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HiHello — Exchange contacts, seamlessly.
HiHello is building the next generation professional network that focuses on allowing people to optimize their business relationships. On HiHello you can create your own digital business cards, scan paper cards, and have an address book that’s always updated.
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Emanuele Ricci
As far as I can see you're not handling well internationial phone number (Italian). I cannot add them to my account.
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@manukumar I have the same problem. I can't add an international phone number in the format of +xx xxxx xxxx
@manukumar @tushar_khandelwal Hi All, thank you very much for your use! You are correct, we have to improve our handling of international phone numbers! We will work to resolve this and notify you when the fix is in effect, thanks again for trying us out, and hope to make a smooth experience for you!
Product Hunters! Hi. Hello.
This is Manu from HiHello. Excited to have you take a look at the HiHello app.
Here's a little more of the backstory for how this came about. For as far back as I can remember, I've had a love-hate relationship with business cards. At one point the entire side of my desk was full of a sea of business cards. I figured that even if I was able to scan a card every 5-10 seconds it would still take weeks to get through all the cards. Worse yet, the scans would never be accurate. So in 2009 I co-founded CardMunch to solve this problem. We launched our product in August 2010 and a few months later were acquired by LinkedIn in January 2011.
LinkedIn talked a big game about how they were going to distribute and offer the product to their 500M users. Instead they proceeded to ruin and kill the product. They eventually gave it to Evernote. I was more than peeved, and worse yet, my problem still hadn't been solved.
Last year, when I was playing with the iOS 11 beta I accidentally discovered that the native camera on iOS11 is now capable of reading QR codes. Around the same time I was introduced to Hari Ravi, who was interested in co-founding a company. Hari and I got to chatting about startup ideas and we both felt that the business card problem has just never had a good solution.
There have been lots of attempts and lots of interesting ideas in this space, like Plaxo, Bump and CardMunch along the way, but none of those exist today. That just didn't make any sense to us. Together we decided to take on this problem one more time. And with that HiHello was born. This time we decided to try something different and try to remove the need for paper business cards to start. Please see the full blog post linked above that talks about this.
We're a small team of of 5 and we're determined to make a dent in this space. The app you see on ProductHunt today is our first public release. It's just a starting point along our long roadmap of features we want to build. We want to do that with your feedback.
So please help us, by trying out the app and emailing us your feedback at support@hihello.me. We promise to read every single email we receive and give it full consideration as we prioritize what features to build next.
Oh, and if you like what you see, we'd welcome the upvote on PH as well.
On behalf of the HiHello team,
Thank you!
Manu Kumar
Co-founder, HiHello
@shreyaa_ratra Thank you for the pointer to Eight. Impressed to see that it has over 2M users. Eight seems focused on scanning paper business cards. Our goal with HiHello is to help reduce the need for having business cards altogether and to bring contact sharing into the digital age. We enable users to create multiple cards that can contain the information they want to share with different types of people they meet in different contexts. The realization that people have different personas is a big part of why we created HiHello.
Hope you get to try the product and we look forward to hearing your feedback.
@hihello @manukumar I also recently made a similar product, KCards: https://kcards-server.herokuapp.com
available both on android and iOS
@mcflydev thanks for checking out HiHello!
We specifically designed it such that the recipient does NOT have to have the same app. The recipient can use just the camera app on their phone (on iOS) to scan the codes generated by the HiHello app. On Android the recipient can use any QR reader (available natively in some devices, requires a special app on others as the Android ecosystem is a bit fragmented).
Additionally, you can also share via email/text message and we ensure that when you do, the phone number and email connected to your phone are not shared (the share is from HiHello instead)
In the future, if both people do have the app, we will have some special sauce to make the exchange even more magical.
Thanks for trying us out!
Sorry but this solves a non existing problem. There have been hundreds of bussines card killer apps in the past, and so far, people still love to have real life bussines cards. I don't expect random people to have this app, and the process of handing out the business card is way easier than making someone register for an account and download your app. Sorry but I won't be using it in the closer future.
@edinvejzovic To clarify, only the sender needs to have the app. The recipients can scan their code, or receive the card via text message or email. The goal with the initial app launch is to allow users to curate multiple cards that they can easily share with the people they meet in different contexts.
@edinvejzovic Hi Edin, thanks for your feedback and candor! I will say contact exchange is just the tip of the iceberg for us, and we plan to release many more features that hopefully you will use, though I understand where you are coming from, and hope to add to the product and create a tool that can help you! Also, what are your thoughts on having multiple business cards depending on the context that you are in (i.e. a "personal" card, a work card, etc.). Thanks again for your comment and appreciate the honesty and straightforwardness!
