4
12 Comments

What Utility API Do You Need?

I'm looking to build a utility api that would benefit other developers. A couple of examples would be html to pdf converts or link shortener api.
These are pretty common so I'm looking for new ideas. What API type of service do you dread to build or wish existed?

  1. 1

    I’m always looking for improved weather apis for my Weather Extension. Also if you need a link shortener api here is a good option T.LY

  2. 1

    Been looking for an API for auto cropping image files containing logos and also for replacing solid background colors with transparent for use in a video production app. Played around with combinations of different existing services such as remove.bg and smartcrop.js and they both worth great for images of primarily people, pets etc, but not for images that are mostly solid colors and text

  3. 1

    I was recently looking for an api that gave me a random user avatar and couldn't find any api that did that. Would be helpful to be able to make a call during user registration to get a random avatar and save it in the DB. Just an idea :)

    1. 2

      Thanks for the idea! I did some searching and found some options that return demo data etc https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/guide.html

    2. 2

      Not sure how I feel about putting random peoples images on a real account. But ...

      UI Face has an API: https://uifaces.co/api-docs

      Random User: https://randomuser.me/documentation
      Maybe using the Lego images if you don't want to use real images: https://randomuser.me/photos

      Another fun option is: https://robohash.org/

      1. 1

        Yeah I agree about the real faces, was definitely looking for more animated logo style with variants of features etc.

        Robin ash.org is cool! I saw that, definitely that type of api.

    3. 1

      Pretty easy to exploit Gravatar to do something like this. Just take the user's name or ID, and create a "bad" email address, like UUID@name-of-service, and hash it.

      I've documented this here: https://joshtronic.com/2014/01/20/gravatar-as-an-identicon-generation-service/

      1. 1

        That's pretty neat! I'll use this in the future more than likely. Would be cool to have multiple types of avatars as well.
        i.e. gravatars, Indiehacker-ish avatars, or other icons. I feel there's a space for that

        1. 1

          yeah, Gravatar's stuff is pretty limited in regard to it's artistic options, so the idea probably still has some legs (although I feel like the revenue potential would be low)

          There's another service out there for random avatars or real people, but wouldn't fit your use case.

          1. 1

            That's fair. Definitely not a massive business - but if he's looking to build something it's an option.

            1. 2

              Oh absolutely... no idea too small IMHO, especially if you can get it into the hands of the people. If you solve somebody's problem they will bring you more problems to solve for them!

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 16 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments