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Show HN: Jackfruit – Add an always-on video hangout to your Slack channel

67 points by drpancake 7y ago

drpancake 7y ago
Author here. The original inspiration for this came from working remotely for 7 years and feeling occasionally lonely and isolated. I wanted to create a frictionless, always-on video room for your team to hang out in while you work. But I've found that so far most teams use it for stand-ups. Feedback is much appreciated!
- awinder 7y ago
  I would totally play into “frictionless standups” and specialize the hell out of experience. For one, I think it avoids a lot of “creep factor” that other commenters keyed into. Second, companies are paying for non-slack standup conferencing software and it’s all godawful and cumbersome, especially for the tech leads/managers. This would be a no-brainer for standups in every org that I’ve been in. Godspeed to you, I think you’re onto something.
- mikece 7y ago
  Having done remote work I completely get what you’re trying to achieve. It’s not the tool which is causing a cautious(?) reaction but knowing how unscrupulous micro-managers might demand this be used. I’m sure we all have stories of bosses acting like fools because we turned off the company’s instant distraction app so we could concentrate and get something done. I totally understand both sides: the tool looks awesome and I could see it being abused by management to impede progress and degrade morale.
- juandazapata 7y ago
  We used an always-on-video solution (the now dead Sqwiggle) in a past startup. It all went relatively well until one day, the wife of one of your coworkers, walked naked in the background. His webcam/laptop froze at that moment and a picture of his naked wife stayed up for about 5 mins. That was the last time we used that app. Just something to take into account.
  - fouc 7y ago
    minor typo: "your" vs "our" coworkers. I guess it would be handy to have some way of hiding everything except maybe the face. Would be annoying to have to dress up
    - jdironman 7y ago
      At that point why not just use a snapchat-esque bitmoji.
  - jimktrains2 7y ago
    It would be ironic if he shut is laptop to kill the video stream and that ended up causing the system to freeze on that last frame of video.
  - shantly 7y ago
    Always-on video staring at people's faces is weird in the best circumstances. It's a bizarre view to have passively, rather than during active conversation.
    - t34543 7y ago
      I think it’s creepy.
- lightedman 7y ago
  Go look at Camfrog. Make a web version that does what they do. You will have much better success.
giancarlostoro 7y ago
Not to take away from the efforts of the developer but this basically turns Slack into Discord. Which I think would be interesting. I think always open audio channels are useful because anybody can just join and you can code and talk whilst doing so.
- drpancake 7y ago
  Discord was certainly an inspiration here, as well as the now-defunct Sqwiggle. I'm seeing some teams using it like that, but most of them like to jump in-and-out of the room during the day as needed.
xfitm3 7y ago
This feels like a nightmare to me. If I am thinking and in concentration - all external stimulation needs to be shut off.
- drpancake 7y ago
  Founder here - yes I can appreciate that. I'm a fan of deep work. I've found that most teams jump in-and-out of rooms during the day and the original idea of hanging out together while you work hasn't really materialised.
isatty 7y ago
Great job on building something but man I’d hate it if employers actually demanded always on video, even for calls. Slack is pretty intrusive as is.
- sgt 7y ago
  One camera on you, and an additional camera pointed at the keyboard to ensure that you are in fact working.
- xfitm3 7y ago
  Slack is extremely intrusive, doesn't obey DnD and forces favicon updates.
  - thoughtpalette 7y ago
    I've been using https://muzzleapp.com/ https://muzzleapp.com/ on Mac. Not affiliated, just a happy user.
- drpancake 7y ago
  I can relate to this! There's a slight misconception about this being 'always-on'. It's supposed to get across that the rooms are always available to use and that the URL doesn't change. I need to work on the copy.
gxespino 7y ago
Pretty slick implementation. Was also wary about the always on video rooms but it seems they’re opt in for the most part.
cj 7y ago
Our company is fully remote. We have an always-on Google Hangout that everyone is on all day. The key for this to work is that everyone has their mic + camera turned off except when we have a scheduled meeting (ie. standups, team meetings). Throughout the day, people often pop in the hangout by unmuting themselves to ask the team a quick question, which also works great. In practice, this doesn't cause very many interruptions because people know to ping someone 1-1 if they have a question meant for a specific person rather than the whole team. Even on days when everyone's mic + camera is muted all day except for standup, it's still effective at creating the feeling that you aren't sitting there working alone (I guess it acts as a reminder that you really do have teammates working alongside you, albeit virtually).
- xfitm3 7y ago
  I enjoy remote work because I want to feel alone – I can't help but think preferences like this alienate some of your employees. Like me, if I worked with you.
  - CathedralBorrow 7y ago
    What level of human communication would be non-alienating for you?
    - Numberwang 7y ago
      Only onomatopoetic expressions please.
    - dbingham 7y ago
      Slack with access to video calls at need. I've worked remotely for over 8 years at 3 different companies. Two have had some variation of this (Hipchat/Slack + Google Hangout / GoToMeeting or Slack calls) and it works great. We have a daily standup meeting on video and then we can jump on a video call through out the day if we find a need for it. Otherwise, I have clear focus through out the day - I can choose whether to respond to slack notifications or turn them off and work through them later.
  - 7y ago
coldcode 7y ago
I have zero desire to shove my face into other people's existence remotely. If I want to see people or be seen I work at the office. I turn off video in our conferencing software and I absolutely despise people who blast their face into a 27in display sized window, and then decide to eat snacks the whole time.
cpr 7y ago
@drpancake -- aren't you nervous about Slack doing something just like this? They seem to own all the technology required.
- drpancake 7y ago
  Not too much. Slack has built-in video calling features already and what I'm doing is outside of their core focus. But it's a possibility.
ecmascript 7y ago
Pretty cool, but terrifying. I would be in constant stress and probably resign the day after if I was required to join an alway-on call. I work remotely.
ilikehurdles 7y ago
I like this idea. Discord has it for audio. Our fully-remote company pretty much uses zoom in a somewhat similar way. "Always-on" doesn't have to mean everyone is always in the room, it's simply an analogue of a physical meeting room or even an IRC channel directory. You can see who is currently in it and what the topic is (if there is one), and choose to hop in. That said, I would probably disable audio and video if I'm idling in a room I'm interested in until someone joins and starts talking. It's a video meeting channel directory. I think a lot of comments are focused exclusively on the "always-on" wording, which I feel misses the point.
sergiotapia 7y ago
Congrats on launch, but I would never use this or force the engineers on my team to use this.
awillen 7y ago
We tried various iterations of this when I was a PM a Blue Jeans (enterprise video conferencing company). We always called it the virtual water cooler - a place where people on distributed teams could just pop in and ask questions/chat as people in the office do at the water cooler. Lots of customers showed interest, but nobody ended up actually using it. Video conferences always ended up being scheduled ahead of time (i.e. meetings) or escalated (more like this use case - starting a Slack chat and turning into a call because that was easier for the topic at hand), and this occupied a sort of weird middle ground between the two. I still love the idea, and I hope you can make it work, but I suspect that it's really only ever going to be practical for a small subset of distributed teams that have just the right culture for it (and I don't know exactly what that culture is).
- drpancake 7y ago
  This is interesting, thanks. I'm seeing the same behaviour here - very few teams use it to hang out while they work, they're typically using to jump on ad-hoc video/audio calls or screen share.
cyberpanther 7y ago
On chrome os screen sharing button is disabled even though it's still chrome.
- drpancake 7y ago
  Sorry about that. Could you let me know the OS and browser versions you're on?