This is a super cool concept and well executed. I meet a lot of people so this has been great and quickly became a habit. I really like that I can just choose what I want to share with someone, tell them to point their phone's camera at the code, and boom they get my contact info! No need for them to have HiHello (though they usually ask how I did that).
Pros:I can easily share my contact info with people that don't have the app
Cons:None. Want more features though.
Pros: pretty easy organization
Cons: I don't seem to be able to add my professional headshots from Android phone. I can't figure out how to access anything later than 2 months, and my headshots were in May.
Also, if I'm exchanging biz info, it's likely at an event. How do I code the event into the contact? Or multiple contacts? If I meet a bunch of people at a networking event, or SWSX, or a party, I'd like to remember that.
@positivelysue Appreciate the feedback Sue. We'll look into the older images issue.
We recognize the need you're describing for event and will have new features to address those.
I've been using this in TestFlight for a couple months now, and it's pretty darned cool.
If you meet someone with an iPhone, they just need to use their built-in camera app to get your contact info. It's a little tougher for Android users who aren't in the tech world (they need an app that can read QR codes, and they need to know how to make it do it), but it's light years ahead of apps where everyone you meet already needs to be using the app for it to be useful.
Once folks do have it installed (and they will, because it's much easier than handing my phone to someone so they can type in their email address), it'll get even better!
I was secretly planning to do exactly this sort of app! Great! Although, I already have my contact bio etc. of myself on iOS. I don’t want to retype/copy that again. Also not clear how this is monetized. Little fearful of contact info.
@tiborudvari Appreciate the feedback on not having to retype. We've tried to make the onboarding smooth, while respecting that people may not want to give access to their contacts as that's a much bigger ask for us to make. In order for us to pull from iOS Contacts we would need to ask for permission to access all contacts.
We have three core value for our company -- Love, Trust, and Value. We want to build a product that people love, and be a company/product that people trust, and deliver value to our users that they are willing to pay for. So to answer your second question regarding monetization, HiHello will be adding premium features in the future targeted at business users. That's how we will monetize.
Thanks for asking!
@tiborudvari @manukumar I think I'd actually prefer to re-type, to insure I'm sharing exactly what I want with each person. I would want different profiles for different uses, such as personal, work, a non-profit I volunteer for, etc.
That said I'm having trouble actually using the app. First I entered an e-mail address that goes to my computer, not my phone (nothing specified it needed to be accessed on the phone). Then I entered an address I check on my phone, but in the mail app the link didn't work for some reason.
I would just add that while it's great that the recipient doesn't need the app (at least on iOS), and maybe the person would be so impressed they'd get the app for the next person they need to exchange contact info with, I still expect to need to enter lots of info from business cards. It would be great if there was a card scanning feature. I could see some nice features in collecting all cards/contact info from specific events (conference, tradeshow), or from specific companies, etc.
@tiborudvari @manukumar What kind of payable features can be in such simple app?
@trauring Sorry to hear you had trouble with the signup email link! We've had a handful of users who've run into this issue and we're trying to track it down (it doesn't happen with everyone and so we're still trying to replicate it on our end to figure out what's causing it). If you're willing, we'd welcome getting a screenshot of the issue you saw so we can dig into it deeper and followup. We're at support@hihello.me
This is an initial launch and we have a lot more features on our roadmap, some of which I have a feeling that you're going to like! :)
@tiborudvari @manukumar @trauring Thank you very much for your feedback Phillip and for being a user! You are unable to actually access the app (the link in the mail does not work? Do you get to a page "You'll need to open this device on a link with HiHello installed". Also appreciate the comments on card scanning, querying people from events, etc. ... these are all great suggestions, and we have a long roadmap where we hope to deliver to you some of the features you are looking for ;)
@manukumar @HiHello I look forward to trying this one. It seems like it covers all the complaints I had with Bump, though I loved Bump and helped spread it all over our tech circles here and around our incubator in Athens GA. I have two suggestions if you'd like them. I started typing them up here, but they are too detailed, so i've worked up an email if you like it. let me know and great job. congrats. Nelson Wells
@nelson_wells Would welcome your suggestions and feedback! Please email us at support@hihello.me .
this seems more like a feature that could be inside LinkedIn than product – what am i missing?
@tomfme I wish LinkedIn would have done this right, as then we wouldn't have to do this yet again. I literally walked them through the entire roadmap in 2010 when they acquired my previous company CardMunch.
