Show IH: Poly. Universal chat app
Been lurking IH since it launched on Hacker News. Only now coming out of my shell.
I’d never needed a job all through my teens because of my side projects. I’m a professional developer and haven’t launched a side project in nearly 4 years. I’m bursting at the chance to regain even a glint of my youthful disobedience. So for the past couple months I’ve been working on a project called Poly in my free time.
Poly is a universal chat app. Where no matter what language you speak can communicate with people from around the world in real time.
You can check out the prototype I’ve launched to get feedback here: https://poly.chat (Keep in mind it is prototype)
I’ve had a bit of a weird career. I started studying computer science in 2012, after my second year started working full time as a ruby developer and went back to uni part time. 4 years of university and working 1 credit was keeping me from seeing the world. So against better judgement packed my bags and travelled Europe for 3 months. I came back a different person and It only escalated from there. I ended up deferring that last credit for a year and a half and only just now returned to Melbourne to get my degree. I’ve been in Toronto more or less for the past year.
All I hear about is how hard and stressful it is doing a startup but the funny thing is the only time I’m really happy and engaged is when I’m working on projects I really care about. So turning Poly into a startup seems like the next logical step.
I’ve never been good at multi-tasking or even context switching. I thought about doing Poly as a side-project but knowing the way my brain works it would be to the detriment to either Poly or my job. When I get fully immersed in something it’s really difficult to pull me out and if I do it’s really hard for me to dive back in.
Which brings us back to now. I’m 2 months away from graduating. I’m about to quit my job and go full steam ahead with Poly. I have a working prototype, launching a Kickstarter campaign in June and bootstrapping the hell out of it.
Links in bio if you want to follow my story.
Very interesting concept.
Unfortunately, I got a bunch of errors when I switched my language from EN->FR.
Here's a screenshot.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kl7pccffn2t1w48/Screenshot 2017-04-13 07.43.08.png?dl=0
Also, I would recommend against keeping poly.chat as it's own service. Instead, I would try to integrate it into Facebook Messenger, Slack, IRC, and other chat apps. This is because, as another commenter mentioned, it is very tough to create a community from scratch, especially one as vague as a giant chat room with no focus.
If you had an IRC client, a FB messenger plugin, and an auto translate Slack bot, now that I could see taking off.
Best of luck on the Kickstarter!
Hey (Will/William)
Good to see you working your butt off!! -- But have to tell you doing a one off - by yourself is the proverbial catching lightening in the bottle. Tough as hell!!
Is there a way you can find others to work with? Are you determined to get this "one app" up/running??
How does your approach differ from one of the many chat apps on github?
Is this a "project" or do you really want to turn it into real revenue??
-bruce
The difference is it allows for group chats with real time translation. So 10 people can be in a chat room speaking 10 different languages and have everyone understood. That's the dream anyway. The prototype is a rough example of that too.
I usually talk a big game which usually ends up being half way there. In this case if I could some kick ass open source software, facilitate some conversations that wouldn't have otherwise have happened and open some doors I'll be happy :)
Well, chat apps are all about the community. You have no users, it seems. It's very hard to create a community around something as (currently) uncool as chat apps. I'd advise you to think a lot before starting to develop an idea, then scout the market, find a hole in it and after you're sure that your idea will stick, start building.