Show HN: Nebula – Alarm clock where you grow stars while you sleep

by rocketsloth • 9 years ago

345 154 9 years ago

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Hi HN, I just wanted to add that I'm looking for any kind of feedback on the app. I've been working on it since graduating in may and released it a couple of days ago.

nerdponx• 9 years ago

Is there any way I can disable the play-a-game-to-unlock feature? I kind of just want cool stars in my phone.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

100% there are several dismissal options and one of them is just a simple stop button that you press to collect your star

k_• 9 years ago

Seems really nice, congrats! I'll give it a try and give you some feedback in a few days

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thank you, really appreciate that

zamalek• 9 years ago

I'd love to see useful repeat options (it doesn't seem to support repeat at all currently), e.g. work days except public holidays.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I've gotten that request from quite a few people now and am looking in to ways to add that functionality to the alarm while preserving the overall idea of setting meaningful alarms with consequences. The reason behind the single button initially is that it forces you to consciously set your alarm which I felt would increase commitment. I completely understand that it isn't for everyone so am working on the multiple alarm / repeat support options too.

caio19825• 9 years ago

Kudos for such original idea to a simple alarm clock :-)

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thank you :)

Cthulhu_2• 9 years ago

How long does it take to make an alarm clock app? Why can't you be more like your sister?

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

you sound just like my mom!

t_fatus• 9 years ago

Some feedback here on your website: you've got the best testimonial section I've ever seen, you're mom should be really proud

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thanks, I'm so glad someone noticed. Also as a disclaimer, my mom is super supportive and uses my app every day.

lucasverra• 9 years ago

looooooved it

alexpetralia• 9 years ago

This was fantastically creative. Bought the app just for this.

onslauth• 9 years ago

The feed back section was the only reason I came to check the comments, to see if anyone else noticed it.

It really made me chuckle and is just a great new take on the stock standard comments.

somberi• 9 years ago

Came to type this. The testimonial section is the best I have seen in a long time. Funny and touching.

King-Aaron• 9 years ago

+1, those testimonials were eerily close to home!

snakeboy• 9 years ago

Very minor, but on the website "You snooze, you loose" I assume should read "You snooze, you lose".

Great concept and I look forward to trying it!

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thanks for the catch! Classic English language, am I right. Appreciate that :)

wool_gather• 9 years ago

Really neat idea.

On your website...why are you using an iPhone template to show off an Android-only app?

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

That's my mistake, I didn't even notice that and will fix it in a bit. Thank you.

randycupertino• 9 years ago

I want to try it, looks awesome! Is it in the iphone store or only on google phone? I didn't see it in the apple app store but maybe I searched the wrong terms? Thanks.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I should have been more clear about that, my apologies. I've only made the Android app so far and have plans to work on an iOS one soon

smtf• 9 years ago

Congrats! This looks really interesting. One thing I would appreciate clarity on: I'd prefer not to send data to ad networks, if I pay for the ad free version, will that not only prevent the display of ads but also any associated tracking?

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

That's a really interesting question that I'm going to look in to. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. At the moment if you pay for the ad free version, ads are immediately destroyed and prevented from loading from there on out. The only thing that I need to look in to is if initializing AdMob in the app results in any tracking. It is not my intention to send any user data to ad networks if they have the ad-free version and I will fix it if I find out that I've overlooked something.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I've looked in to the question and I've changed it so that even the MobileAds SDK is only initialized if premium is not active when the application is first created. This way, if premium is enabled, AdMob is not touched in any way at any stage of the application's lifecycle. I asked whether or not this initialize call I was worried about actually does anything with respect to tracking and the only answer I've gotten so far is a "no", but I still need to do a little more research to make sure there aren't any other possible ways you may be tracked if ads aren't ever being loaded or requested. This additional check will go live in a day or two and I'll update you if I find any other potential issues.

rene_bg2• 9 years ago

- The site is great, esp. the testimonials :-)

- In the app, cut down the introduction texts and steps. It takes like 30 taps to get the alarm started.

- Also, I found the pulse of the focused area (the circle) annoying and distracting when reading the text just next to it.

- Use briefer descriptions of the things in the guided tour(s). Every word you can remove is often an improvement. And, again, get rid of steps. I'd recommend 3-5 steps tops (and entirely!).

- Somewhere you write "Try to tap here to do something..." => Get rid of the "Try to". As a user, I know how to tap - just write "Tap here to ..."

- Make the sound selections (radio button lists) play the selected sound on tap: by default the top entry is selected. When I tap it—as I initially don't know how it sounds–it doesn't play the sound. I have to switch to the second entry and then back to the first one.

