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Show HN: TextIt – Visually build SMS applications anywhere in the world
- jasperr 13y agoHN, Interactive SMS systems fill a much needed niche that has been largely neglected in favor of "smart apps". It's great to see that someone has developed a platform for building custom applications. Great job.
- camilo_u 13y agoExactly, we have to realize that those countries where the mobile penetration is ridiculous high, more than 95%, like any country in Africa, Asia and Latin America is basically driven by feature phones, and that will be the scenario for several years more.
- nicpottier 13y agoHi HN, We've been working in Rwanda for the past three years building interactive SMS systems for NGOs. This is our take on how to build a platform instead of custom systems to handle a lot of the needs here. We think it probably has some uses in the west as well. Happy to answer any questions and respond to comments, curious to hear everybody's feedback. (please be gentle, not in the face!)
- mkessy 13y agoHi, this looks like a great product. It looks like you've built this with a focus on helping NGOs and their information gathering needs. Have you guys done any work with more focus on consumer apps, for example a sms based weather app? What is the field like for software of that sort? I'm hoping you could point me in the direction of people doing work like that. Is it common for east africans to ever use their phones for uses other than calling? Are there any sms services that are in widespread use? Sorry for inundating you with questions, I'm just curious about this area of development. Thanks.
- josh2600 13y agoHi! Thanks for submitting this. I'm a big telecom geek and I am curious about your connection to the phone network (specifically, how are you enabling these SMS to actually go out?). Is this sitting on top of something like Twilio, or do you have an underlying switch? What's the magic here? Is this just an interface for laying out SMS strategies or is there more to this? It looks visually appealing, I think you did an excellent job on the site, but the technical portion is difficult for me to divine. Thank you for the hard work! Edit: Wait, is this not SMS and actually just a messaging service delivered over the top? If so, calling it SMS is sort of dubious. Would adore some clarification.
- enewcomer 13y agoHey Josh, One of the devs here.. There's several different ways your TextIt app can be deployed depending on where you are located. When you sign up, we present the geographically appropriate options for you. In some cases you will see Twilio, others you will get direct connections with a carrier. However, no matter where you are we also have a pretty robust Android app (free on Google Play) that can facilitate 2-way SMS anywhere in the world.
- josh2600 13y agoAwesome! Thank you so much :). Can you tell me a bit about what your experience setting up the direct connections was like? Frankly, I do this for a living and I'm curious what it's like for others. Dealing with global carriers is hit or miss for me. It's either BOOM DONE or years of waiting in vain. What was your experience like? I admit, most of my conversations are focused on Europe and Asia so I'd be quite curious about your experiences in Africa or elsewhere. Thanks!!! Edit: To clarify, where are you unable to get carrier agreements?
- nicpottier 13y agoNo you can get carrier agreements, and we have in Rwanda, but that's not a business model we particularly want to go after. We've had the same experience as your own, sometimes it is really quick, other times it takes forever or just isn't possible. But there are plenty of aggregators out there trying to expand and cover all the markets, and in time they will get to Rwanda and the rest of Africa I'm sure. So we are focused more on providing a platform that lets you build the app, and using the (rather effective) stop gap of an Android phone to bridge until the day we can use Twilio right here in Kigali.
- ernestipark 13y agoI taught a programming/entrepreneurship course a few years ago in Kigali through aiti.mit.edu at KIST and a few companies came out of it working on SMS apps. This app seems to make a lot of sense and seems well done. Good luck!
- jadoaime 13y agoHey, Park, I am Jean and I was in your Aiti class 2010 in KIST. Nice to seevyou here. I am a fan of Textit and the company that created it. They are coming up with great sms technologies that are appropriate for Africa. Big up to Nic and Eric, you are doing a wonderful work.
- sleepyhead 13y agoI think this not only looks like a great app but also really hope to see more startups focusing on the needs in developing countries. How did you end up going there and building this? Was it sort of a by-product of working with an NGO or did you specifically go to Rwanda to do a mobile startup in a developing country?
