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Ask HN: Review my startup txtful - get stuff done on the web by sending a text
http://www.txtful.com/
We're a small bootstrapped team based in Chicago who've built a platform that anyone can easily use to take a bit of functionality on the web and make it accessible via text message, IM, email, Twitter, etc.
We've learned lots from reading other people's submissions and comments here on HN, but we now would like to open it up to the community and get some direct feedback about what's good and what can be improved.
The beta is still private so that we can manage the demand, but the first 100 people who use this Invite Code get in:
HACKERNEWS
After that I promise we'll get invite codes out to everyone else who is interested ASAP.
Thanks in advance for all your help!
Ted Homatas
- nihaar 18y agoI've been working on something very similar. As an excuse to pick up python, I've been working a more robust SMS interface with google calendar than the one provide as well as an interface with Yelp. I love using SMS on my phone (its my predominant form of communication) and I like what you guys have made. Looking forward to giving it a spin.
- nihaar 18y agoOne extremely useful service that comes to mind is being able to track a flight on any given airline
- jonknee 18y ago4INFO and GOOGL both do that quite nicely. http://www.google.com/mobile/default/sms.html http://www.google.com/mobile/default/sms.html http://4info.net/howto/search.jsp http://4info.net/howto/search.jsp Of course they do a lot more, but flight tracking and sports scores are two of my most common uses.
- wushupork 18y agoI'm a novice txtful user, but I see lots of potential for it. I've made short codes amazon price checking and netflix queue. I've found that I use the amazon price checking thing every now and then. Cool thing about this is anyone w/ a phone can use it, not just a smartphone - I don't have an iphone like everyone else.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- whalesalad 18y agoI have an iPhone so doing some of these things isn't has hard as it might be on a regular phone, but i've always loved intelligent services like this that let you take a simple thing like text messaging and turn it into a very powerful tool. Even with my iPhone, text messaging is a real fast way to send data. I'll be playing around with it :)
- wesley 18y agoAny way to see the source code for shortcuts that were made by txtful itself? I checked out the developer page and it's all pretty confusing. "Formblock builder"? "Create shortcut" and you have to upload some file? Docs please :)
- azernove 18y agoThe shortcuts are subscriptions to templates (this is what a developer creates). The templates are xml files using txtful mark up language. There is some (pretty dry) documentation describing the building blocks of a template on the txtful-developers google group (please follow the link from the developers page). A good start is the getting started article. Please go ahead and ask any questions you might have. We would be very glad to get that group going.
- wesley 18y agoThis service seems great, but there's one big catch. You'll need to enter your passwords in their system for netflix, gmail, and whatever else shortcuts you want to use. If you're willing to do that, great, but I'm not. Edit: Ofcourse, there are also shortcuts that don't need passwords.
- thomatas 18y agoThat's true Wesley, but not all shortcuts require personal info. And I want you to know that we encrypt all the info you give us with AES-128, and you're free to use whichever shortcuts you're comfortable with. It's not all or nothing.
- bprater 18y agoI like services like this, however, the problem I run into is remembering the "command-line-like shortcuts". Was Amazon "amazon book" or "amz book" or "book amzon.com". And "what was the syntax for getting the definition?". Or "Do they have a way to...?" Getting this info from a SMS-only phone might be tough.
- thomatas 18y agoGreat point. If you send a message with just the letter h you get a list of your shortcuts. If you send h "shortcut name" you get detailed help.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- almost 18y agoWeird, I've just in the last few days been playing with SMS to web stuff. I was just today wondering about making a more general system but since in the UK it costs to send messages (i understand the cost is on the receiver in the US) I couldn't think how to make it work. The exception would seem to be for things that have the potential to make a return, if you're in the UK my amazon price checker will send you an amazon.co.uk price when you text PRICE and the product name to 07786200690.
- fendale 18y agoBT offer an SMS SDK that allows you to send and receive texts on from your app. Their pricing is not what I would describe as really competitive, but there is (or was the last time I checked) a trial account that allowed you to do some small number of operations per day. http://web21c.bt.com/services http://web21c.bt.com/services
- diN0bot 18y agoinstead of emailing passwords to the user, send them a link to a confirmation page where they can enter their own password (twice) to complete the registration process and sign-in. security might be an issue otherwise when sending passwords around in the clear. do the same thing for password resets when a user forgets their password (or username, for that matter).
- diN0bot 18y agoand yeah, the giving up of passwords to other services is a little tricky. i'm not opposed to it, but you have to prove yourself to be completely trustworthy and honorable. i mean, paypal?! also, the 5 number password consisting entirely of numbers that was given to me when i signed on.... so that's 10*5 = 100,000 passwords to check to break into someone's account? it seems a little low. why not a 20-character password consisting of letters, symbols and numbers? the first page i go to when logging in for the first time should be a "change password" page, not a suggested link. or just get the password from the user when they register! :-) otherwise, though, i love the idea. command line SMS for the real world. very cool. no need to remember which phone number to call.
- thomatas 18y agoGood suggestion, we were just trying to follow others suggestions of making the sign-up form as short as possible.
- diN0bot 18y ago
- rokhayakebe 18y agoAdd voice capabilities to allow us to call. Then using speech to text, you can process that as well. On the home page rotate different texts within the cellphone screens.
- dan_sim 18y agoHave a look at http://jott.com/ http://jott.com/ for speech to text.
- rokhayakebe 18y agoI think they need competition.