- 42 MB is quite large for "just an alarm clock." Most people won't bother, but keep in mind that even in 2017 software should be performant and, if not necessary, not bloated.

Besides these minor points, I have to say that the idea is great! I am really looking forward to use the app tonight :-)

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Hi! Thanks so much for this very detailed feedback and glad you like the testimonials :).

intro/onboarding feedback: I agree with you and will look at ways to cut it down both in length and quality

- I just removed the "Try tapping" and changed it to tap cause I agree with you (it will be pushed out next update)

- you're 100% correct on the sound previews too, I implemented the listener as an onChanged rather than onClick, but will look into fixing that in the near future.

- the 42 MB is almost entirely due to mp3 sound files (the alarm ringtones + sleep engine sounds). I used compression to strike a balance between quality and space and also used seamless looping on the sleep engine to get rid of the need for giant audio files, but there is always room for dramatic improvement on that front and I'll keep working at it. If you have any suggestions please let me know. I think that once I get a back end going what I'd eventually like to do is have users download the tracks based on what they need (this might be a very naive approach though so correct me if that's a bad idea).

pluma3• 9 years ago

The first screen I see on the page has a challenge that at least 8% of males (me included) can't solve. Matching colors is difficult to make accessible so it's no surprise that the example is one I couldn't solve, being partially green blind.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Hey really sorry about that, there are a variety of dismissal methods you can choose from including shake dismissal, qr scan, barcode scan and a simple stop button as well as this color tap. That dismissal method is just the one I went with for the screenshot, but there is something for everyone.

I'm also looking in to giving users the option to change the color combination because I've received this feedback from two people now. If you have any suggestions for colors that would work for you please let me know and I'll add them to my trello board

zamber3• 9 years ago

Awesome app, the intro experience is a bit overwhelming but it looks and sounds cool.

It would be nice to have a launcher widget with a clock and a render of the nebula, similarly to what I have on my phone: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Q2WL8dqZnSnCY8Of1

Also some animations would be nice, maybe use the accelerometer to Pan tilt the star? Would make a streak even more rewarding :).

Happily bought the accelerator pack :).

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thanks so much really appreciate your support! I experimented with an ios style parallax effect on the background stars but found that the library really used a lot of memory so I removed it for the time being. It looked super cool though so I'm going to try and write it myself in the near future. I'm also really interested in animations for the stars and a swirling nebula. My animation abilities are almost non-existent right now, but it's something I want to work on asap. That clock widget is super cool, Ive got a lot of features in the Todo list ATM but a widget is on the radar eventually too :). Really appreciate the feedback

developerdanny• 9 years ago

Some feedback: on my mobile device, the website logo intersects with the LinkedIn icon. Other than that, I can see myself using this app from now on!

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thank you, I didn't notice that. I'll fix that soon

aagha2• 9 years ago

Fantastic idea!

telesilla2• 9 years ago

I've been using it for a week now and I'm a little disappointed in only one thing: if I wake up early and press the cancel button, I don't get my star! If there is an option to say, 'give me my star if i sleep x% of the total alarm time' I'd love that. I get woken up by kids, birds, whatever, very often and I'm afraid I'll never get a constellation at this rate.

kovek2• 9 years ago

I really like it. I didn't try it yet but it feel like I would enjoy this points system for waking up on time. I noticed that over the summer, when I was excited about my work (and trying to meet deadlines), waking up on time was not an issue. Now that I'm back to going to school, it's easier to snooze/sleep in. Also, it's easier to go to bed at more random times.

What if you could also collect some points by going to bed at approximately the same time every night? Check the accelerometer for movement at the set time (example 8pm) and every fib(n)'th minute after that to make sure the person is sleeping?

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Reinforcing good bedtime habits is a really interesting idea. Even if that can't guarantee a person is sleeping, it can force people to set their phones down for the night which is something at least I could definitely use. Maybe something like if a user moves their phone past a certain time, the star is destroyed. Going to explore the points option and a few others. Thank you for your feedback

wpietri• 9 years ago

I'm glad to hear it. I've built an automated lighting system to encourage good sleep habits [1], which has helped a lot. But I'd still like to do better. Maybe the star is bigger and brighter with good sleep, and ends up a brown dwarf if you don't get enough?

[1] https://github.com/wpietri/sunrise

friendzis• 9 years ago

In my area summertime traffic is rather relaxed without significantly expressed traffic spikes, so journey time is almost independent from departure time. This summer I had liberty to come to work at any (reasonable) time. I spent large part of this summer without an alarm clock (had one safeguard alarm that always fired at work or during commute).

