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p/switchboardTurns your phone into a hands free intercom
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Matt Mazzeo

Switchboard - Turn your phone into a handsfree intercom

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Switchboard is your instant voice network. It gives you a hands-free intercom between close friends and colleagues to let you chat more spontaneously, as though you're in the same room. You control your availability so that you're easy to reach when you want and you can focus when you need.

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marymin
I've been using this for a few weeks with my husband and it's a huge hit in our house! Previously we had set up a private Discord server but found the constant connection distracting with no privacy. With Switchboard I can reach him whenever I need, even if he's got headphones on, without yelling at the top of my voice inside the house. He's happy to not have a yelling wife. 😄 It's also been good to use while coordinating with a remote engineering team, and has replaced our persistent Google Hangouts group. Engineers can focus on work, I can reach them whenever I need, it's a win win. Great product.
Jim Rand
Maker
@marymin at home use case and remote work, love it... looking forward to see if others use it in both a work and personal / social context!
Jim Rand
Maker
Hi Hunters! We set out to build something that would change the way we use our voice to communicate. We started with the idea that the most important people in your life, whether they are friends, family or colleagues, no matter where they are, should be available without needing to schedule specific times to meet. What we ended up with is Switchboard, an intercom for your phone that lets you talk to your important contacts instantly when they are available. It is a seemingly simple concept, but thanks to presence indication and other features that make it faster than normal calls or video meetings, it enables more spontaneous conversation as if you’re in the same room. (We also have some really exciting features in the dev builds that will be released into the wild soon...). Our team has been using the product and iterating to build the perfect tool for our own needs. And as a distributed team working on Switchboard from 6 different cities, we put this product through the wringer on a daily basis. Just like Slack, it takes time to work into your normal routines. But also like Slack, once it becomes a part of your routines, you don’t know how you survived without it. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Hope you like it! See you on Switchboard, Jim
Resh Wallaja
@jimsrand Great stuff! We have a team that's spread out geographically. Assembling people into a call is extremely clunky. When people want to talk, they don't like waiting, and every action (unlock, select app, contact drive up friction and drives down engagement). Over time I have used every type of chat/voice tool (Skype (hate it), Viber, messenger, original Google Chat/Talk, new voice, hangouts, meeting etc.) . Right now we like Facebook's Workplace/Workchat and Whatsapp. Last year I tried to bring Discord into the company and it was awful. The UI/UX was horrible. Your app looks great. I'm going to try it with some team members today. I'll keep you posted. Cheers Resh
Jim Rand
Maker
@resh awesome, excited to help solve your communication issues. By all means feel free to reach out to myself or one of the makers on SB and we'll make sure we help to iron out any wrinkles. Thanks!
Michael Reynolds
Maker
@jimsrand @resh Hi Resh - wanted to follow up with you and see if you'd be around for a quick chat about what worked / didn't work about Switchboard. I just sent you a friend request on Switchboard, but if you'd rather chat over email I respond to feedback@synervoz.com. Thanks very much in advance for your time.
Jonah Blankenship
@jimsrand I have an idea, could you contact me privately?
Matt Mazzeo
Hunter
Congrats on the launch team! Things I’m most excited about here: 1. Starting a group voice chat with the ease of sharing a link. It’s bit.ly for phone calls. 2. Taking the friction out of “calling someone” when you’re working in small groups, especially remote. 3. Awesome feature being built into next version 🤯
Jim Rand
Maker
@mazzeo Thanks for hunting us. We're pretty stoked too. Can't wait to bring the rest of our vision into reality.
Lama Al Rajih
This looks great! Little bummed there's no android support yet, but I can't wait to use it with Slack :)
Michael Duncan McArthur
Maker
@lamaalrajih Thanks Lama! We're also eager to release an Android version. In the mean time, if you're on a Mac, we also have a beta release for OSX: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/...
Michael Duncan McArthur
Maker
@lamaalrajih See you on Switchboard! Feel free to join us in one of the public groups if you have any questions or comments!
Lama Al Rajih
@gorf I've tried the Mac app, and the UX is a little confusing, and I've heard from others that the iPhone app is as well. It would be nice if we could get some tutorial/help for first-time users :)
Henna Wang

Working remotely sometimes means I go days without talking to anyone! I miss the pleasantries around the office, like "how was your weekend", and being able to just walk over to my colleague's desk to discuss something quickly. These critical parts that make up workplace culture are things that email and chat don't fully address. Those were the dark days before there was Switchboard!!

