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Relay — An extension that adds Discord-style chat to every website
Relay is a browser extension that adds anonymous, live chat to every website, so you can chat with everyone else on the same site. Relay eliminates the gap between browsing the Internet and talking about it.
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Bona
This is an awesome concept, and I can already see a lot of use cases. Do you have any new features in the pipeline?
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Hi Andro, thanks for your question! Here are just a few of our plans in ascending order of excitement:
* better search (e.g., you could search some Python documentation to see if anyone has asked the same question);
* auto-generating FAQs for a given site (goes hand-in-hand with search);
* opening our API and building a platform for bot developers;
* making Relay available as a script tag, so all visitors of a given website can join the chat (not just users who have downloaded the extension).
Hope you’re as pumped about these features as we are!
@sam_winter I came here to suggest the ability to implement as a script, good to know it's already something that's on your minds!
@sam_winter Having it "installed" on my website would be really cool! I see as a community-driven Interconn and that is awesome :) very promising.
Also, to make it better for support teams, it would be nice to have a Browser PUSH Notification when new questions arrives.
@douglasschmidt that's a great idea! I think browser push notifications are really underrated. I'll add it to our Trello :).
@toshvelaga that's the tough part. Hopefully Product Hunt helps a lot. Like any chat product, it requires a critical mass of users. We're hoping that once that kicks in, it snowballs from there primarily from word of mouth.
@toshvelaga @sam_winter You might want to think about an invite system. Connecting to Gmail, facebook, or twitter could allow you to ask your network about the website while sending out invites.
@jeffreykaine that's a great idea. Thanks for the suggestion. We need to get that growth engine up to full speed asap to ensure the network becomes even more valuable.
This is incredible - so many use cases! Can’t wait to see how it grows. What’s your plan to monetize?
@bennycondon thank you! Same here. We can monetize in at least a couple of different ways. We can sell digital goods to end users, and to website owners, we can sell tools for lead generation, engagement, support, etc. There are still a lot of specifics to be determined, but that's what we're thinking so far.
Love it, it's like Yakalike (https://lifehacker.com/download-...) from 15 years ago. Only thing I dislike is that there's no guest mode..
@ronyfadel Thank you for the feedback! I'll definitely study Yakalike. We'll consider adding guest mode. Could be pretty powerful to lower the barrier to chat.
@lif_ted agreed, social login will become especially important as we start to build out profiles.
@sam_winter great idea. Sadly it only works for domains and not URL's =/ For example » just one chat for all videos on youtube is too general. would be nice to chat with people watching the same video. on the other hand it could resolve into always empty relay chat.
But if you would provide a switch (domain/URL) that would be pretty neat I guess.
@hi_iamben that's a great point. We do plan to provide path-based channels on a case-by-case basis once a certain domain reaches critical mass.
Thanks for hunting us, @kevin! And thanks @wheeling51 for your help on the thumbnail!
Hi Product Hunt! 😻
This is a dream come true. I’m so excited to launch Relay, a browser extension that adds chat to every website. With Relay, every domain has a built-in, chat-based community that’s at most a click away. Think of it like embedded Discord in your browser, where the channel is whatever website you’re on. People are chatting live right now on producthunt.com!
We built Relay to provide a categorically more seamless social experience. We’ve given every domain its own community in a web that’s increasingly dominated by only a few unscrupulous social platforms. We couldn’t be more excited to have you join us.
People are already using Relay to get help on Stackoverflow, engage with their own site’s visitors, watch shows together on Netflix, solicit career advice on LinkedIn, talk to other developers on localhost, instantly connect in online classrooms, leave their mark on Google, and pretty much anything else you can think of.
It would mean the world to us if you helped us by sharing Relay, whether on social media or offline with your friends. A community is only as great as its members, and I’m sure you all know some great people!
If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment below or chat with me on Relay.
- Sam
@sam_winter Hey Sam! I thought of this idea back in 2016 and noticed some other people tried it before as well (https://www.forbes.com/sites/eri...).
I loved the idea and thought it was so cool, my app was going to be called UbiqiChat hehe.
I never decided to pursue making it because I saw that the other people who tried it, it didn't take off and I couldn't find a way to monetize it.
I'm glad that you are making it and it seems like your are going to make it right!
How do you plan on monetizing?
@james_osullivan thank you for the question and your kind words! There's a graveyard of failed website-specific chat ideas. They fail for two reasons: they can't reach critical mass (most common) or they become toxic (Dissenter).
Much of our secret sauce for monetizing and growth and even moderation to some extent will be selling Relay as a widget. We've built a prototype and are putting in some finishing touches.
The idea is amazing! it's a very powerful tool.
Are there any restrictions to avoid exposing sensitive data or personal information?
@laura_martinezo Thank you! As an anonymous platform, we try to store as little personal information as possible on our end (just email--which we don't verify--and associated IP addresses). If someone leaks personal info in a public chat, we'll do our best to warn them and remove the message.
Hi @sam_winter, two questions.
- Could there be a way to reposition or change where and how we access Relay? It being right on the spot where a lot of websites put fixed CTA buttons is not the best approach imo.
- I also cannot find a way to delete my account. That's bad UI/UX.
Thanks.
@simonp thank you for your questions! For now, you can always drag the Relay button out of the way. We're considering adding a setting that would allow you to choose in which corner of the screen you'd like the button to appear. Unfortunately account deletion is a corner we cut to get to MVP. I agree that it's bad UX so we'll knock it out asap. This will become increasingly important as profiles become more personalized.
