Sounds like the fundamental bet here is that design and privacy are meaningful differentiators in this market.
With regard to design, Wavelength's particular, native aesthetic might have a certain kind of emotional appeal to old-school Mac and iOS users (including me), but fundamentally its conversation view works a lot like Discord's, which also supports threads and basic replies. I don't think they're going to win on "quiet" design alone.
In fact, I think their focus on "nativeness" could inhibit feature competitiveness down the line. They'll need to make compromises one way or the other, either tolerating a greater sense of "cacophony" or forgoing features that other platforms support.
Their positioning and followthrough on privacy are strong.
Although Wavelength seems to be well-crafted, I think its success, like the success of many other network-oriented products, is going to largely come down to go-to-market. As an adviser and cheerleader, John gives them meaningful reach, but whether they can capitalize on that reach will depend on whether they can build a compelling enough hook to get people to move from wherever they're having conversations today.
Yes, I've used Discord on my Mac, Linux machine, Android phone, and the web. I understand the hate on Electron apps, but being everywhere all at once is why people make that technological tradeoff. It's even more important when you only have two developers.
> Wavelength's particular, native aesthetic might have a certain kind of emotional appeal to old-school Mac and iOS users
It's not just old school. It's a "Mac-assed Mac app" [1]. Unfortunately even Apple themselves have stopped caring about making highly polished native Mac/iOS-assed apps. And that could be a huge differentiator if it wasn't just indie developers embracing this, but the platform itself.
> In fact, I think their focus on "nativeness" could inhibit feature competitiveness down the line.
Disagree on threads - it may be the same feature in name but wavelength and discord implement them very differently. Discord threads are not default whereas WL are, which means discord chats are noisy and threads are rarely used. The critique of slack/discord being very noisy is on point (I’ve heard them called ‘information treadmills’), whereas WL is more akin to a forum’s topic model but applied to chat. It seems promising
With regard to design, Wavelength's particular, native aesthetic might have a certain kind of emotional appeal to old-school Mac and iOS users (including me), but fundamentally its conversation view works a lot like Discord's, which also supports threads and basic replies. I don't think they're going to win on "quiet" design alone.
In fact, I think their focus on "nativeness" could inhibit feature competitiveness down the line. They'll need to make compromises one way or the other, either tolerating a greater sense of "cacophony" or forgoing features that other platforms support.
Their positioning and followthrough on privacy are strong.
Although Wavelength seems to be well-crafted, I think its success, like the success of many other network-oriented products, is going to largely come down to go-to-market. As an adviser and cheerleader, John gives them meaningful reach, but whether they can capitalize on that reach will depend on whether they can build a compelling enough hook to get people to move from wherever they're having conversations today.