Envolve (YC S11) Launches An API For Real-Time Chat

http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/10/yc-funded-envolve-launches-an-api-for-real-time-chat/

by nathantross • 15 years ago

159 38 15 years ago

mayop1006• 15 years ago

Hey HN - we've got some cool new developer tools now. We'd love some feedback if you guys want to give them a shot. Developers like you are our target audience.

SebMortelmans• 15 years ago

I think this is a great idea, so much potential, mainly in the community aspect.

jamest3• 15 years ago

Thanks Seb! If you have any feedback for us, please swing by the site or drop us an email!

jamest3• 15 years ago

Regarding a scaling question in the chat going on here: http://envo.lv/http://news.ycombinator.com

Check out http://www.mindlessbehavior.com for an example of a large # of concurrents.

brandnewlow• 15 years ago

And here's envolve's cool HN implementation: http://envo.lv/http://news.ycombinator.com

ay• 15 years ago

bug: requiring sign-in to continue and then putting up a popup "test"

mayop1006• 15 years ago

good catch. fixed.

staunch• 15 years ago

I hope this one makes it to its full potential. A heck of a lot more sites should have chat embedded on them than currently do. HN is a perfect example. We should have a "Chat" link in the navigation bar where we can hang out. We should be automatically signed in with our existing usernames.

A while ago I looked into doing this and were no good options. Mibbit was the closest but it's a bit ugly, doesn't have much of an API, and relies on IRC (which has pros and cons).

Personally I hate the Meebo-style bar they've implemented, but the actual chat is good and you can embed it in a page and disable the bar entirely.

mayop1006• 15 years ago

Thanks for the feedback! It's interesting you associate the toolbar approach with Meebo, rather than Facebook.

lobo_tuerto• 15 years ago

It's peculiar you find interesting he associates the toolbar approach with Meebo, rather than Facebook.

madh• 15 years ago

For me, chat toolbars that can be placed on third-party sites make me think of Meebo as well. I don't think Facebook has a third-party embeddable toolbar (yet).

rokhayakebe• 15 years ago

I remember having a holy shit moment when I tried Envolve. This is definitely one of those service you want to see succeed.

mibbit3• 15 years ago

> Mibbit was the closest but it's a bit ugly

sob :(

muuh-gnu2• 15 years ago

One man's trash is another man's treasure. I love mibbit and have been a happy user for years. It's been doing wonders for a wider acceptance of IRC.

mayop1006• 15 years ago

Hey man, don't be sad, you inspire us! : )

jodrellblank• 15 years ago

Almost 6 months. ;) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2272448

angryasian• 15 years ago

chartbeat did the exact same thing called firefly. Their implementation was almost identical to envovle, but they ultimately pivoted to what they are today.

mbesto• 15 years ago

Honest question - why do more sites need chat? Is it really something people are dying to do? I find directly chatting rather awkward when I'm not fully engaged with the person to begin with. I feel like most people start with delayed communication (message boards, email, etc) and work towards quicker means of communication (chat, video, phone, etc) only when warranted.

muuh-gnu2• 15 years ago

Mibbit has been offering such a service for years, but completely based on IRC under the hood.

endlessvoid942• 15 years ago

I'm using this on ThatHigh.com and it's awesome.

mayop1006• 15 years ago

And sending tens of thousands of messages per day I might add...

endlessvoid942• 15 years ago

:-) My users LOVE it. The new level of engagement I'm seeing is leading me to put some more work into the site and grow it a bit more.

Anyway, envolve is awesome.

walrus• 15 years ago

I think it should be more obvious that you can change your name without actually signing up for anything.

mayop1006• 15 years ago

The product itself is generally used with our API so login is automated by the site owner. On our own site we use it in its default mode where login can be done through FB or Twitter (or as a guest or our own account system)

bravura• 15 years ago

This appears to only support group chat.

What about one on one chat, like facebook? So that you can have personal conversations with other users of the site?

jazzychad• 15 years ago

You can. If you click on a username, there is a link to "Chat" which creates a one-on-one chat with them.

rorrr• 15 years ago

Ideas:

1) Allow pasting images

2) Make a simple gfx JS editor to let users make simple drawings, it's fun

3) Personal ban list + spam reporting

4) Flood control

jamest3• 15 years ago

Awesome, thanks so much for the input.

- Flood control is already baked in. 4 messages every 10 seconds is the limit.

- Pasting images gets ugly (eg porn). We'll think of a good way to do this soon.

- JS editor is a sweet idea!

- Personal ban list / spam reporting are on their way.

Thanks again.

hristov• 15 years ago

Here is a bit of 2000 bubble lore about a company that did the same thing.

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/my-name-is-james-a-and-...

I am not saying this is relvant to anything, but it is just interesting.

In any event good luck to Envolve. I am sure they will do much better than gooey, mostly because they do not require users to download or install anything.

gojomo• 15 years ago

Even earlier than Gooey was Ubique's Virtual Places.

The no-plug-in, all HTML and JS qualities of the current breed of tools – plus many more users familiar with the basic idea (from Facebook and elsewhere) – make it a much better idea now.

pacemkr• 15 years ago

"the site later allowed websites to merge the toolbar with their own user account systems — which has fared better. "

Exactly. And this puts them in an entirely different category from Meboo, etc. Anybody who ever ran a forum and has tried putting a real time chat on it will know this. TC got this slightly wrong; the only real competition out there is RealChat. There are simply no other solid solutions out there. I do this search every year and come up empty handed. As for RealChat, it is too expensive.

jswinghammer• 15 years ago

I think the only piece that's missing for me is a way to bring chat logs into my application so people can review them later. My usage will be for users to answer questions so the content will be highly relevant to users who come along when a chat isn't active.

docgnome• 15 years ago

Can someone explain to me why people keep referring to "Real-Time" chat? I've seen it multiple times and don't understand why... How is this in anyway different from just... chat. Is this some sort of buzzword bingo?

watmough• 15 years ago

This is awesome. Kinda related, I've been thinking for ages about whether one could now do encrypted chat between users in the browser, with the encryption happening at either end and the server never seeing plain-text.

Back in the real World, is there a mechanism to do a quick 'email to invite user to chat to me'? That would seem like a pretty solid way to win eyeballs.

My dad isn't on Yahoo, but he could click a link and run javascript.

Envolve (YC S11) Launches An API For Real-Time Chat

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