Coffeehouse
Consumer and social
random voice chat
SHOW HN2024
How HN took it
24 positive, 31 neutral or asking, 2 mixed, 13 critical, out of 70 comments about the project. Thread score +0.24.
Privacy: 0 for, 7 againstIdea: 4 for, 2 againstPerformance: 1 for, 3 againstDesign: 2 for, 0 againstDocs: 1 for, 0 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Fun, interesting conversations with people in many countries
From 4 comments
Very cool - I chatted with someone in NYC, another in Switzerland, and a third in Mumbai, and a few others I didn't ask where they were - there are fascinating people everywhere!
donkeysquid on HNMatching was fast (almost instant). I just had a brief chat with a HN'er from China who is currently in Japan. I am in Australia. That was fun. Well done to the author of this…
nomilk on HNSpoke with folks in Brazil, Switzerland and Minnesota. So much fun.
michaelaiello on HNDefinitely skeptical at first but I can attest that I've had some interesting conversations already. Have to say I prefer this over to text chats by a mile. Very fun start to my…
shaarmar on HN
Matching is fast and the site is easy to try
From 2 comments
Matching was fast (almost instant). I just had a brief chat with a HN'er from China who is currently in Japan. I am in Australia. That was fun. Well done to the author of this…
nomilk on HNJust had a talk with some people. Very cool concept :)
wiihack on HN
Objections
Privacy concerns about recordings and voice cloning
From 4 comments
In the age of replicated AI voices and security it seems like this would be a bad idea. How much voice sample is needed to decently replicate someone's voice?
stephenitis on HNGreat chats. Privacy policy? Lol. Also, this is probably a good source of LLM training data.
seeknotfind on HNPrivacy policy? Are chats private?
hackernewds on HNIn days of voice cloning, this seems less wise.
thimkerbell on HN
Intimidating to talk to strangers by voice
From 2 comments
If the thought of voice chats with randomly selected strangers didn't terrify me slightly, I think this would be an awesome idea. For the more out-going among us, can imagine…
vegancap on HNSlightly? I opened the page before completely processing the title and panicked like a boy forgetting to close his porn before bringing his laptop to school. Don't just invade my…
delusional on HN
Landing page gives little explanation before Start
From 2 comments
Love this. I do think there should be more opportunities to connect people across the world. I think if more people connected directly there be less faith in the filtered…
runlaszlorun on HNWhat audio system does this use? Is it E2EE directly between you and the other person? The website doesn't say much before you click the Start button. Everything has tradeoffs,…
Xorathena on HN
Requests
Text chat option
From 3 comments
Interesting. I think text chats would be a nice addition as they allow asynchronous conversations which would be beneficial.
skottenborg on HNFully agree. If this was a text first, voice if you want thing that would be much nicer and accessible too.
user_7832 on HNWhy only voice chat?
C0mm0nS3ns3 on HN
Notification when matched
From 1 comment
It'd be nice to add some bell notification when someone gets connected. I just can't stare the screen all the time.
pknerd on HN
Mobile app or better mobile support
From 2 comments
A mobile app for this would be awesome, even if a browser control
pknerd on HNiOS Firefox drops connection when phone locks itself
rrr_oh_man on HN
Questions
What audio system is used and is chat end-to-end encrypted?
From 1 comment
What audio system does this use? Is it E2EE directly between you and the other person? The website doesn't say much before you click the Start button. Everything has tradeoffs,…
Xorathena on HN
How does it know users are HN users?
From 1 comment
How does it know we are HN users?
scooke on HN
Alternatives named
HN reply sites and HN IRC channels
From 2 comments
There is https://hnreplies.com/
veyh on HNThere is a #hackernews on Libera.chat, and I believe I've seen a #ycombinator (or something similar) somewhere. No idea how official they are. But every HN-based community I've…
maltalex on HN
Omegle-style random chat and Jitsi
From 2 comments
Omegle for ultra-introverts
digitcatphd on HNIt is quite simple with p2p WebRTC, like Jitsi did that, and perhaps still do.
imhoguy on HN