You're not missing anything! It's big companies like LinkedIn that are missing something :-)
Disclosure: I am an investor in HiHello. I’ve been using this app since its earliest versions and it’s great. I seem to never have my cards when I need them, but I always have my phone. This problem has bugged me for years and others, like Bump, have tried to solve it. HiHello is the first to crack the bootstrap problem, giving users immediate value without needing others to have the app (though things will be even better once they do). There’s an ‘aha moment’ when people see how easy it is to add my info right into their contacts. Can’t wait to see new features roll out and for more people to get the app!
Pros:No need to carry business cards. Can share contacts with people who don't have the app.
Cons:Looking forward to more features and users.
Hi guys, it's cool ta through away all cards and save some trees) I have a problem with paper cards, so it Ok to use such App, but I don't want to tell other person install the App. How I can get person ID or card if they don't have the App?
@alexey_bargin Only you need to have the app. The recipient can use the camera on their iPhone or any QR reader on Android to scan and receive your card. If they don't have a QR reader, you can also send them your card via text message or email.
Hope that clarifies and would welcome you trying the app.
There is a true painpoint and a good initiative- but I don't see this product addressing one of the most fundamental needs - verifying the authenticity of a card. That is one of the key things that a business card achieves, especially when an interaction is not 1/1 and in conferences etc where the need to share is often and instant. True, one can print any biz card, but they would think twice distributing something like this on paper. There is the need to validate auth of a claim made in each card at any given time before sharing. Else, anyone can say anything and the connections you make won't make much of a diff. So, I would suggest adding some work email authentication and challenge/resp periodically to make sure cards are accurate. Also, there is a need to differentiate a bit - I can create QR code of my LinkedIN, save it on MS OfficeLens and share at will using the exact same mechanisms just as easily.
@ramtwter Appreciate and agree with your point about verification. We have a different way in which we will be addressing that in the near future. That feature isn't ready yet, but it's on our roadmap.
You'll also start to see more product differentiation over the coming months. This is an initial release, mostly because we want to engage with users to get feedback so that we can help prioritize the order in which we build additional features.
We hope you will try the app and continue to give us feedback as it evolves.
@ramtwter Anyone can also print a physical business card. It doesn't prove a person really works at a specific company if they have a card that says they do. Cards are pretty cheap to print and somebody could even print some themselves..
Always interested to see potential solutions to this problem. It's 2018 and I still use business cards pretty widely. Will download and see how I like it.
@ericscotttaylor Thank you Eric, we really appreciate it! Let us know what you think/what features you'd like to make HiHello a useful tool for you, thanks again and hope you enjoy!
@ross Thank you Ross! Hope you like the app. Would welcome your feedback. We're just getting started and are committed to building the best experience to finally solve this problem that's been nagging me for decades!
@lileeayee The international phone numbers is a bug. We're fixing that this week and will have an update out soon. This is a very early release of the app as we wanted to get more user feedback. Would love to hear more about what else you would like to see in the app. Thank you for checking it out!
@lileeayee Thank you Lilia for your feedback and four trying out our app! We have noted this international number issue, and we definitely have many more features to release/a long roadmap ahead of us, and hope to provide you with value, stay tuned!
huh. Nice try ) - we almost finished the same app but with quite more functionality. Desire to connect with you and talk. It is very strange - but the way of our thinking is totally the same. I saw your other posts - and we have a lot of common ideas - it is magically
@pavlo_baranovskyi Glad to hear that we're both trying to solve this problem. It's been bothering me for a long time now!
The idea of sharing contact information is cool--but there is already an app called Index - Connect that is doing it much better than this app. I think it's weird to have the app not have a built in scanner. Index Connect let's you scan directly into the app or your contacts. Additionally, the social media links actually open in your Instagram/Snapchat/Spotify app!
This app seems to be a poor ripoff of Index connect. Not sure why it is more popular
Pros:Nice looking app
Cons:Lacking the features that it's competitors have, doesn't integrate built in scanner
Just made my card on HiHello...googled HiHello and Linked in to understand what has transpired and found linked in is using the catch phrase HiHello and linked in is hiring people .I am not technical and am learning how to be apart of this virtual community .I dont use linked in .
Also I would expect the app to fetch real location from Google Maps and suggest me the precise one
@stermi Good point. We've been cautious about what permissions we ask users for as a lot of users are hesitant to share their location information with the app unless there is a high value for it. We'll consider this feedback though as we look at adding more features that can also benefit from knowing the users location.