67 points by drpancake 7y ago

Author here. The original inspiration for this came from working remotely for 7 years and feeling occasionally lonely and isolated. I wanted to create a frictionless, always-on video room for your team to hang out in while you work. But I've found that so far most teams use it for stand-ups. Feedback is much appreciated!

awinder 7y ago
I would totally play into “frictionless standups” and specialize the hell out of experience. For one, I think it avoids a lot of “creep factor” that other commenters keyed into. Second, companies are paying for non-slack standup conferencing software and it’s all godawful and cumbersome, especially for the tech leads/managers. This would be a no-brainer for standups in every org that I’ve been in. Godspeed to you, I think you’re onto something.
mikece 7y ago
Having done remote work I completely get what you’re trying to achieve. It’s not the tool which is causing a cautious(?) reaction but knowing how unscrupulous micro-managers might demand this be used. I’m sure we all have stories of bosses acting like fools because we turned off the company’s instant distraction app so we could concentrate and get something done. I totally understand both sides: the tool looks awesome and I could see it being abused by management to impede progress and degrade morale.
juandazapata 7y ago
We used an always-on-video solution (the now dead Sqwiggle) in a past startup. It all went relatively well until one day, the wife of one of your coworkers, walked naked in the background. His webcam/laptop froze at that moment and a picture of his naked wife stayed up for about 5 mins. That was the last time we used that app. Just something to take into account.
- fouc 7y ago
  minor typo: "your" vs "our" coworkers. I guess it would be handy to have some way of hiding everything except maybe the face. Would be annoying to have to dress up
  - jdironman 7y ago
    At that point why not just use a snapchat-esque bitmoji.
- jimktrains2 7y ago
  It would be ironic if he shut is laptop to kill the video stream and that ended up causing the system to freeze on that last frame of video.
- shantly 7y ago
  Always-on video staring at people's faces is weird in the best circumstances. It's a bizarre view to have passively, rather than during active conversation.
  - t34543 7y ago
    I think it’s creepy.
lightedman 7y ago
Go look at Camfrog. Make a web version that does what they do. You will have much better success.

giancarlostoro 7y ago

Not to take away from the efforts of the developer but this basically turns Slack into Discord. Which I think would be interesting. I think always open audio channels are useful because anybody can just join and you can code and talk whilst doing so.

drpancake 7y ago
Discord was certainly an inspiration here, as well as the now-defunct Sqwiggle. I'm seeing some teams using it like that, but most of them like to jump in-and-out of the room during the day as needed.

