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I had the opposite thought -- its such a simple next step (at least, basic video chat integration is really simple with webrtc) I was wondering what they were w

I had the opposite thought -- its such a simple next step (at least, basic video chat integration is really simple with webrtc) I was wondering what they were waiting for. Without it, the door is wide open for a competitor to come in and be Slack + (on demand) Video Chat.

taneq 11y ago
What's that fallacy called which leads us to assume that other peoples' jobs are easy? If there are a few major players in an area and all of their offerings are terrible, is it more reasonable to conclude that they just all suck despite somehow being major players, or to conclude that it's actually a much harder problem than you think?
- MAGZine 11y ago
  It's much harder to innovate than it is to copy someone's innovation. Now that Slack has pioneered good UX in the space, it's easy to rip off.
- cloverich 11y ago
  I only meant its an obvious next step, and until they close that loop the door is wide open for competitors. Once they do close that loop, the door becomes tiny. The only easy part would be doing a basic webrtc implementation (as they are using Chrome via Electron, and hence get the vast majority of that implementation for free). For reference, my last job was working on a web based webrtc video conferencing app in a lead role at one of the major video conferencing companies.
tommoor 11y ago
Although simple from a product roadmap pov it's incredibly difficult from a technical pov - no doubt the reason that they acquired a great team a year and we've still seen nothing released. It also requires a completely different set of knowledge and expertise to websockets/rest.
michaelt 11y ago
its such a simple next step (at least, basic video chat integration is really simple with webrtc) Said like someone who's barely used videoconferencing software! Having tried systems with built in video chat, Skype, Hangouts, Facetime, Radvision and Scopia I can tell you they all suck - and none of them give you the diagnostic information to tell /why/ they're broken. In the past year I've seen echos that come and go, sound problems that are present in group calls but not individual calls, pages that work in Chrome but not Firefox, temporarily losing video or audio with no helpful diagnostic information, dropped calls with no helpful diagnostic information, people being unable to join group calls with no helpful diagnostic information, browser plugin problems with no helpful diagnostic information, problems reconnecting dropped connections with no helpful diagnostic information, users being unable to hot-plug their camera while a call is in progress, mobile apps only finding the rear-facing camera, users having to log out on android so the call will ring on their computer, nonexistent or out-of-date Linux clients, nonexistent Windows clients, and crap video quality even when users are on high-bandwidth connections that can easily stream 4k netflix. I wish it was simple to make a decent video conferencing system, then someone might have done it.
- savanaly 11y ago
  He didn't mean it would be simple to implement. He meant the reasons for why Slack should include it are so numerous that it is easy and "simple" to make a case that Slack should implement it right away.

taneq 11y ago

What's that fallacy called which leads us to assume that other peoples' jobs are easy? If there are a few major players in an area and all of their offerings are terrible, is it more reasonable to conclude that they just all suck despite somehow being major players, or to conclude that it's actually a much harder problem than you think?

MAGZine 11y ago
It's much harder to innovate than it is to copy someone's innovation. Now that Slack has pioneered good UX in the space, it's easy to rip off.
cloverich 11y ago
I only meant its an obvious next step, and until they close that loop the door is wide open for competitors. Once they do close that loop, the door becomes tiny. The only easy part would be doing a basic webrtc implementation (as they are using Chrome via Electron, and hence get the vast majority of that implementation for free). For reference, my last job was working on a web based webrtc video conferencing app in a lead role at one of the major video conferencing companies.

tommoor 11y ago

Although simple from a product roadmap pov it's incredibly difficult from a technical pov - no doubt the reason that they acquired a great team a year and we've still seen nothing released. It also requires a completely different set of knowledge and expertise to websockets/rest.

michaelt 11y ago

its such a simple next step (at least, basic video chat integration is really simple with webrtc) Said like someone who's barely used videoconferencing software! Having tried systems with built in video chat, Skype, Hangouts, Facetime, Radvision and Scopia I can tell you they all suck - and none of them give you the diagnostic information to tell /why/ they're broken. In the past year I've seen echos that come and go, sound problems that are present in group calls but not individual calls, pages that work in Chrome but not Firefox, temporarily losing video or audio with no helpful diagnostic information, dropped calls with no helpful diagnostic information, people being unable to join group calls with no helpful diagnostic information, browser plugin problems with no helpful diagnostic information, problems reconnecting dropped connections with no helpful diagnostic information, users being unable to hot-plug their camera while a call is in progress, mobile apps only finding the rear-facing camera, users having to log out on android so the call will ring on their computer, nonexistent or out-of-date Linux clients, nonexistent Windows clients, and crap video quality even when users are on high-bandwidth connections that can easily stream 4k netflix. I wish it was simple to make a decent video conferencing system, then someone might have done it.

savanaly 11y ago
He didn't mean it would be simple to implement. He meant the reasons for why Slack should include it are so numerous that it is easy and "simple" to make a case that Slack should implement it right away.