Extremely impressive, guys. I remember an idea sorta like this crossing my mind last year and my brain instantly melting out my ears as I thought about how to pull it off. This is so cool and so well done.
@greggblanchard Thank you so much! That means a lot. I think the only reason we've been able to get this far is because we didn't realize how hard it would be at the outset 😅.
Have been following this project for around a year now. Really impressed with the project and how intuitive it is to use.
@yogert96 Thanks for being there from the start! We'll do our best to keep things simple even as we scale.
Cool idea! I think there will need to be a way to focus conversation. Otherwise it will just be a lot of "hi", "hello", "what's up". Unlike a live event or live stream, there isn't a single thing everyone is watching and can comment on
Also, the bottom right placement goes over a lot of the site chat icons (intercom, drift, etc)
@robmoore That's a great point. Hopefully the "hi"s start to die down after launch day. We'll also break the conversation by path etc. (e.g., subreddit-specific chat) on a case-by-case basis as we grow. As far as the placement, you can drag the button around. You can also toggle Relay's visibility by clicking its icon in the browser menu.
This is one of the geniusest (does the word exist?) things i've ever seen. Kudos. I really hope you can make it super viral.
Thank you! We'll do our best. It certainly helps to have such enthusiastic users :)
@sam_winter i fell in love with the product at first sight.... but on day 2 i found out relay keeps records of all sites you have used relay on... it would be awesome to add option to stay anonymous. 2) how about an option for sites to display the chat widget so users can also access this even when on mobile? 3)good job :-)
@lif_ted Thank you for voicing your concern! I'm curious why you think we keep records of the sites you've used Relay on? The only association with your user account to a given site is if you send a message there because we have to store the message object. On non-Firefox browsers we do use Google Analytics, but we give you the option to opt out in your extension settings.
We're working on a script-tag version of Relay so any site owner can add chat for all their visitors on desktop and mobile.
Glad to hear you fell in love with Relay! We'll do everything we can to keep you that way :)
@sam_winter Apologies i was not quite clear, clicking on any user shows all sites the user has made comments on, so an option to delete my posts or not to display all my chat history on various sites to all, could be available.
I am sure i am not alone in this boat.
You have the future of chat right here... good job once again. cheers!!!
@lif_ted oh I see. Thanks for sharing your concern. You can delete individual posts. We'll look into deleting in bulk. We added history to each user's profile to hopefully discourage them from being jerks.
And thank you. We sure hope so!
I love this! As someone said in the chat, this could be insane for quick community help. Think Stackoverflow but live chat.
Just started the channel on my own website https://urbanhunt.co ... Free trails for anyone who cats on there 🎉
@mikelholford Thank you! Just sent a chat there. Looks like a cool site :D
This is seriously the coolest new thing I've seen in a VERY long time. Major kudos to the Relay crew.
Very forward thinking project. Love the direction they are taking. The future of the internet is going to be agnostic overlays over everything from websites, games, apps, VR/AR, and other devices. Can't wait to see more of this type of development.
Pros:
- It gives the internet back to people to some degree in a nostalgic manner. It allows you to use websites, communicate, and connect like you could in the early days, on your terms without platform capture and communication monopolization/balkinization.
- Smooth UI, easy to use, light weight.
Cons:
- It is going to get difficult to self moderate as it scales and will likely need to fall back on some sort of private rooms. This could have some strange unintended side effects where influential groups of people dominate the conversation on a single website in the public channels.
- A lot of difficult UI/UX trade-offs will have to be made eventually
- Platforms like this tend to get persecuted when certain ideological groups move in. Will be fascinating to see the direction this takes to ensure it stays open and flexible.
Overall, the cons are longer term and general open platform concerns more than anything. These issues could be solved the same way similar problems were solved on IRC. Though this may sacrifice it's simplicity and elegance at some level. Not much to do there. Scaling is scaling and I see this platform going far. So this is a good problem to have. Cheers! Loving it so far 😎
Hey Brady,
Thank you so much for your comment! It really means a lot, especially coming from one of our long-time users! I hope you’re right about the development/trend of agnostic overlays.
I totally agree with you about the perils of ideological domination. It’ll be difficult to moderate conversations across the whole Internet and maintain a culture that’s open and inclusive, but we have some strategies/lead bullets that should help.
I’m looking forward to seeing how the product develops as it’s informed by user feedback. Excited to continue chatting with you as Relay scales :)
Oh my goodness! I can picture myself on some obscure documentation website and scratching my head about some aspect of the page then... BOOM! Someone else is on this page! Maybe they can give me a hand!
@eric_froese This was literally the impetus for Relay! I read one too many obscure documentation websites.
@masonwright40 thank you! We're working on that right now. You can sign up to get notified when we launch here: https://relaychat.app/coming-soon
I guess i'm not getting the execution on this though? I get the tech stack, I get all the use cases, but don't both "chatters" have to have the extension installed? Therefore, it's going to be like building a marketplace...you'll need huge scale and distribution to make this relevant....
@askmesaas you're totally right that this is a particularly difficult cold-start problem (which is why I think this type of product hasn't been successful previously). One way we plan to tackle that issue is by making Relay available as a script tag, so website owners can unlock a chat community with a single tag. We're working on that right now.
@sam_winter Right on. I'm a fan either way and the use cases are really staggering tbh. Single tags, APIs etc, all good ways to make this dead simple if you can. I wish you guys success!
Are you guys planning to add mobile support? E.g. thin layer over the default in-app web browser. Would love to support you guys with Flutter or React Native.
@markus_saitmacher1 I think mobile is a must for chat. Would love to pick your brain on the implementation.