If I wanted to stay late, I could. I just went to bed when I felt sleepy. I would wake up naturally at varying times. Interestingly, I think I had one of the most productive periods, I felt well rested even though my sleeping pattern was greatly messed up. Waking up at 4am for 3 hour trip to work was not torture. had to do the same last week and was literally a zombie.

Furthermore I am one those people who occasionally wake up at night. I could keep laying in bed for those 15 minutes or I can check something (idle miner, bullshit feed) on my phone and crash after 15 minutes. Such options really depend on the person, I guess.

rosstex• 9 years ago

Have you tried getting excited about school? :)

egypturnash• 9 years ago

Easier said than done sometimes.

kovek2• 9 years ago

I like school but it's not as exciting as working on a product change that will be used by many many people! I think I would like to keep taking a course per semester and do some learning on my own, even when I work full time.

fishcake• 9 years ago

It made me so that getting on time was easy as well! I love it!

caio19825• 9 years ago

Any app that guarantees I will not snooze nor ignore it (as in my brain simply gets used to the alarm and I won't even have a chance waking up with it if I want to)? It might cost $5.000 USD, I'll buy it.

diggan• 9 years ago

How about one of these, requires you to solve a puzzle to turn off.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mathe-alarm-clock/id82353291...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wroclawstu...

Otherwise I also remember some friends back in the days having an alarm clock that shoots away a thing in the other corner of the room, requires you to fetch it to disable the alarm.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

this app has quite a few dismissal methods designed to do similar things to all these examples, like having to scan a QR code (which is optimally taped to your bathroom mirror to force you to get out of bed), having to solve a brain teaser based around the Stroop Test, and having to shake your phone several times to shut the alarm off

caio19825• 9 years ago

I tried that one for iOS and it requires you to enable the alarm every night manually (which often I just forgot to) and I COULD solve some of them without even remembering I did later :-(

My current setup is an alarm clock with an actual bell that is noisy as fsck. Yes, an old school alarm clock :-(

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I definitely can't guarantee you won't snooze cause the app is only a tool to help, but with some effort on a users part and settings like qr dismissal along with an annoying, loud ringtone like "digital style", this app can help fight the urge by annoying you out of bed and rewarding you for dismissing the alarm correctly.

caio19825• 9 years ago

I know it might sound stupid but something that actually works is drink a lot of water few minutes before going to bed. When I do that the alarm clock always work. Make the app remind people of drinking water when it's about bed time :-)

Cthulhu_2• 9 years ago

How about an app that shuts down your computers and TV's at 10 PM sharp? The snoozing and inability to wake up probably has to do more with the amount of sleep you get than any failings of an alarm.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I agree that screens likely play a big role in messing up a lot of bedtime routines. I have a few ideas for updates in the near future to combat this issue, but I don't think I know how to shut off computers and TVs from an app yet and after a quick stack overflow search it doesn't look like anyone there does either

clydethefrog• 9 years ago

My router has an option to turn itself off after a specific time for "power saving". Since so much happens by an internet connection nowadays it basically has the same effect.

osrec3• 9 years ago

Congrats on going live :)

The quotes from your mom are rather funny, especially because they remind me of what my parents used to say while I was building my own SaaS (URL in profile if anyone's interested)!

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thank you, I knew I wasn't the only one. Really like Bx too

osrec3• 9 years ago

You're definitely not the only one! I think parents that care also tend to be much more risk averse where their kids are concerned. I'm told that I'll be the same when I have kids! Also, thanks for checking out Bx, glad you liked it :)

nblavoie• 9 years ago

@osrec: DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

osrec3• 9 years ago

Interesting, it seems to be up everywhere I've pinged it from. Give it a try again if you have time - it should work. Are you accessing from a corporate network/unusual location by any chance?

2pointsomone• 9 years ago

Agreed, those mom quotes cracked me up!

amelius2• 9 years ago

This reminds me of the ringtone era, where some people made tons of money by making useless things.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I'm sure a lot of people will feel the same way as you and I completely respect that. I made this app above all else to learn as much Android as I could after graduating. I tried to expand on a simple concept to make something I thought was cool and really had a lot of fun doing it, but I know this isn't everyone's thing.

jmiserez• 9 years ago

I studied with these guys:

https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/4/5273474/google-acquires-bi...

They did exactly what you did after graduating and their company got acquired (acqui-hired) by Google. Timely was the number one alarm clock app at the time. It was buttery smooth and beautiful but beyond that didn’t even any special functionality.

