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Sleek visuals! My observations, hope they make sense.
First screen: You have Email, Password and "Register" button. I've entered my email and password, got "Incorrect details" message, then I've noticed that "Register" changed to "Login". I'm thinking: "How do I register then?". You see my confusion.
Other thought: Why do you need my detail to share the location? Sharing without registration would be powerful. Or asking to register at later stages at least.
I'm using Glympse for the same purpose. How would you expect to differentiate and become the default location sharing app?
@emieljanson - I like the business/commercial opportunities for a product like this. Is there a 3rd party SDK/API that enables people to add location tracking to their apps? cc @shedd
@emieljanson - Very cool product and nice video to show how easy it is to use. A few thoughts:
1) Similar to what Ryan mentioned, is this a large problem users face? Large enough to add another app into their conversations?
When chatting via... I...
a) Google Hangouts... Send via the built in functionality
b) Text Message... Send a shortcode "Walnut and 8th" or time approximate or transit stop
c) WhatsApp... Send via the built in functionality
d) Facebook... Send a shortcode "Walnut and 8th" or time approximate or transit stop
With d, as Facebook takes chat out of the core Facebook app you can be certain they will add better chat functionality like location sharing. Facebook has just started rolling out their new take on location sharing, Find Friends Nearby, in the past week, IIRC.
With b and d, I can send "Walnut and 8th" or "10 minutes away" quicker than I could launch a new app just to use the cool location feature.
This will probably be the biggest challenge you face.
2) My entire above comment has to do with instantaneous location whereabouts. If the premise is that people want to be able to track someone through the entire journey in real-time, then that is indeed different than the offerings out there. Who has failed doing this? Why is this different? Why is now the right time? Do people actually care to see a live route versus getting an approximation?
With real-time journey tracking, the Find Friends Nearby feature gets a bit closer, albeit there are obviously differences especially related to privacy.
Cool concept, looks nice, would be interested to hear more about the market needs!
Registration: I totally agree with @nikitakorotaev regarding asking for info right away. Seems like an unnecessary blocker. Obviously getting a user registered is nice, but feels like you should give me SOMETHING, even a quick education page, before asking me for personal info. Maybe a "Try as a Guest" button that just lets me get my feet wet once, and then after the first time I use it, you can say "Thanks for trying Routeshare. If you'd like to keep using the free service, please register."
Twist: I LOVED Twist, but only about once a month. When I had a need for it, I'd use it 1/2 the time. The times I didnt use it were because Twist really pressured the receiving user to open an account. I didn't want to spam them. If Routeshare can just share my location without pressuring the receiving user to give any PII over, then I'd use it every time.
Necessary over SMS: I think so. It's a simple value prop and useful to the driver (to not need to text updates) and the person they're driving to (so they know how much time there is left). Uber is better because you know how far away the driver is. Why wouldn't that be the same for friends?
Is this a big enough problem for a startup: I dont think so. I think it should be part of the OS. But until it is, I'm glad people are making this product exist. And the commercial use case is interesting as well. So I could be wrong here.
@emieljanson I really like the idea behind Routeshare. Very good design and very easy to use.
Like @mulligan said, I recommend you to show a tutorial on the first run of the app. And, why do you need the users to create account? For what it's used?
Like I said, I really like the idea! Keep going!
This is a product I've been working on for quite a while. I came on this idea when I was on my way for a meeting. We kept sending each other location's via WhatsApp when I thought there might be a need for a product like Routeshare. Hope you guys like what I've build.
The video on the homepage is slick, although I'd suggest speeding it up if possible.
Routeshare reminds me of Twist which launched back in 2012 and just last month, shut down. To be honest, I've been skeptical of consumer, temporary location sharing apps like this because
(1) texting/emailing someone your general location and ETA is good enough and
(2) it requires the user to change their behavior (they likely have an open conversation w/ that person via txt, email, etc.
Curious to hear your thoughts, @emieljanson.
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