- nicpottier 13y agoThat's kind of a subject for a blog post which I've been meaning to write.. but ya, Eric and I ended up Rwanda just because we wanted to do something different with our software skills. So we moved here, started a company, hired on some brilliant devs and started working with various NGOs which introduced us to how SMS is a really useful tool. Eventually we decided we wanted to do something better than the current tools available, something that could be used easily by NGOs large and small and that's where TextIt came in. Lots of twists and turns in that story of course, but that's the cliff notes.
- timthimmaiah 13y agoNic(or Josh), You guys have an awesome service here! I have a question about your website, if you don't mind, what are you guys using for the 'feedback' tool in the bottom right corner? It's pretty friggen awesome.
- nicpottier 13y agoIsn't it!? That's an early release of User Voice's new feedback widget. We love it extra double much because it fits in with our look and feel so much. Highly recommend them, they have a great service.
- 650REDHAIR 13y agoWow. Not only is the interface pretty, it's quite good, too! Awesome work!
- nicpottier 13y agoAw shucks, thanks guys. :)
- acoleman616 13y agoGreat landing page. The way it presents a use case from start-to-finish, integrating product shots to display how the interface works, is done very well.
- maged 13y agoJust a heads up, your link to Android SMS Relay is broken here (http://nyaruka.com/#open http://nyaruka.com/#open). I think you intended to link this one https://github.com/nyaruka/android-sms-relay https://github.com/nyaruka/android-sms-relay. But great stuff! I'm going to try and play around with it over the next few weeks.
- nicpottier 13y agoHeh, actually both those links are wrong, that is a standalone relayer that we built before TextIt, it does simple polling instead of the fancy TextIt one that uses GCM. The one for TextIt is called 'TextIt' in the Play store. But thanks, I'll fix it, didn't think to go update the corporate website.
- pak 13y agoA very similar-looking product for phone applications, called QuickFuse, is here: http://quickfuseapps.com/ http://quickfuseapps.com/ I think the diagram-as-programming concept has some legs for certain high-business-value, low-complexity applications. One of them is voice applications, and another is probably SMS applications. You can imagine many others: email workflows, document workflows, query tools... It comes down to the age-old problem of how to represent and store logic in a fashion that end users aren't afraid to manipulate. Disclosure: I worked on QuickFuse.
- nicpottier 13y agoQuickFuse looks really nice, congrats! I very much like that you let people play with the interface without signing up, might have to ape that. Where's the pricing though? Obviously we agree visual interfaces have some real advantages, especially for things that are conversations (SMS, Voice, USSD). The real trick is managing to keep things simple as complexity increases. I think the most interesting aspect for us has been to see project owners, the ones who go out to the field themselves, build applications that fit their use cases instead of having the cognitive barrier of communicating their needs to a programmer first. Anyways, fun stuff, thanks for sharing.
- ericHosick 13y ago> It comes down to the age-old problem of how to represent and store logic in a fashion that end users aren't afraid to manipulate. I agree. It's the difference between someone who builds a car and someone who drives it. Building the car using diagram-as-programming is probably going to be complex. Using the car in a diagram/visual environment is, in my opinion, the sweet spot of such systems.
- mbesto 13y agoI had a look QuickFuse. Do you still work on that project? Just some advice - in the pitch quickfuse is addressing business customers, but is littered with technical language (not programming language, but written communication technical people would understand). Quickfuse might want to provide some examples of how these business applications get created...for example "this is how a doctor's office sends SMS's" etc
- mig39 13y agoVery cool. Anybody do a CAT FACTS version yet?
- andrelesa 13y agoHi Nic, This is nice, I am the developer on Ureport Zambia and we are currently using RapidSMS http router. Thanks alot and good work on all. Now am off to look at textit!!
- nicpottier 13y agoHey hey! I think you guys should give a hard look at TextIt, it was very much built with UReport and the like in mind, essentially taking things that worked really well and polishing the hell out of them. Definitely reach out via email if you have any questions or if we can do something to help out, integrating with an SMSC is totally possible.
- camilo_u 13y agoThe perfect tool for "smart" apps on feature phones, good work guys!
- rafaqueque 13y agoAmazing!
- tpsc 13y agoWell done! Plus, it is great to see an old Nokia instead of another iPhone on the hero shot. It is really intriguing in combination with this slick, modern design of yours.
- antoinec 13y agoGreat! I'm not surprised to see that it comes from Africa, there are really huge opportunities there in term of SMS-only application.
