Amity | Messaging App, comes out of 'stealth mode'

[codo3500]

Hey guys!

I'm the Director of Marketing for Amity. As many of you know, I already have some very successful businesses, but one that I haven't been able to speak about up until now is Amity.

It's a messaging app that is miles ahead of everything on the market - and has been developed by a team of 8 guys, in a startup house, over the last 2 years - in complete secrecy.

Here's a link: https://amity.io - this link has our Pre-Launch video, and you can register to be notified when we go live. If you want to share it, you'll get a referral link, and you'll get some cool in-app goodies when we launch.

That's our pre-launch; won't be long until launch, we're just finalising everything. We'll be launching on iPhone, and also a beta on Android.

Happy to field some questions

P.S. Attached is a photo of our work/living environment - it's intense!

 

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[codo3500]

Hey guys,

We're off and running! Yep we're way past an MVP. Here we are on TechCrunch:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/02/a...ps-ios-10s-imessage-and-works-on-android-too/

That article was featured as their top article all weekend. We got picked up by a stack of other outlets, and the media is still rolling in - so is the growth.

Interesting times ahead

 

[codo3500]

Thanks for the kind words guys! Launch has been going well, stacks and stacks of emails collected for the pre-launch so far; so we'll be hitting the App Store with a burst of downloads on Day One (will easily surpass what Snapchat did in their first week).

We always have the risk of our features being copied by the big players; but if everyone let that fear stop them, we would have no more innovation. We're not looking to go head-to-head with the big guys, we're a different experience, much like Snapchat was, so it'll be interesting to see how the market responds.

As for iMessage on iOS10, we have a copy here, and it has some cool features. We're very different, and they can't implement 'too much' functionality, as it's native, and they'll scare their older users (they're already having pushback), so they have to grow out their functionality slowly, while we can go much faster. In saying that, it really highlighted to us that we're in the right space; every indicator (WhatsApp, Snapchat, iOS10 iMessage) seems to point to this being the next frontier.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

You need people like @devine to tell you where you're going in the wrong direction so you don't waste two years driving down to a dead-end.

One person's opinion doesn't make a market. I remember when Sal (@Likwid24) first launched his product. Several people laughed at it on Facebook.

I wonder what those people are doing now, several years later? Well I don't need to wonder -- they're doing the exact same thing: NOTHING. And Armchairing guys who are actually tickling the market and seeing what sticks isn't considered something.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

How exactly your app is miles ahead of everything else?
Because of "request" feature?
That's just no strong enough and this is the strongest feature you seem to have.

Thankfully your sole opinion does not make a market.

The app looks like it has potential -- you never know what might appeal to young people who have smartphones glued to their faces.

 

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[codo3500]

A damn good write up on Tech Crunch.. Congrats man! You're steps away from living the dream! Its been very cool to follow this thread. Can't wait for the update in a year or two when you get bought by google for $1bn haha

It's funny, because we've had a number of write-ups on major publications (TechCrunch included) where it's been criticized as being 'clearly a paid advertisement' because it was overly positive. We're just taking it as a massive compliment haha

 

[MJ DeMarco]

One person's knowledge is called expertise

You've confused expertise with speculation. If expertise validated an opinion as fact, every VC-funded venture would have a 100% success rate.

One person's insight can make all the difference.

Nice strawman. I never said one opinion wasn't important -- I said it doesn't make a market.

 

[codo3500]

Hey guys,

Just jumping back in. We have some very 'interesting' news coming; I'll post as soon as I'm allowed to - but Amity is all systems go.

In saying that, I've actually stepped back to focus on my Fitness business (I've done an AMA in the INSIDERS about this, but it's 7-figure, and needs my attention to get to 8-figure). I'm still super tight with the Amity team, just taken a back seat because I was spreading myself too thin.

 

[HoneyBadger]

Have you guys considered launching a minimum viable product to early adopters to test it out before you do a big launch to the public?

I think he is way past/skipped the 'minimum viable product' stage.

 

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[Scot]

A damn good write up on Tech Crunch.. Congrats man! You're steps away from living the dream! Its been very cool to follow this thread. Can't wait for the update in a year or two when you get bought by google for $1bn haha

 

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[devine]

It's a beautiful app. And if it had come out around the time as WhatsApp, we could be talking about a $1bn acquisition. But timing just sucked.

Is there a need for it? That's really for the market to decide, but so far, the market isn't talking.

"What if" is meaningless.
I just opened their website once again and there is so many things done wrong. They would fail even if they launched before WhatsApp. It's just uninviting and showcases no real reason to download the app.

For now, removing the spotlight from all this fancy and useless stuff will make them do better. If they put an emphasis on "request" feature and develop this idea into something worthy - they will get their cut of the pie.
Feel sorry for these guys, must have spent a lot of cash on something that doesn't work and was never intended to work.

Maybe I seem rude with what I say, but real world is even more rude.

 

[Scot]

My business partner and I originally thought about trying to compete with whatsapp, but glad we didn't. The feature we wanted to sell hard was the ability to "unsend" a text to someone. Consider that a free idea haha Could be a cool add on feature.

 

[codo3500]

For real! What we really need to know is how he got Tech Crunch to run that article...

Persistence. Serious persistence.

 

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[Guest34764]

I would tell you good luck, but you didn't get anywhere in 2 years with just luck.

