I was studying more about graphql, having used it for years. There has been many phases of critiques towards the technology/paradigm; however, there is something interesting about it's role in a world of agentic AI.
If queries can be dynamically written on the fly, we wouldn't need automation/agent to interact with the UI (as is the case with chatGPT operator or anthropic computer use). Instead, an intelligence layer for the frontend could dynamically query based on a graphQL schema and render with some basic html elements.
Philosophy: building on current platforms limits solution sets and only gives you primitives that they thought of. I built 15+ variants of software versions tangential to flowy. It always limits experience. This doesn't mean everything should be it's own hardware. I just believe that human to human commz should be put higher on the hierarchy than, say your calculator.
Practical answer: we want to do cool things like "hover over keypad and say a name" and then you can talk to them. Only possible when we build the whole stack.
Re focus: yep I understand. I guard my own deep work time very well.
Here are concepts of the protocol that we poorly explain on the landing page:
1. You tune into you're top-of-mind folks. This set of people is different for everyone and it changes project to project. But it's generally only 5-8 people. If your device is ON and you are not in another conversation, these people (and any combination of them) can get to you instantly.
2. Other people have to send you voice messages.
3. When you press the play button, you only go through all of your top-of-mind peoples' messages. Then there is a filter called "inbox" for "others".
4. If you press the flash button on the keyboard, you are OFF. Everyone sees a "-" for you. You don't hear anything.
So in aggregate, although it doesn't seem so at first glance, I built flowy so that there is less noise. We following "less is more" principle a lot more than it seems. It's just the sound of your people: no notifications, no fake AI voice assistant sound. This being said, I realize that we do not do a good job of articulating how everything works, so we will make a full demo video at the end of the year.
Founders/leaders of funded startups (<100 people) who feel like their teams are stuck and the right stuff isn't being done.
They pay thousands per employee on saas tools + remote office reimbursements + give iphones and cell plans to their employees. What flowy offers is (hopefully) priceless to them; that is, if the promise is fulfilled. They want to try it for a few teams for a couple months, and go from there.
IMHO, we underrate how much we invest in commz. Human to human commz is worth more than any computing tool. What is an organization without people collaborating? A band where everyone's playing solo. This is part of our philosophy :)
Founders of funded startups (<100) who feel like their teams are stuck and the right stuff isn't being done.
They pay thousands per employee on saas tools + remote office reimbursements + give iphones and cell plans to their employees. What flowy offers is (hopefully) priceless to them; that is, if the promise is fulfilled. They want to try it for a few teams for a couple months, and go from there.
I am with you on this. I went with this as I personally feel I don't want another battery device to maintain and charge.
I also want to make sure that those who use the keypad are 99% at their home desk because we can nail that experience better than building a mobile variant right now. I'm planning a mobile version (keyfob/earpiece) for the future that would cover a wider audience's needs.
However, perhaps eventually there will be a battery variant; from an engineering perspective, it adds complexity to make sure that it lasts and handles different environments. I thought about adding battery and giving customers a wireless charging pad so that it can just sit on it. But I told myself, for v1, let's just make it stationary just like mechanical keyboards; reliable, simple, minimal.
Yeah interesting things happen over time in terms of culture. Nextel got bought by Sprint and their ideology vanished.
Knowledge work, for example, found email and hung onto this. All of a sudden, we lost simplicity and are in this bubble of noisy "software interfaces" being the standard.
Perhaps it's just that newer generations don't know how things used to work, and the old people are retired or can't do much about it?
Love the insight. You are correct, the "workflow" is the essence. I call this the protocol, and I've spent thousands of hours on this alone.
I have different approaches on screen + commz combo that uphold flowy's product principles of keeping it lightweight, and augmenting human conversation. Your idea around this is really interesting; I agree that this is a "killer" feature if done right.
Our bet: flowy is what loom users have been reaching for, but haven't been given.