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Hi, Niklas from Instabridge here. To expand a bit on the "X for Y" description: Instabridge makes it easy to sync wifi credentials across different devices, sha
by niklas_a 14y ago
Hi, Niklas from Instabridge here. To expand a bit on the "X for Y" description: Instabridge makes it easy to sync wifi credentials across different devices, share credentials with friends, and revoke access. The Dropbox analogy has been proven to be an effective one-sentence way of giving people an idea of what Instabridge is about, but of course there are differences between wifi access and file storage, so that's as far as it can be stretched.
Apart from trying to solve the usability issues with wifi, we also support sharing of hotspots with the entire Instabridge community. This is intended for cafés, restaurants, and so on.
We've had a short beta run in the Nordics, and launched globally a couple of days ago at LAUNCH 2013 (where we won the "Best International Startup" prize. Yay, us!). I'm a long time HN reader and have seen many "Show HN" posts during the years. I'm really eager to read what you guys have to say, both the good and the bad.
- RoyceFullerton 14y agoOuch: "Error establishing database connection" Scramble to fix it before you drop off the front page!
- niklas_a 14y agoDone! Back online.
- bsimpson 14y agoI like the idea, but I'm wondering how you get past the installation barrier. I'd rather use my phone than a credit card to pay, but finding Google/Square Wallet, opening the app, authorizing the payment, and (for Google) tapping the device are way more work than fishing out my credit card and swiping it. Needing someone to download the app to get on my WiFi vs typing in a 10 digit number feels similar. You're trying to alleviate a minor pain with technology, but at least for the first use, your way is more painful. I'd like to see you succeed, because I like the idea of community-distributed WEPs and not having to ask people to get on WiFi, but I don't know how you get past the installation barrier to build that community. Also, how does the tablet aspect work? If I need to get my tablet on WiFi, I probably don't have a cell connection for it to make the call to lookup the WEP. Do you send it from my phone over Bluetooth? Do you periodically sync the list of known-WEPs between devices when they both have signal?
- bsimpson 14y agoAlso, I just agreed to a 404 message. Your TOS page is missing.
- niklas_a 14y agoFixed!
- niklas_a 14y agoI don't think the app is that useful if you're only using it to access just one Wi-Fi network. I think the real benefit is when you install the app on your tablet, smartphone etc and suddenly you have access to all of your friends' Wi-Fi without typing in the passwords or updating them if anyone changes their Wi-Fi password. We also support community Wi-Fi hotspots so that you can get access to Wi-Fi wherever you go. Right now the syncing of passwords between tablets and smartphones is done over Wi-Fi, so the tablet would have to be connected to Wi-Fi the first time for syncing to work. Going forward one of the top things we'd like to add is syncing of passwords over bluetooth so that if you have a smartphone that's connected over 3G and gets access to Wi-Fi you can sync that right away to your tablet.
- rkudeshi 14y agoI think your one-line description is much more descriptive and simpler than "Dropbox for Wi-Fi", but I understand you want something short. Maybe something like "Share Wi-Fi with friends" or "Share your Wi-Fi, not your password" would be better? (By the way, typo on the frontpage: "Don't have an Andriod phone?")
- j_s 14y agoDropbox for Wi-Fi Passwords
- niklas_a 14y agoI like that! Clever.
- Lerc 14y agoI think some of the reason for the problem people are having with the DropBox comparison is that the similarity is in implementation details, rather than what it means to them as an end user. It does seem like a good idea, but I'd worry about Google doing something similar inbuilt based on Google user accounts.
- Udo 14y agoHey Niklas, thanks for sharing your startup with us! It looks great and it's absolutely a service I'd like to use. Maybe it's more like a "social network for wifi passwords" but whatever ;) Here's the thing though: my Android phone doesn't need this, it's got 3G and that's generally enough so I don't go through the hassle of turning on the battery-sucking WiFi just so it can notify me of new emails a bit faster. What does need an app like this is my laptop. Any plans for OS X / Windows / Linux clients?
- niklas_a 14y agoOS X, Windows, Linux: Yes, yes and yes! Now we say that we sync passwords that's only between Android devices. I think the real killer is when we make an app your laptop that sync via bluetooth from your phone. Great that your 3G is working so well, for some reason I always have really bad coverage and am constantly asking for the Wi-Fi password.
