alt Hacker NewsI made Beacon, a mobile app for answering: “which of my friends is free to talk right now?” It’s basically a one-to-many phone call that only one person can answer. Send a beacon to a group, and everyone gets rung at the same time. The first person who answers gets connected for a 1-1 call, and for everyone else the signal drops silently. No missed-calls or pressure to answer. Works pretty well given most people keep their phones on silent (and there are in-app settings for quiet hours too).
It works best if you're able to join with at least four people you don't speak with as much as you'd like. I have a couple dozen connections on the app now, and it feels like magic to me. Would love feedback from both introverts and extroverts who still like phone calls, or wish they had more of them:
iOS TestFlight access here -> https://trybeacon.chat/
Android also in beta here -> https://appdistribution.firebase.dev/i/afe3c44d8443c4c0
Replies
This is an interesting idea. I'm building https://tend2thrive.com - I could see an interesting collaboration here. Always looking for ways to re-engage your network without it feeling heavy.
I'd love it if you can also fix the problem of timezones. So many of my friends are oceans-apart and we rarely rarely meet and talk as a group anymore. Maybe some kind of asynchronous option?
Super neat concept. One super low-lift way to improve its reception: change the styling of the landing page to not be blatant AI slop.
Ooh this is such a cool idea.
what if I don't answer quickly enough but do want to talk :(
love the idea, would love a messaging version
Very interesting. Part of my says that if it rung and I wasn't the first to answer, I would feel bad. At the same time, I like the idea of being able to reach out and just say "I feel like talking to someone". I would imagine that it is super interesting for people with depression or addiction who could add their support group too.