So, don’t take the parent comment too seriously!

mholt• 9 years ago

Clever! I just installed it, and I like how this works so far. The store has 2 options for disabling ads. You can buy three of the first for a dollar which deplete each time your star explodes, or you can permanently disable ads for $2.50. I like this "choose your strategy" approach: you can buy incentives to get up in the morning, or just pay to have the ad-free experience.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thanks! I didn't want to force people in to the "money shredder" mode, but I think that it works really well and provides an effective uninstall/force quit protection for users who try to take shortcuts to dismiss the alarm in the morning.

agumonkey• 9 years ago

gamifying sleep, what a surprising concept

dom96• 9 years ago

Really awesome app! Any plans for an iOS version? :)

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thanks and 100%! The moment I get a chance I'm going to dive in

mentos3• 9 years ago

Game dev here. Should you include some sort of maximum amount of sleep per day to prevent people from setting alarms to grow their stars when they aren't sleeping?

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thanks for the feedback. There is currently a hard limit in place where a user can't count a star towards the constellation based achievement system unless it grows for a minimum of one hour to prevent unethical star farming. Do you think that's sufficient?

mentos3• 9 years ago

Hmm I do appreciate the complexity involved in implementing a max number of hours per day you can grow a star. But I think it may be worth it. The more you clamp down on ways to exploit the system the more player's will respect their achievement.

The minimum of one hour is easy to circumvent. I wake up, turn off the alarm and then set another for 12 hours from now..

Theoretically if this is to track healthy sleeping then 6-8 hours max per day is the target. If users start logging 23 hours of sleep a day you probably shouldn't be rewarding them unless its a 'Master Sloth' achievement. haha

Maybe a simple solution is to prevent the player from receiving constellation growth unless at least X hours have passed since the last alarm completed? X could be a hardcoded 8 hours or maybe its the size of the previous alarm's duration?

Do you plan on having leaderboards or ways to share your constellation? If not I think that could be a feature to make the app more viral. I don't know if it would ever happen but imagine people sharing Nebula links in their Tinder bio as a way to signal healthy living...? Maybe there is a world where you pair users based on their constellation similarities. Could Nebula evolve into a dating app because maybe 'sleep patterns are actually one of the best indicators of compatibility' ? Probably far fetched and poisoning to the core idea but thought I'd share in case it plants any seeds for you.

telesilla2• 9 years ago

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of personal satisfaction? Or if I'm just in it to grow some stars, does it matter how I use the app?

mentos3• 9 years ago

Yea I guess my thought is that the 'carrot' in this system is growing a constellation. You dangle that out there as incentive for people to sleep healthy and wake up on time.

If people can circumvent the healthy sleeping by growing stars during the day then it cheapens the experience and I would argue reduces personal satisfaction for the average user.

But maybe the move is to leave the system as is and log how often users are 'cheating' the system to grow constellations and maybe the pivot is towards a game where all you do is grow stars.

bastijn• 9 years ago

Would be interesting to see if this could be linked to whatever these sleeping apps use to “measure” your sleeping rhythm. Bonus points for deep sleep etc.

Basically gamification of sleep rhythms. Of course with online leaderboards. Not sure what it means to be world #1 though ^_^. Maybe needs penalty points for too much sleep..

btbuildem• 9 years ago

Hmm not everyone sleeps the same amount of time. I have a friend for whom a healthy night's sleep is 10+ hours, with lots of daytime naps.

clearing• 9 years ago

This reminds me of apps published by ShaoKan Pi. Particularly, SleepTown.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sleeptown/id1210251567?mt=8

Can't wait to try it on iOS because I love idle-growth apps like this. Might be worth looking into how Sleeptown/Forest implement features you're interested in.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

That's a really well designed app, thanks for sharing. I really like their bedtime reinforcement mechanism. Sleep town seems to be much more focused on the scheduling aspect of sleep and reinforcing strict routines whereas at the moment Nebula is much more focused on going after the snooze button, but both of these things are quite related.

alanfriedman• 9 years ago

The testimonials section is hilarious and the app looks great too.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

thank you!

irq• 9 years ago

Could we consider adding [Android only] to the title?

federicoponzi• 9 years ago

I like the concept, and loved the reviews. Definitely gonna give it a try :)

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

much appreciated :)

SubiculumCode• 9 years ago

Not all gamification of life is a bad thing. The app seems very nice!

