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Show HN: Text a photo to send as a postcard
- jrmg 3y agoYou should add a ‘tap to add to Contacts’ link - I think a vCard would work? I don’t want to send a postcard right now, but I’d definitely like to store the number for later use. It’s actually kind of hard to do that, though, on iOS at least. Tapping opens up Messages, where there isn’t an easy way to add to contacts without sending a message, and long-press doesn’t seem to contain ‘add to contacts’ option. I’m stuck copying the number, launching Contacts, and creating a new contact by hand. [Edit: Uh, and this is cool! Sorry to be the first commenter with a slightly negative post! I love it.]
- croisillon 3y agofrom Messages: tap the phone number, then "info", then "add contact"
- traviswingo 3y agoSecond comment I’ve read suggesting vCard, so I’ll put it on my todo list :). Lowest friction is what I’m going for here. Thanks!
- playingalong 3y agoIt's totally not sure whether a snail mail made-of-paper postcard is meant. Or just some HTML email with a fancy border. I hope it's the former.
- anaganisk 3y agoIf you check their FAQ section, there is a sample in it.
- themanmaran 3y agoTo save a click, it is a real paper postcard https://postcardbot.com/assets/sample_postcard-76c114432a2105f2d564268c2236a2dd1f8245cf54cdd6793a133f1cead99c94.pdf https://postcardbot.com/assets/sample_postcard-76c114432a210...
- traviswingo 3y agoIt’s a physical, snail mail sent postcard :)
- disqard 3y agoWhat a lovely idea! OP, did you make this?
- traviswingo 3y agoYes I did. Thanks! :)
- sixhobbits 3y agoI would love an email bot. I sent a message to the number from a prepaid EU sim, it told me to send an image, I sent an image, I got a "mms not supported" error. I remember mms from around 10 years ago, not sure if they are still standard in US?
- unixhero 3y agoProbably some imessage only business. Typical if US entrepreneurs, US only and only iphone.
- mahathu 3y agoThey should call it iMessage then and not SMS/texting.
- morpheuskafka 3y agoYou can't receive iMessages via an API, except for "iMessage Business Chat" which can't be started by inputting a phone number and isn't all that widely used.
- mwlp 3y agoNot an API, but still doable to a certain scale. I've gotten image input to work with my bot. Apple once temporarily banned me for suspicious activity but after a quick call to support they lifted it. If I got more traffic maybe they'd ban it again, I'm not sure. You can text !help to sue [at] robertism.com to demo if you're interested.
- berbec 3y agoI just sent a photo from a US sim, using MMS, and it accepted the photo.
- ericpauley 3y agoCool! Why does it require texting a phone number, though? Why not just put a form right there on the site?
- Swizec 3y agoUnlike us HackerNews weirdos, most people don’t really do websites on their phone all that much. They text a lot tho. The other day my mom said she can’t figure out ChatGPT because she made an account but there’s no icon on her desktop or phone and she doesn’t understand where it went.
- XCSme 3y agoDid you suggest installing the PWA? Or it doesn't have one?
- 13th_yc_acct 3y agoSeriously? I thought everybody used their phone for their primary web browser. Only time i really use a browser is at work (or very occasionally while at home -- why walk across the room when a large part of the internet is in my back pocket?)
- Swizec 3y agoFrom what I’ve seen normies browse the internet, not the web. Partially because that’s what companies encourage. Links are for sharing only and even that is primarily for those annoying friends who aren’t on the app you’re using. My girlfriend for example can go hours without ever leaving instagram or tiktok. If the content isn’t natively in there, it doesn’t exist. And nobody ever clicks links I send them. Have had to start texting (iMessage) screenshots of articles and images or they just get ignored lol When I publish an article, most readers read it because it lands inside their email app. Short email with link? Nobody clicks that. Long email you can read without leaving gets way more engagement.
- scarface_74 3y ago
- iakh 3y agoShould probably replace the address in the sample postcard. While most here will probably get it's intent, I imagine your target audience will not appreciate any associations to "hackers"
- Etheryte 3y agoI don't really see the problem, what's wrong with using a real address for the sample postcard?
- mahathu 3y agoOP didn't criticise the choice of address not because it's not a real address but because of the associations of the term "hacker" outside of spaces such as here.
- traviswingo 3y agoThe address is Meta HQ
- jerzmacow 3y agoTrying this out, I'll report back in a couple weeks!
- pixel3234 3y agoCzech Post has an app that does. Local price is like a $1. It works worldwide regular international price.
