@rrhoover 's comment on @kwindla 's "Happy Birthday, Photoshop" thread got me thinking:
"I wish Product Hunt was around longer so we had more nerdy, tech archeology to explore."
The products that made an impression on us, even if they didn't make it, often inspire the next generation of apps. Also, there's something interesting about a product that you resonated with and you thought should have been huge but didn't quite make it. It's an opportunity for reflection on maybe what was missing or how your values may differ from the world or how that product may have been a glimpse of the future and ahead of its time. I subscribe to the idea that most startup ideas will happen eventually, but timing matters. You need to see into the future, but if you see too far into the future, it may take a while for that to become reality.
For me, there are lots of contenders in the consumer social space. I really loved @Clubhouse, especially in the early days of the pandemic. I thought @Airchat had a fascinating interface (twitter...but audio?). I also thought the authenticity and light attention requirements of @BeReal. was compelling. But maybe my favorite more niche product is @Honk by Benji Taylor.
Honk was real-time messaging, one-on-one, without a log. You could see people typing in realtime. You could spam emojis, and your swarm of emojis would battle comically with your friend's swarm. It was silly, and beautifully designed, and a valiant effort at breaking through our cultural tendency to regress to boring async chat.
There's also something really cool about seeing somebody type in real time. It's like seeing them think! One magic moment is when you start typing and before you can finish the idea, the other person's understood the idea and is responding. It's a funny feeling.
Plus their Twitter account was genius. It would often just tweet "Honk"
What's your favorite social app that doesn't exist anymore? What did you take away from it?
@rrhoover I'm guessing you have too many to count. @bernatfortet @kwindla @gabe