My problem in life is not waking up. Its going to bed early enough to get enough sleep. Encouraging an early bedtime would be a great feature :) IMO.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Really appreciate the feedback, I'm exploring several options for this that will be added in the near future and think that you're right, snooze is only half the battle.

plttn2• 9 years ago

Random note: the fact that you're showing an iPhone device frame but using Android screenshots is one of those things that makes me unreasonably unhappy.

I do like the idea of the app though.

moonka• 9 years ago

It made me go to from "damn, I want to try, but I'm android" to "woot". Love the reviews too.

pbhjpbhj2• 9 years ago

Funnily enough your complaint that the small generic rectangular outline representing a phone is the wrong brand is the sort of thing that makes me unreasonably irritated.

plttn2• 9 years ago

The problem is that even though there's Play Store and App Store badges, to me, my brain subconsciously parses "this app is available for you" based on the existence of the home button in the mockup.

I saw the home button, I assumed iOS only.

k_bx• 9 years ago

Just wanted to mention (maybe someone finds this interesting) another "sleep gamification" app Ukrainians made – http://wakeapp.com.ua/index_en.html

Every time you snooze – you donate to the Army, thus money goes to the people who make sure you sleep in piece. I find it quite nice :)

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

beautiful app, well done :)

markoutso• 9 years ago

Nice idea but not executed to it's full potential.

I use an alarm for waking up. I expect a fast, usable ui to be able to set the time fast and options like recurring alarms,weekly scheduled alarms etc.

I wouldn't replace my vendor's slick, feature full without ads app for something that is not as least as good.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Very fair, this is just version 1.0 and I have lots of plans for things I think might persuade you soon, but for now I totally understand. I'll be back

noxecanexx• 9 years ago

Is there any reason why this isn't available in Nigeria

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

very sorry about that, I'm fixing that now. I messed up the country options when I was uploading.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

it should be available now :)

firefoxd• 9 years ago

I have to mention The Alarm Clock Problem: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ebQAM5ADfYQ

Maybe a way to entice the user to sleep early in the first place could improve it.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I agree that sleep is a complicated thing and that bedtime routines are vital to overall healthy sleep habits. I think you're right and that reinforcing good sleep scheduling is the next step with the app in terms of big features

edpichler• 9 years ago

Gamefication for an alarm clock to make people wake up on time. Well done! Inspiring idea!

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

thanks very much

yulapshun• 9 years ago

Did you design the UI yourself? For me (and maybe most programmers) the hardest part of building an application is UI design. You did a really nice job.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I did do it by myself and I really appreciate you saying that. I used/modified a few icons and pictures that I found online though and their awesome creators (who released them under attribution licenses) are credited in the graphics credits section. I struggled a lot with the design and it was by far the most time consuming part of the app.

technics2562• 9 years ago

Nice! Where did you find the icons? Been looking for some for my healthcare startup website. Thaks!

technics2562• 9 years ago

Nice! Where did you find the icons? Been looking for some for my healthcare startup website. Thanks!

Waterluvian• 9 years ago

This is beautiful. Can you encourage me to get a good night's sleep somehow? Make my stars a special colour if they're made from plenty of sleep rather than just a bit of sleep?

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thank you! I have gotten a lot of awesome suggestions about the idea of reinforcing bedtime and helping promote good sleep habits and am looking in to a few options for that in future updates

lab3726• 9 years ago

Really cool idea. On the website...is there a reason an iPhone template is used to show off an app that is Android-only?

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

Thank you, the template I used had these nice phone graphics and I thought they were just generic phones because I wasn't paying attention. Going to fix that now.

greenmango333• 9 years ago

I swear by the sunshine alarm clocks. I really like it.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I've heard really great things about them

mythas• 9 years ago

I like the app but am offended by the idea of stars being made from cosmic dust. Can you add a divine intervention option?

deusum• 9 years ago

Expect DLC for polytheists in time for Xmas.

sbussard• 9 years ago

love the reviews on the site

aagha2• 9 years ago

I'm so glad to start seeing more and more apps come out on Android first. What a big change from a couple of years ago.

jerezzprime• 9 years ago

Is it possible to make it start automatically? I like that generally I don't think about my alarm on my phone, I just go to sleep and it goes off the next day.

rocketsloth59• 9 years ago

I'm considering a few options to give more freedom with the alarm (such as repeating and multiple alarms), but I'm working on making sure they integrate with the overall design and concept before jumping the gun.

superasn• 9 years ago

Only installing it because of the great testimonials it has gotten from your mom

Show HN: Nebula – Alarm clock where you grow stars while you sleep

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