- peregrine 18y agoI have a feeling Google will be going down this route soon. Especially with their voice recognition being so robust and having so many profiles.....I bet Google will soon be dropping a bomb.
- fgimenez 18y ago1-800-goog-411 (http://www.google.com/goog411/ http://www.google.com/goog411/) Basically a 411 service with automatic speech recognition. Not necessarily a web search, but they are far along this track.
- thomatas 18y agoGood idea. We like text a lot because it is so unobtrusive it can be used in a lot more places than voice. But obviously the way we've structured it, it's not that difficult to integrate and is definitely on the roadmap.
- adityakothadiya 18y agoHere is a clickable link - http://www.txtful.com/ http://www.txtful.com/
- thomatas 18y agoThanks
- dan_sim 18y agoI'm more interested in the IM side of things (working with XMPP a lot). I use a lot of XMPP tools daily and I like the fact that your service aggregates lots of tool in one bot. But I don't like the idea of going on the web site to "activate" shortcuts. I'd like to have something like I'm writing "amazon", it writes me back the options I can do (pricing, searching, buying). If the option needs a user/pass, it sends me a URL to a simple form where I can enter them (or ask them to me directly... you are TLS encrypted right?). If I'm using your service, it's because that I want to minimize the time I spend clicking throught a web site. But you had a great idea! Congrats!
- thomatas 18y agoDefinitely would love to implement searching for shortcuts from messages. It's a great idea, we'll put it in the queue. Thanks a lot. P.S. Yup, we're encrypted.
- pageman 18y agoPM me if you want this in Manila :)
- dfalck 18y agoVery intuitive and easy to use. I'm going to use this a lot.
- azernove 18y agoThanks a lot. This was one of the most difficult aspects of txtful implementation. Translate the concept to an easy to use UI.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- thomatas 18y agoAbsolutely. We're always going to start-up and tech events around the city. I'll be at http://likemind.us/ http://likemind.us/ on Friday.
- Jasber 18y agoAwesome idea. Two criticisms, however: You should get a privacy policy up asap. You're collecting and storing a lot of private information, so you should have a policy that dictates your stance. Also, not having SMS support yet is a deal-breaker. I realize you're working on this but without this I can't use your system. As someone that doesn't have a smart phone I was excited to try your service but when I realize it was e-mail only, immediately lost interest. Good luck with everything, and send and update to members when you have SMS support.
- azernove 18y agoThanks for pointing this out. We might have missed a step on the home page. We do have SMS support. You can find it on the account page/identities.
- thomatas 18y agoHey Jasber, we do have SMS support and Email, IM, etc. Just go to your account page and add a Mobile Phone identity.
- Jasber 18y agoThanks guys. I must have missed that. After I couldn't get SMS working I headed to the FAQ where it said you were still working on it. I think I just need to read a little more carefully :).
- thomatas 18y agoThanks for giving us a head's up about the FAQ. I've fixed it, so we don't confuse anyone else. You've done a good deed! Let us know if you find anything else.
- dpifke 18y agoPrompting users to create additional identities the first time they login would be helpful. I also missed how to do the SMS thing and just assumed it was because you were still in beta mode.
- IsaacSchlueter 18y agoDid you reach the 100 yet? It said that it would email me a password, but I'm still waiting.
- thomatas 18y agoYou should have gotten a notification either way. Drop us an email at help@txtful.com if you don't get it soon.
- IsaacSchlueter 18y agoAh, it came. Thanks!
- leohorie 18y agoLooks very interesting. I noticed that there are shortcuts for Paypal, but I don't see any copy about how secure those transactions are. I'd suggest adding at least some information on the matter, as some people tend to get paranoid about money transactions over wireless.
- azernove 18y agoi know. the transactions are executed on our servers and it's the same as the user would be running them from their browser. I agree, we have to be a little more explicit about certain things. We have a very long list of features and improvements.
- robertk 18y agoI just got you a customer. :D I got on the bus and some girl just barely made it on and was telling me how she just called her friend to check the cta site and that she's so glad she caught it. I told her she can check by txt using your service. Hint hint: first thing she responded was "how much does it cost?" and was surprised when I said free.
- thomatas 18y agoYour commission check is in the mail :D
- mattdennewitz 18y agowhich star wars movie would be added to my queue?
- thomatas 18y agohttp://www.instantrimshot.com/ http://www.instantrimshot.com/
- someperson 18y agoWhat countries does this support? No mention in the FAQ. I tried adding my mobile number with country code (Australia), but never received confirmation. EDIT: Gah, I read your reply, "In terms of text messaging it's US only (right now), but if you're willing to use it from IM, email, or the mobile web site then you could definitely create shortcuts for sites anywhere in the world." You should add that to your FAQ.
- thomatas 18y agoWill do. Sorry about that.
- zack 18y agoNot a fan of the ugly design and it's pretty much useless to me right now because I can't text, get a shortcode, seriously. Also, I would like a nice interface for getting CTA bus times. I would like to be able to text "55 bus red line" or "55 bus woodlawn" to your shortcode, and get the times of the next busses going east/west
- zack 18y agoOh, apparently you have SMS support? WTF? your UI sucks. no offense. it doesn't belong in the FAQ, it should be immediately evident. think Facebook.
- DenisM 18y agoWhat do you use for SMS gateway?
- arjunb 18y agowow, the amazon buy shortcut is scary - is there a confirmation?
- azernove 18y agothere should be a confirmation msg with the order id. you should also get an email from amazon. run detail first, so you know what you are buying ;)