- rvba 3y agoDoes that czech website have an address?
- croisillon 3y agoSeems to cost €2 internationally on this french website : https://www.merci-facteur.com/tarifs.php https://www.merci-facteur.com/tarifs.php
- faeyanpiraat 3y agoMaybe this is the one (cant use translate on my phone): https://www.ceskaposta.cz/cs/ke-stazeni/mobilni-aplikace-pohledniceonline https://www.ceskaposta.cz/cs/ke-stazeni/mobilni-aplikace-poh...
- Symbiote 3y agoCorrect. The documentation says you must buy either 3 postcards or 10 from within the app. 3 postcards sent internationally cost 168CZK = $7.64. 3 postcards sent to the EU cost €6.34.
- 2b3a51 3y agoUK is private enterprise rather than Royal Mail https://www.photowire.uk/ https://www.photowire.uk/ One example I just found. £2 to address in UK and £3 international. A thought has crossed my mind: if these kinds of site are quite common across the world and charge lower rates for sending cards within their local country, perhaps there is an opportunity for someone to set up a central Web site that finds you a local service? Add a small percentage?
- _trampeltier 3y agoSwitzerland has it too, since a long time. https://www.post.ch/en/sending-letters/sending-letters/postcard-creator-app https://www.post.ch/en/sending-letters/sending-letters/postc...
- peter_d_sherman 3y agoWhile I haven't tried this service and thus cannot vouch for it, I can say that: "I love your business model!" It's simple, it provides a lot of value for a little bit of money (yet still allows you, the owner, to make a tiny profit on each transaction), and it doesn't require a complex database driven website... Also, I'm guessing (but not knowing!) -- that a business like this could be started for $50 or less... the only thing you'd really need is a good enough postcard printer (OK, so maybe a bit more than $50 if you include that), some cardstock, and the willingness to make a trip to the post office (or local mail drop-off point) every day (or when orders were received...) Again, I reiterate, "I love your business model!" The only real thing that a business of this sort would need then is some online advertising... Google ads would be too expensive relative to the cost to acquire new customers -- so you'd have to advertise via single links posted here and there on public forums... Well, I upvoted you and favorited you here on HN -- which might generate a teeny tiny bit more traffic for you -- or so I hope! Wishing you and your business well, whoever you are!
- heartbreak 3y agoThey’re running the print and mailing through lob.com
- peter_d_sherman 3y agoInteresting!
- traviswingo 3y agoThanks, that means a lot! As for the business, it’s 100% automated. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work at scale with everything else I have going on. It’s also designed to simply be a fun thing for me and others to use, and isn’t really meant to be anything more than that, money wise. The price point, at the average use numbers, pretty much cover my costs. :) I just wish I had this running when everyone was locked inside in 2020, I bet it would have been fun to use then!
- peter_d_sherman 3y ago
- andirk 3y ago[flagged]
- Racing0461 3y agounlike spam, this has a cost per message ($3)
- dang 3y ago"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Don't be gratuitously negative. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
- amelius 3y agoHave you though about how malevolent people will abuse this? E.g. sending a pic from a shocksite to someone you don't like? You'd have to set up a content moderation department to deal with this sort of thing.
- themanmaran 3y agoCan't malevolent people already pay the post office to mail someone a shock picture? Does the post office have a content moderation department?
- whiplash451 3y agoExcept now they can do it at scale
- berbec 3y agoyes, at $2.99 a postcard.
- whiplash451 3y agoFair.
- akomtu 3y agoI'm sure Stripe records all transactions, so if the need arises, those postcards will be quickly traced to credit cards + phone numbers + ip addresses.
- MattGaiser 3y agoYou can do this currently with a printer and stamps for much cheaper. It can also be done much more anonymously.
- traviswingo 3y agoExactly. If you really want to send some weird shit in the mail, you can do it without linking your phone number and payment information to it.
- ludwik 3y agoNice idea, but the fact that it requires sending to a US-specific phone number makes it unusable for most of the world. For me, the ideal implementation of this would be a simple app to which you could send the photo using the "share" functionality built into iOS/Android.
- naetius 3y agoI think that's addressed in the FAQ: > Currently, we only have a US based phone number that can be used to interact with our service. We understand that this can be expensive in some countries, so we will be working on a WhatsApp integration for the future.
- rvba 3y agoWhy not email
- moffkalast 3y ago[flagged]
- xenomachina 3y agoOr a web app?
