Like some others, I am really interested to see if the QR code screenshot idea works out. The workflow seems a bit wonky, but it is at least an attempt at something new and interesting. Nice work!
While I think that there's real potential to this app's premise as well as the QR code invite mechanism, I think most users are going to get lost in the app's on-boarding experience. There's too much going on and it just seems incredibly messy.
onboarding is rough, what you can do on it feels very constrained, and yet has no clear use case. i'm naturally skeptical about these FB spinoffs since Paper and Slingshot, but I was very very stoked for Facebook's "anonymous" product and I simply don't see this being the winner. The QR code thing, I understand the logic explained by josh miller about "ctrl-c ctrl-v", but I think that considering it a new paradigm is a stretch when really it just feels very manufactured. "a href" exists for a reason... I don't just copy-paste urls around because i can click on them.
hope i'm wrong, spent <10 mins on this and would love to see a new popular mobile app emerge, because they're always so fascinating!!! but to me this app is just too complicated. it's not just snap a pic, post a sentence. it's QR codes and creating rooms.
Edit: read the TC articles and now i get it, it's like easily being able to create a web forum or website from your phone for any topic. needed josh miller to explain that to me through the interview though. i'm simply not the use case because i've already found a place for all of my interests.
@rrhoover - Always great to see FB try new things, however, the ethos of this app is very similar to Photovine, which was lead by @chrysb from Secret after Slide got acquired by Google. Overall, the user experience of snapping a QR code to gain access to a room is very unique. Curious how well it’ll be adopted by teens when YikYak and Secret are more fluid in creating content...
For those who don't recall that app, here’s a quick blurb & Image: "Photovine was a community that was about creating unique collections of photos that were called Vines. Like a constantly growing family of photos connected through a common caption created by you, your friends, and people all over the world.”
I'm seeing a lot of very general rooms and not finding much utility there—it seems the value may be in specificity of purpose. To test this theory, I created a room for people to share photos of spaces they inhabit:
Report
This seems like the kind of app that will become useful to the general population if organizers and publishers take to it. I hope FB is out there farming to get people to create interesting rooms. If so, there will be a payoff as those rooms become attractive to normals. If not...
Why Are We Yelling?
Savewise
Outpour
Crunchbase
Censored iMessage Stickers