I can't really offer advice, but I know you'll crush this market man.

 

[hughjasle]

Doesn't look like this thread is on the inside so not sure what you can really divulge, but how are you guys marketing for this?

Are you following more of a brand awareness model, or a direct sales model?

Would love to know more about the marketing aspects of something like this. Not sure it will ever be useful to me but would be fun to read

 

[codo3500]

Doesn't look like this thread is on the inside so not sure what you can really divulge, but how are you guys marketing for this?

Are you following more of a brand awareness model, or a direct sales model?

Would love to know more about the marketing aspects of something like this. Not sure it will ever be useful to me but would be fun to read

We've been getting a lot of media attention, we were featured at the top of TechCrunch as a featured article all of last weekend; plus plenty of other major outlets. The app is growing organically though, it has a lot of in-built sharing functionality; so obviously network effects kick in as we grow

 

[devine]

Well damn. This is depressing. I went to check it out on the App Store to see how it was doing. 0 reviews. I think this is a case of just horrible timing. It launched weeks before IOS 10 which completely overhauled the messages app.

Hope I'm proven wrong!

Well, that was expected.

It happens when a start-up is nothing but a circle-jerking.
Guys have a whole team doing what has no need on the market and offer nothing to the market.

 

[GuestUser155]

This thread is a good example of three things:

1). Don't operate in a vacuum. Total secrecy, why? You need people like @devine to tell you where you're going in the wrong direction so you don't waste two years driving down to a dead-end.

2). Don't wait to polish your product before releasing. You don't know what reactions the market will have to the features you've created, so why waste the time to polish them to shine? Barebones and get it out as fast as you can to start getting a reading of where you stand.

Two years. Hot damn.

3). "Attaboy"s only go so far. It's great and all to be a mother-figure and unconditionally support each other, but then how would this forum be different from any other casual friend? Being blunt will give them temporary pain to avoid a more long-term one.

I don't know anything about your product, so all I can say is: Good luck.

 

[codo3500]

How exactly your app is miles ahead of everything else?
Because of "request" feature?
That's just no strong enough and this is the strongest feature you seem to have.

This is just a teaser video. Compared with FB Messenger for example; we have live mode with additional interactivity, reactions, ephemeral emojis, photo filters, postcards, request functionality, plus lots of other little pieces. Considering WhatsApp's domination, we're a much more user friendly and functional app. Time will tell

 

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[kkompoti]

looks really nice! you even found a way to put more value to emojis! Congrats!

 

[MitchC]

My business partner and I originally thought about trying to compete with whatsapp, but glad we didn't. The feature we wanted to sell hard was the ability to "unsend" a text to someone. Consider that a free idea haha Could be a cool add on feature.

Thats a good idea, even just the option to delete it from their phone at any point.

 

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[Liberty T. Vance]

My business partner and I originally thought about trying to compete with whatsapp, but glad we didn't. The feature we wanted to sell hard was the ability to "unsend" a text to someone. Consider that a free idea haha Could be a cool add on feature.

You can do this with WeChat...

 

[Jake]

End to end encryption? It was whatsapps big move not too long ago https://www.whatsapp.com/faq/en/general/28030015 and should be required for anyone looking to enter the space imo.

 

[HoneyBadger]

A damn good write up on Tech Crunch.. Congrats man! You're steps away from living the dream! Its been very cool to follow this thread. Can't wait for the update in a year or two when you get bought by google for $1bn haha

For real! What we really need to know is how he got Tech Crunch to run that article...

 

[codo3500]

Is there any tips on how you guys received media attention? Or is it just by sending emails constantly?

I think a lot of people go 'shotgun approach' sending generic emails to a stack of journalists; rather than working out who your ideal journalists are (based on their previous stories), and trying to build a relationship prior to you actually needing anything. It's time consuming, but you start to get a feel for the "Who's who" as far as journalists go in your industry.

 

[Scot]

It's a beautiful app. And if it had come out around the time as WhatsApp, we could be talking about a $1bn acquisition. But timing just sucked.

Is there a need for it? That's really for the market to decide, but so far, the market isn't talking.

 

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[Kabylfx]

Well damn. This is depressing. I went to check it out on the App Store to see how it was doing. 0 reviews. I think this is a case of just horrible timing. It launched weeks before IOS 10 which completely overhauled the messages app.

Hope I'm proven wrong!

I don't know about the app store but it seems to be doing pretty fine on play store. Averaging around 10000 downloads and 180 reviews.

 

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[devine]

How exactly your app is miles ahead of everything else?
Because of "request" feature?
That's just no strong enough and this is the strongest feature you seem to have.

 

[Supa]

App looks like it really has potential.. I also don't think that just because you have a messaging app has to mean that you're competing with WhatsApp.. look at Snapchat, people are still using WhatsApp like they did before, they are just using Snapchat too. Give people a reason to add your app to their list of messaging apps and there's no reason why they shouldn't love it as much as they love their WhatsApp and Snapchat.

I wish you the best with your app, if you get it out there the right way I can really see it being used by young people.

 

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[AlexCph]

Looks great. The teaser video works well imo. Please make sure to make a temporary pic sending mode so NSFW pics auto delete after a certain amount of time. I missed this feature sorely today while chatting to a girl on FB messenger

 

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