- prepend 3y agoThe US is a big market. And is the most likely country that people will be able to send to. So it’s a great place to start. I use voip accounts and have been able to send to international numbers for years. I think the phone interface is great and allows use from lots of international feature phones. I just used it and think it’s way better than having a custom app or web site.
- naetius 3y agoDespite some of the negative comments here - as a postcard fan - I love this!
- Waterluvian 3y ago[flagged]
- sjoerger 3y agoFAQ says Stripe payment links. I don't think that is phone billing. > We use Stripe payment links to collect payments for postcards. In doing so, we are unable to see any sensitive information about your payment methods.
- Waterluvian 3y agoThat’s good. Though phone numbers are so opaque. How can I be sure that’s actually where it’s going? How do I know if it’ll cost me an MMS fee? Etc. Why not just an upload form with a checkout for paypal/credit card/etc.?
- sjoerger 3y ago> Why not just an upload form with a checkout for paypal/credit card/etc.? <shrug> not my service
- naetius 3y agoI've just tried the service all the way through and there's no phone billing whatsoever. It'll just shoot you a Stripe link.
- Waterluvian 3y agoThanks! Since you’ve tried it, do you have a better sense of why it requires this step and isn’t just a normal web form?
- naetius 3y agoNo clue but I'd speculate it's just meant to be something quirk and different/fun.
- 3y ago
- sneak 3y agoCan we see a sample postcard? The link to a sample postcard is a render, not a photograph of a postcard.
- benburleson 3y agoYes, curious about this too. Maybe a quick video handling it to show the weight/quality. Really cool idea for a product though, love it!
- LeafItAlone 3y agoAgreed. _Seeing_ the process happen would take this to be next level.
- Havoc 3y ago>STOP to unsubscribe Confused. Is this charged per shot or subscription?!?
- DANmode 3y ago"Required" verbiage when sending automated SMS.
- sinkasapa 3y agoThis is fun. I worked at a company that did something very similar around 2008. We had too much fun testing it out and I remember getting lots of ridiculous post cards in the mail from co-workers. I don't know that it was ever something that was likely to make much money, just one project among many at the company. Unfortunately, 2008 was a bit of a wrecking ball and we never got to find out. We had an iPhone app back then and my boss was skeptical that Android would ever really compete.
- traviswingo 3y agoYeah, this is meant to be fun more than anything. I barely cover costs each month, but that’s good enough for me :)
- naetius 3y agoAs a side note I must confess a certain degree of uneasiness reading some of the borderline-toxic comments, which - to be fair - are nothing new. This time around though it seems there's a certain obvious difficulty in certain commenters to contextualize what's being shown here. I understand that "oh but that could be an app/website/whatever" or that "it's an US phone number, I ain't gonna use that" or "ahhhh, this is gonna be abused soooo bad" and so on and so forth... but folks: this clearly is meant to be something quirky and - I think - a v1. Have we perhaps become a bit of a boring grumpy bunch around here? My 2c.
- madelyn 3y agoAbsolutely. This project is super cool!! I'll likely use this to send a postcard to some friends. Such a cool little website to start and it feels so indie!
- j45 3y agoA lot of folks forget just because they don’t understand or agree with it doesn’t mean there isn’t understanding or agreement in it.
- rozenmd 3y agoWe are the folks that said Dropbox could be done with a few bash scripts, after all.
- traviswingo 3y agoLol!
- duxup 3y agoNot quite the same thing but I have meetings when I roll out a new feature that are “No suggestions” meetings. We still allow for enhancements / added features that in other ways, but some meetings are for learning, not the peanut gallery peppering people with ideas that occurred to them in the last 20 seconds and that believe it or not we know… We get it out and in customers hands and it is like magic how all these ideas sometimes prove to not be 100% necessary on day 1 … sometimes never.
- nickphx 3y agoThat's a cool use of lob.com. I used their 'send a check' feature to automate sending payments for sweepstakes and contest prizes.
- traviswingo 3y agoYeah, I really like Lob. They work well for doing what they say they’ll do. I don’t think I’ve had a mishap yet. Any time there has been an issue, it’s been user error.
- Jun8 3y agoThe biz case here is interesting: I had no idea what the postage rates are from the US, so checked and saw that they start at $1.45. Maybe you can get bulk rates from the USPS but let’s assume that’s the shipping cost. Let’s assume <50c for printing so roughly $2 per postcard. That only leaves $1 for profit & op expenses which sounds a bit low. What am I missing here? Additionally, I would not be OK to enter friends’ addresses in a random app.
- beardicus 3y agowhat you’re missing is that not everything has to be a serious profit-making venture. sometimes humans can have fun.