xfitm3 7y ago

This feels like a nightmare to me. If I am thinking and in concentration - all external stimulation needs to be shut off.

drpancake 7y ago
Founder here - yes I can appreciate that. I'm a fan of deep work. I've found that most teams jump in-and-out of rooms during the day and the original idea of hanging out together while you work hasn't really materialised.

isatty 7y ago

Great job on building something but man I’d hate it if employers actually demanded always on video, even for calls. Slack is pretty intrusive as is.

sgt 7y ago
One camera on you, and an additional camera pointed at the keyboard to ensure that you are in fact working.
xfitm3 7y ago
Slack is extremely intrusive, doesn't obey DnD and forces favicon updates.
- thoughtpalette 7y ago
  I've been using https://muzzleapp.com/ https://muzzleapp.com/ on Mac. Not affiliated, just a happy user.
drpancake 7y ago
I can relate to this! There's a slight misconception about this being 'always-on'. It's supposed to get across that the rooms are always available to use and that the URL doesn't change. I need to work on the copy.

gxespino 7y ago

Pretty slick implementation. Was also wary about the always on video rooms but it seems they’re opt in for the most part.

cj 7y ago

Our company is fully remote. We have an always-on Google Hangout that everyone is on all day. The key for this to work is that everyone has their mic + camera turned off except when we have a scheduled meeting (ie. standups, team meetings). Throughout the day, people often pop in the hangout by unmuting themselves to ask the team a quick question, which also works great. In practice, this doesn't cause very many interruptions because people know to ping someone 1-1 if they have a question meant for a specific person rather than the whole team. Even on days when everyone's mic + camera is muted all day except for standup, it's still effective at creating the feeling that you aren't sitting there working alone (I guess it acts as a reminder that you really do have teammates working alongside you, albeit virtually).

xfitm3 7y ago
I enjoy remote work because I want to feel alone – I can't help but think preferences like this alienate some of your employees. Like me, if I worked with you.
- CathedralBorrow 7y ago
  What level of human communication would be non-alienating for you?
  - Numberwang 7y ago
    Only onomatopoetic expressions please.
  - dbingham 7y ago
    Slack with access to video calls at need. I've worked remotely for over 8 years at 3 different companies. Two have had some variation of this (Hipchat/Slack + Google Hangout / GoToMeeting or Slack calls) and it works great. We have a daily standup meeting on video and then we can jump on a video call through out the day if we find a need for it. Otherwise, I have clear focus through out the day - I can choose whether to respond to slack notifications or turn them off and work through them later.
- 7y ago

coldcode 7y ago

I have zero desire to shove my face into other people's existence remotely. If I want to see people or be seen I work at the office. I turn off video in our conferencing software and I absolutely despise people who blast their face into a 27in display sized window, and then decide to eat snacks the whole time.

cpr 7y ago

@drpancake -- aren't you nervous about Slack doing something just like this? They seem to own all the technology required.

drpancake 7y ago
Not too much. Slack has built-in video calling features already and what I'm doing is outside of their core focus. But it's a possibility.

ecmascript 7y ago

Pretty cool, but terrifying. I would be in constant stress and probably resign the day after if I was required to join an alway-on call. I work remotely.

ilikehurdles 7y ago

I like this idea. Discord has it for audio. Our fully-remote company pretty much uses zoom in a somewhat similar way. "Always-on" doesn't have to mean everyone is always in the room, it's simply an analogue of a physical meeting room or even an IRC channel directory. You can see who is currently in it and what the topic is (if there is one), and choose to hop in. That said, I would probably disable audio and video if I'm idling in a room I'm interested in until someone joins and starts talking. It's a video meeting channel directory. I think a lot of comments are focused exclusively on the "always-on" wording, which I feel misses the point.

sergiotapia 7y ago

Congrats on launch, but I would never use this or force the engineers on my team to use this.

awillen 7y ago

We tried various iterations of this when I was a PM a Blue Jeans (enterprise video conferencing company). We always called it the virtual water cooler - a place where people on distributed teams could just pop in and ask questions/chat as people in the office do at the water cooler. Lots of customers showed interest, but nobody ended up actually using it. Video conferences always ended up being scheduled ahead of time (i.e. meetings) or escalated (more like this use case - starting a Slack chat and turning into a call because that was easier for the topic at hand), and this occupied a sort of weird middle ground between the two. I still love the idea, and I hope you can make it work, but I suspect that it's really only ever going to be practical for a small subset of distributed teams that have just the right culture for it (and I don't know exactly what that culture is).

drpancake 7y ago
This is interesting, thanks. I'm seeing the same behaviour here - very few teams use it to hang out while they work, they're typically using to jump on ad-hoc video/audio calls or screen share.

cyberpanther 7y ago

On chrome os screen sharing button is disabled even though it's still chrome.

drpancake 7y ago
Sorry about that. Could you let me know the OS and browser versions you're on?