Pros:

Voices come through crystal clear + instant connectivity! Really friendly helpdesk person who answers any questions you might have :)

Cons:

It would be even more useful if I could get more friends and colleagues on this!

Karl Gusner
As a remote worker, I use switchboard to communicate easily with my coworkers as well as with clients. It's great to be able to talk with my team at anytime like we are in the same room. For clients I love that I can just share a link for them to talk to me without having to signup if they don't want to.
Jim Rand
Maker
@kgesus awesome, glad you're enjoying the My Channel (link) feature. We built it to help loop people in that don't have the app / an account. Clients are a cool use case, thanks for sharing!
Steve Wu
Love what you guys are doing and I'm excited to try this out! We definitely underutilize the power and effectiveness of voice communication in everyday life :) While I see how Switchboard can be effective for remote teams, how do you see it fitting into workflows for the large number of non-remote teams where employees are self-conscious about talking out loud in open-floor spaces? And as a follow-on question, given the above, where do you see Switchboard fitting into the "productivity stack" of Slack, Email, Google Hangouts etc. Is it meant to replace any existing forms of communication or simply exist as another medium we can use?
Michael Duncan McArthur
Maker
@stevewu22 We’re glad you see the value in humanizing conversation again! With respect to voice in an open space, we do not see Switchboard (nor voice in general) as a replacement for texting or even asynchronous chat. We do see it as enabling real time and voice to capture a larger share of your communication by reducing overall friction. In time, we expect a behavioural shift - not only due to speed, but due to the personal aspects and ability of voice to convey more information (emotion / sarcasm, etc.). Our goal is to bridge the gap between users that need privacy (need texting) and those who need hands-free (voice). Speech to text and text to speech conversions will certainly help us there. There are more features are coming soon, but you may see that one of our current features (illustrated in one of the videos) connects voice messages into Slack with a transcript. We will soon be introducing music features that greatly help in an open office as well. Do keep an eye out here for that. The crux is that your headphones will help you isolate yourself from noise, but not from your colleagues (except when you’re switched off of course!) Longer term we see Switchboard as connecting more than just colleagues. We expect it to allow you to control inbound communication for those most important in your life. Looking forward, when we are “beyond the screen” so to speak, we hope the ability to Switch on and Switch off (to particular sets of people) from any device with microphone & speakers enables people to convey when they want to be in touch, and when they don’t, no matter where they are.
Gerard van Kempen
Seems like a great app, will give it a try soon with my team. However, I do have one question: where do you guys get your revenue from since the app is free and there’s no “premium” subscription?
Jim Rand
Maker
@gvkjr Hey Gerard great question. While we do intend to introduce a premium tier for the Switchboard app for power users, we have developed a deep audio and voice technology stack to power Switchboard and intend to license via an SDK. We are currently running paid pilots to validate this model.
Gerard van Kempen
@jimsrand Thanks for the swift reply. Nice to see a company monetising their tech instead of their data once in a while. Hope things go well!
Noel Tock
Really dig the concept, will try it out. Thanks for building/shipping 🙌
Michael Duncan McArthur
Maker
@noeltock You're very welcome, Noel! We hope you enjoy the app, and please do reach out to us with any feedback or questions you may have. The team is standing by in the public groups as I type this!
Darren Ciastko

This app is perfect for driving. The voice activated commands make it like you're just talking to people who are in the car with you. No more scrolling through messages from behind the wheel.