- traviswingo 3y agoThis. I make enough money elsewhere. This is just fun :)
- morpheuskafka 3y agoDomestic postcards cost $0.48 and international costs $1.45 (which is not any discount from 1oz letter, unlike domestic). They could also mail them from another country (which might also have cheaper print costs), especially since this is all first-class and there is no guarantee of delivery speed. For example, it looks like sending an airmail postcard from China is 5 CNY which is about $0.70, less than half the US rate. If you can find a printer there of equal or lesser cost, that's a huge savings. If you want to really stretch things, you can use surface mail (which USPS does not offer) for 3.50 CNY/$0.49 which is less than the cost to send it domestically within the US.
- Symbiote 3y agoFrom Korea the rate is 430 won, roughly 33¢, and I suspect this is faster than sending from the PRC. According to some site, only Taiwan, Sri Lanka and Swaziland are cheaper for an international postcard.
- notpeter 3y ago
- rpastuszak 3y agoI don’t have much time so excuse my brevity, but: I love the idea. It’s simple, it’s solves a user problem. You can explain it in 1-2 sentences. Setup = adding your number to the contact book. Tips/ideas: Consider adding a CTA pointing to a .VCF file so people can “install” your app with 2 clicks. Consider changing the design/bg photo a bit so the copy is more visible. Q: Could you share any details regarding your stack (tech or services)? I was thinking about building a slightly similar tool, but as a site where you could drag and drop a photo and then pay with Apple Pay. I think I like text more though.
- traviswingo 3y agoThanks! Simplicity is something I’m obsessed with. I hate website copy these days and how I can rarely tell what companies do by visiting their websites anymore. Tech stack is simple: Rails on DigitalOcean app platform. Everything is automated because why not :). It’s not the most efficient, but simple > profit margins. The address parsing is also done via libpostal statistical NLP. Addresses need to be broken into components for all services that require an address (line 1, line 2, street, city, state, zip), but asking users for each of these is so much friction and sucks from a UX pov. It’s not perfect, but works well in the intended market right now.
- FredPret 3y agoI love this. Will this have the postage stamp from a particular country though? That's probably hard to implement, but it's what's magical about postcards to me
- traviswingo 3y agoNope, all postage is prepaid, so the message on the back plus the photo will have to convey the origin, if that’s what you’re going for.
- arjvik 3y agoIs MMS compression an issue? I typically never text photos from my android and instead rely on WhatsApp so they don't get compressed
- throwaway462910 3y agoFYI, they are still compressed, just not to such a massively noticeable level
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- duxup 3y agoI gave this a spin and sent a few cards. It was great, very low friction and easy to use. In the age of ChatGPT showing how easy a chat interface CAN be this seem really on point.
- traviswingo 3y agoThanks! Simplicity was the goal. It does one thing and does it well :)
- schemescape 3y agoIs the resolution of MMS high enough to make a good postcard?
- traviswingo 3y agoYes. I’ve used this a bunch of times now and I can’t notice any degradation in image quality, beyond the normal print quality of standard postcards. Quality of the photo hasn’t once been a negative topic from any users so far :)
- bravura 3y agoI'm in Europe with an iPhone and this didn't work, but I'd like to try it. [edit: telegram integration would be quite cool.]
- traviswingo 3y agoI’m curious to know more about what didn’t work!
- ytdytvhxgydvhh 3y agoI think it’d be a neat value-add if there were some (optional) postcard templates. Stuff like “Greetings from scenic <location_name>” that could either be used seriously or ironically. Obviously one could edit the JPG themselves to include that but I think more people would use it if it were an easy option.
- traviswingo 3y agoThanks, noted!
- RobRivera 3y agojust the headline makes me go 'this is cool and i wish i thought about it' as a lazy person i will assume it delivers as advertised.
- traviswingo 3y agoAs a lazy person also, I agree :)
- sodality2 3y agoThis is awesome! May I recommend a package deal? For example, I want to send to a bunch of friends, maybe a different price point for larger orders (if feasible)? $10/4-5 for example.
- traviswingo 3y agoNot a bad idea. Noted :)
- mike31fr 3y agohttps://www.fizzer.com https://www.fizzer.com does the same, and it's quite nice to use.
- traviswingo 3y agoNo ideas are original :)
- jcpsimmons 3y agoThis is great. “Yes” shouldn’t be case sensitive though.
- traviswingo 3y agoGreat catch, thank! I’ll push a fix and a test shortly.