- Udo 14y agoBluetooth sync would be fine, as long as the laptop itself would be allowed to keep those entries stored until next sync. > Great that your 3G is working so well Where are you at? I'm mostly running around in Germany, UK, and well-connected parts of Asia so that's probably where my bias comes from ;)
- hackmiester 14y agoMy PC doesn't have Bluetooth so I am biased against that solution. Maybe also allow Internet sync as well. I know this seems like a chicken and egg problem, but it would work in case today I go to my buddy's house and connect on my phone, but tomorrow I go and bring my PC.
- nodata 14y agoWifi uses less power than 3g.
- arb99 14y agoWifi is so much faster than most 3g connections for my phone. The only place I've seen my phones 3g connection being as 'instant' as wifi was in London. Also using 3g uses up a lot more battery than wifi. Also it could be handy for giving the pw out to others (easier than reading out a long random password. Especially if there's an error and have to read out and retype the whole password to your friend)
- bobwaycott 14y ago> The Dropbox analogy has been proven to be an effective one-sentence way of giving people an idea of what Instabridge is about... In what way has this been proven to be effective? I'm interested in both the methodology and understanding how investigating this in the Nordics might not persist elsewhere with the same results. Perhaps your experimental group has a different understanding of Dropbox than others? The comments so far seem to indicate general agreement that Since Dropbox has no connection to syncing, sharing, and revoking WiFi credentials/access, you have created a very different product from what "Dropbox for WiFi" connotes. Off the top of my head, you could probably get better mileage from a descriptor such as "Bump for Passwords", or even "WiFi Password Sync-n-Shareinator". Anything that accurately conveys an immediate expectation of an app that syncs, shares, and revokes WiFi access among mobile devices. Beyond this, the app implementation, design, and workflows look awfully damn nice. Now I'd love to have this functionality available for my phone, tablet, laptops, PS3, Xbox, TV, and Blu-Ray player. Keep up the good work!
- niklas_a 14y agoI think first of all, Dropbox is a service that many normal users relate to. We had A LOT of test users in our office that tested different iterations of the app. They connected Dropbox with something that "just worked" and was synced across all of their devices. But maybe we had a bad sample of users, I think with the feedback here we'll have to rethink how position this.
- shurane 14y agoYour description makes a lot of sense, though. Most regular users know how Dropbox works, right? So way easier to relate. Cool stuff.
- bobwaycott 14y agoAh, okay. Now that's a different angle than the 'X for Y' device usually follows. I imagine you guys were shooting for the fewest words possible in deciding to go with the 'X for Y' approach as you did here. However, "X for Y" is a stylistic device that employs an analogy, and when the analogy is not based on the form or function of a thing, it gets easily confused. Think of other products that use the 'X for Y' device--for example, a service that markets itself as 'Facebook for Sex'. The nearly automatic connection potential users are going to make is that this service is going to have certain obvious and well-known features of Facebook--like connecting with other users, building up a list of 'friends', etc. Now, if that service was, instead, a news feed of stories about sexual subjects, I think the users would be rightly confused by the analogy not being correct. Here, they'd have been better suited using the 'Facebook-like news feed for sexual content', or something more apt. The same could be said if the service was 'Google for Philosophy'--someone is going to automatically expect a philosophy search engine, not a pair of wearable eyeglasses that help you connect your everyday experiences to greater philosophical questions. Perhaps you'd be better served with something along the lines of "Dropbox ease-of-use for WiFi passwords", or "Dropbox-style management of WiFi passwords". Here you're able to invoke the actual Dropbox feature your sample pool was connecting to that is not communicated clearly with the original wording. Also, the only reason I think it's worth your attention is that you're actually having to explain the analogy multiple times to commenters here beside me. That's as strong an indication you can get that the analogy isn't working. You shouldn't ever have to explain what your marketing message means to your potential users. Again, I think it's a great-looking product. Very well designed and executed, and the interaction simplicity is the real killer here (as you're obviously trying to communicate).
- joejohnson 14y agoAre you the guy in the video on your webpage?
- niklas_a 14y agoHaha I wish I was that good looking! It's a fantastic friend of ours that's a cameraman and actor. His site (in Swedish): http://enblom.nu/ http://enblom.nu/
- taproot 14y agoApart from my security concerns I noted elsewhere, I have one major question why facebook? Why not google plus? why not twitter? Why not forgo the social network douchebaggery and just check my contact list? Anyway, still love the idea, but until I can use it without facebook (or any other "special" network for that matter) it just isn't happening.
- niklas_a 14y agoIt does support the contact list already! But going forward we'd like to add even more social graphs: LinkedIn, Twitter, G+ etc.