Pros:

Great way to keep up with the kids

Cons:

Great way for the wife to keep up with me

AndrĂŠ de Albuquerque
How does this differ from voice specific messaging apps, like Voxer? Or any other Walkie Talkie apps
Jim Rand
Maker
@andredalbuq Good question. In general, you do not need to push to talk, the conversation flows from an intercom (the first person reaching out) to a full duplex conversation (as soon as they respond). Voice commands are another differentiator (depending on the app / specific commands) for now. That said, we built Switchboard with a persistent connection architecture and the ability to establish and control communications via side channels. So, for example, we have used smart buttons, Slack shortcuts, and other things to control what channels you’re monitoring or speaking to. We have the ability to mix audio channels (voice & other things) as well. Expect more to come here. Gestures and proximity based controls are on our roadmap, for example. The way we built Switchboard allows for a lot of flexibility and our pipeline is full of fun stuff to take advantage of that!
Alex Gervais
This looks cool! :) I do 98% of my work remotely, so I'm always looking for tools that can help me communicate with my team in a more natural way.
Michael Duncan McArthur
Maker
@agervs Thanks Alex- glad you like it! Please let us know if you need a hand setting things up with your team. Our team is currently hanging out in the public groups on Switchboard and would be glad to help!
Josh Robbins
I downloaded the app and spoke to Michael (helpdesk) in App and the sound was perfect and they talked about some cool features that are upcoming. This is a simple, fun solution to awkward conference calls and instant messaging for me with clients.
Michael Duncan McArthur
Maker
@josh_robbins Thanks for the feedback, Josh! Glad to hear you like Switchboard so far and that @michael_reynolds has you excited about some of our upcoming features! Please let us know if we can help you further in any way.
Philippe BrulĂŠ
Since I have met @jimsrand @jamesmeier during Techstars, they have made tremendous progress. Switchboard is the best thing that happened to our team of 15 since Slack.
Jim Rand
Maker
@jamesmeier @aboutphilippe Thanks Philippe! see you back on SB!
Edward Vasquez
Great! What is the business model, how are you going to make money?
Jim Rand
Maker
@edwardvasquezdr Thanks for the interest. We plan to introduce a premium tier for the Switchboard app for power users, but the business model revolves more around the technology stack. We have developed a deep audio and voice technology stack to power Switchboard and intend to license via an SDK. We are currently running paid pilots to validate this model.
James Wilson
This app is real easy to use, and is a big improvement over conventional web conferencing solutions. If I'm spending my AM plugged into various communication platforms, it would go smoother if more of my colleagues signed onto switchboard. Would mean much less time wasted dialing in. Love that it's so easy to slip into a sidebar when I'm using the app for a large conference call. Also works really well with my wireless headphones, so I don't have to be tethered to my desk. Need to get more colleagues on board!
Jim Rand
Maker
@james_wilson2 Please do invite your team! And if you use Slack, onboarding a team is even easier.
Michael KD

Love this thing! Use it all day to communicate with coworkers in remote offices, and also on walks with my wife - we can both listen to music and talk to each other seamlessly and without taking our damn earbuds out.

Pros:

Excellent voice quality, intuitive functionality, much better operation than skype or hangouts.

Cons:

Not really a con, but the product still has a few bugs (early in development)

Jim Rand
Maker
Haha, as one of our earliest adopters, thanks! And for alluding to the music stuff -- which we will have a separate announcement about soon.
Jocelyn Hett
As someone who tends to overthink written communication, I really appreciate how switchboard makes it easier to have a quick chat with my coworkers. Sometimes it's just faster if you talk it out, right!? I also love the ability to easily share a link to chat with people not using the app (customer calls, in my case), and the interaction with my music is great. I've heard whispers of more music features in the pipeline, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. Being an android user, I can't take advantage of the iOS app, but the MacOS app has been a great alternative. Looking forward to seeing more from you guys! 🙌
Jim Rand
Maker
@jocelyn_hett glad you're enjoying it, and yes you heard right, there are cool music features in the pipeline... stay tuned as we plan to announce more in the next month or so!
Steve Lee
Been using Switchboard with our team with great success - congrats on the launch!
Jim Rand
Maker
@stevel_sk Glad to hear! And always feel free to reach out with feature requests!
Gabe Elias

Love this app! Gives me telecom capabilities of WebEx with the instant messaging of Lync -- all without the hassle of managing a gazillion groups

Pros:

Easy to use

Cons:

Still waiting for android...