the photos your friends took of you. Thanks for the comment, and excited to hear what you think!

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11yr ago

Seafronts

Five minutes into using it and I cannot put into words how beautiful the entire experience is. Everything from the app preview video to the subtle animations as well as the snapping that I assume is handled by UIKitDynamics really gives the app a beautiful experience. This app has jumped to my main screen and I'm going to try and get all my close friends on it. Outstanding work, guys. Genuinely blown away.

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

@itskathuria Wow - thank you so much! We are printing this comment out and framing it.

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11yr ago

Seafronts

@pdavison

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

Hi Product Hunt! Roll is a new way for close friends to keep in touch by sharing their camera rolls. Here’s how it works: Each time you open Roll, it checks to see if there are new photos or videos on your camera roll *since the last time you opened the app*. To share them, just swipe up. When your friends share photos, you’ll see those too. Because it’s so frictionless, people share photos many times a day on Roll. You’ll see hikes your friends are taking, meals they’re cooking, screenshots they’re snapping, and little peeks into their daily lives. You kind of feel like you’re with them throughout the day. We just put it up on the App Store and we’d love for you to give it a spin! It’s meant to used with the people you know best, so to get the full experience, try adding a few close friends and family members. We’re excited to hear what you think!

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11yr ago

The Cold Start Problem

@pdavison great to see the launch! I've been using this app for a few weeks now and have been loving it. The product is super simple and minimal, which is always nice. I'm curious to hear what other variations of the product you tried before? Or was the original idea pretty much in this format from day 1?

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11yr ago

@pdavison congrats on the launch paul. Excited to start playing with it.

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11yr ago

GitHub Visualizer

@pdavison i'm a big fan of roll, congrats on the launch! it's become one of the the few products that i use everyday :)

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

@andrewchen Thanks so much! I really appreciate your being on the beta and giving us so much fantastic feedback along the way. The first version of the product actually auto-shared your photos with your friends as soon as you took them. So it was actually simpler in a sense, and engagement was great, but it was too scary to ever release. At that point we said "Okay - We have 2 things we need to do. (1) Make it NOT scary, and (2) keep it simple. There is still so much we are figuring up, but we're learning a TON and discovering new use cases all the time.

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

@anamitra Thanks Anamitra! Just added you. :) Excited to hear your feedback!

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11yr ago

Voxel

So I love the app, but after inviting friends I received multiple screenshots from them asking if the text you guys send out is legit or spam. I think the reason is the photo you chose to send out isn't something my friends recognized. Maybe let me pick the photo you guys attach with the invite?

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

@troy_carlson Yeah, good point. We're going to see how we might do that. Thanks for the feedback!

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11yr ago

Seafronts

@troy_carlson @pdavison I had the same issue. A few of my friends screenshotted the text and asked what it was about. Just something to think about, I guess.

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11yr ago

I love the simplicity of this! I'm curious if you guys have talked about using face detection to auto-share photos to the people in them. Also, after granting contact permission, it's still a little unclear to me who my photos will be shared with. Will anyone who has me in their contacts be able to see my photos (seems a little scary), or do I have to explicitly add people to my Roll friends before they can see my photos?

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

@ninjudd Thanks! Yes, face detection would be awesome, but you just have to be thoughtful about how you do it to avoid privacy issues. It also requires a lot of training data. Re: who is following you, by default, only the friends in your address book are allowed to follow you. If someone else asks to follow you, you'll have to approve their request. You can of course edit your friends list anytime in the settings. :) Thanks again for the question!

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11yr ago

Raycast

So when you're sharing with your buddies, are you... (wait for it)... rolling? #eyeroll

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11yr ago

Product Hunt

@chrismessina and this is why we should have a downvote button. #justkidding #maybe

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11yr ago

steemit

@chrismessina but wait, whut when it's a roflolling picture? omg options choices whattodonext lmao.

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11yr ago

Clubhouse

Maker

@chrismessina haha ... we resisted using "Roll with friends," "Get rolling," or "Ready to roll" anywhere in the app.

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11yr ago

@chrismessina @rrhoover I'm in favor of a downvote button. Not in this instance though. But I'd like to see a shake-up.

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11yr ago

Recast

@chrismessina @pdavison and by resisted he is nicely saying that i made a motion at the board meeting to require the use of "roll with friends" but it did not get approval.

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11yr ago

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