- krrishd 13y agoBen Haggerty is macklemore's name...
- nicpottier 13y agoWas wondering if someone would notice that. Eric and I are from Seattle and are big Macklemore fans. :) There are a few other easter eggs in a similar vain on the site.
- mynameisvlad 13y agoYou even gave him a 206 number, that's cute. :)
- nicpottier 13y agoYep. Here's a hint, check out our API docs.
- mynameisvlad 13y agoHaha that was great. I liked the follow up from the Web Hooks API to the Simulator.
- nicpottier 13y agoGlad someone enjoyed that. I think I had Thrift Shop on repeat while building the API pages one weekend. :)
- saltcod 13y agoReally cool. What's the technology behind this?
- nicpottier 13y agoWhich part? We are a Django stack, though with our own framework over it: https://github.com/nyaruka/smartmin https://github.com/nyaruka/smartmin The main Flow UI leans heavily on JSPlumb. We use Angular JS for our analytics side and use the mad combination of HAML, Coffescript and LESS to avoid writing closing tags in anything at all.
- jhull 13y agocongrats guys!
- losethos 13y agoThe nigger cannot be taught. http://www.randomnumbers.info/ http://www.randomnumbers.info/ God says... 127:4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. 127:5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. 128:1 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in his ways. 128:2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. 128:3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table. 128:4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD. 128:5 The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. 128:6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children's children, and peace upon Israel.
- sravfeyn 13y agoAmazing simplicity in a complex app-builder product, from the surveyor-perspective . From end-user perspective though, I think it's a difficult to do very long surveys through SMS's.
- BHSPitMonkey 13y agoThis appears to be built in/for a market where SMS is ubiquitous in a way that the internet isn't.
- nicpottier 13y agoI think that's a fair point for sure. You don't want to do 40 questions flows with this. But we've seen really good success with flows of 5-10 questions, even with recipients who have limited literacy and technical know how. But yes, there are of course limits and you have to be sensitive to your users. Really every context and use case is so unique it is hard to even give guidelines there.
- playhard 13y agoI love this app! Textit should focus on small businesses/ people who cannot afford a developer to start a sms service rather than directly competing against Twilio for enterprise customers. Great job!
- nicpottier 13y agoWe definitely don't compete with Twilio, rather we are built on them wherever we can. We only really recommend using an Android phone as the SMS bridge if you are somewhere that has no good aggregator. You totally nailed our target customer though, we want to enable small the medium sized businesses, not enterprise.
- m_mueller 13y agosmall typo: 'per mounth' instead of month for silver plan
- DarkStar851 13y agoGlad I'm not the only OCD. https://textit.in/public/pricing/ https://textit.in/public/pricing/
- jpollock 13y agoThat is very cool! As a user, I'd be careful about throwing a lot of messages through a single phone though, you will likely trigger a carrier's anti-arbitrage systems. You might find your business cut off with no warning, complete with police raids. Carriers are sensitive because they're seeing people throw 30-60 SIMs into a box and advertising cheap wholesale SMS and voice termination routes. (Google "SIM box fraud")
- ylem 13y agoBesides your graphical interface, will you expose an api?
- nicpottier 13y agoAPI docs here: https://textit.in/api/v1 https://textit.in/api/v1 We're adding a lot more APIs around flows very soon.
- ismaelc 13y agoI added your API in Mashape! https://www.mashape.com/community/textit#!documentation https://www.mashape.com/community/textit#!documentation Please email me at chris@mashape.com so we can help you promote it to developers
- itsbits 13y agoNice...so can we use our own SMS gateway on top???
- nicpottier 13y agoYes, if you already have a relationship with a carrier or aggregator we can help get you hooked up. Just get in touch.
- FabriceKwizera 13y agoAwesome app for real
- kunil 13y agoFirst thing on web page is asking my mail for possible spams. No thanks. At least you could describe it first and then ask for my mail... to use in spams.
- NSAID 13y agoWow, perfect timing. Just last week I started teaching myself Android development just so I could write something like https://github.com/nyaruka/android-sms-relay https://github.com/nyaruka/android-sms-relay. Any chance for MMS support(receiving and sending) in the future?
- oevi 13y agoIs the visual interface build from scratch or based upon an existing framework?