Tact

Maker

I’ve been working on Tact with @zilmer for quite a while. So glad that we got the public beta out before the end of the year! We’ve been so focusing on the product that we haven’t condensed our messaging into a simple “why”. There’s mountains of writing on our site, but if you want a simple list for why you should care, here’s mine: - Apple only. No Android. Focus. - Straight from your device to iCloud. We never see your data. - No ads. No data harvesting. No other weird shady things. Everything clean and honest, just as you see on our site. - No new user account. You just use your iCloud account. - No discovery. No one will bother you with unwanted “connection requests”. - No private data access. We don’t ask for any data access on your device, or phone number, or anything. - Great media experience. Share any media or files, even large. - Great desktop app. - From the original designers of Skype chat, if anyone still remembers that.

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3yr ago

Primer

Songbox

@zilmer @jaanus All good but this "- Apple only. No Android. Focus." is a REAL stretch. Most folk have one device so that fact its only on apple doesn't really give focus, does it? for example if I had an apple and an android device, why would this give me more "focus"? what this does is alienate you from being able to chat to half of your contacts.

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3yr ago

Jaanus Kase

Tact

Maker

@zilmer @mickc79 very true. Also, add to the mix that the public version will be paid, whereas many other chat apps are free. So, here’s the thing. It’s my opinion that choosing your digital platform these days comes with very long strings attached, privacy and business model being the most relevant ones. I believe in the “Apple way” more than I belive in the “Android way”. (Also add desktop to the mix.) Tact intends to appeal to the people who share the same world view. I don’t plan to appeal to everyone. I recognize it’s all just that: an opinion. I don’t claim mine is the only one, or even the right one. I’m not really going to argue or fight about it. I’m glad there’s a lot of choice. I want to provide more choice in the communications space, and provide an option that perhaps some like-minded people have been missing.

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3yr ago

Primer

Songbox

@zilmer @jaanus What you have going for you that I really like is "no discovery". That is very cool and I'm absolutely not looking to argue lol As a maker myself I'm just wondering what product validation got you here? For example apart from "no discovery" which is awesome, why not use Signal?

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3yr ago

Jaanus Kase

Tact

Maker

@zilmer @mickc79 You’d have to trust Signal to use Signal. I have no doubt that Signal has many smart people working there, and their end-to-end encryption technology is top notch. Still, it’s one additional thing to trust and consider, in addition to your device platform. The neat thing about Tact and iCloud is that you only have to trust Apple, and not me. All your data lives in iCloud, and travels straight from your device to iCloud. If someone were to put a gun to my head and say, "give me all the Tact chats for Primer", I will say, "You can shoot me all you want, I just do not have this data, and no way to get it." Signal people will say the same, but the fact is that Signal data travels through Signal servers, and you have to verify their technology to have similar assurances.

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3yr ago

Anna Filou

@jaanus as you said, you still have to trust Apple… so nothing really different there. Not saying that’s a bad thing or that Tact isn’t a worthwhile endeavor. I can imagine teams who only use Apple devices and value minimalism (a design agency… maybe?) liking Tact. Personally, I can’t imagine all that many use cases (especially considering I have an Android phone) but since you’re making Tact for yourselves first and foremost (I think), none of that really matters~

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3yr ago

Lyondhür Picciarelli

I’m not sure why would I switch over from solutions that are better, complete, more inclusive and that already exist? This doesn’t seem to solve for any real problem. “We don’t do bubbles” and “markdown” are hardly any benefits worth paying for..to say the least. For an app/service that aspires to focus on messaging, perhaps a message that is a bit friendlier to the user — instead of itself — could go a long way? Although I’m an iOS user myself, the ‘moral’ reasons why it would favour one audience versus another seems to be focused more on the platform and the offer than the users themselves — which may be perceived as antagonising, fan-boyish and somewhat purposeless.

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3yr ago

Margus Holland

Honest principles, clean design, native applications – all things I value in a good app.

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3yr ago

Tact

A simple chat app