Alternatives
Products that do what We're Building the Social Layer of the Web does
We’re building Poppin — a browser extension that turns any webpage into a shared social space. Users can chat in real-time, leave post, or host voice spaces with their communities on any URL. It’s like turning the internet into a live Twitch stream or Reddit communities — for every url of the web without requiring integration. Currently, we’re in invite-only beta and collecting feedback from early users. Try it out and let us know what feels smooth, what feels broken, and what you’d want more of. Intro Video: https://x.com/poppin_so/status/1843651417783054776 Request…
- 1FI
This is something fun I’ve been hacking on recently: ridiculously simple group chat. Go to http://faces.io and then get your friends to do the same. That’s it! :-D Currently works best in Chrome. It’s definitely beta status at best. Audio can get weird—be ready to mute. ;-) Let me know what you think!
2014
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- 6NP
I created a pet project to see if it is of use and interesting to people. The idea is on-demand real-time chat rooms for trending topics and for personal use. You can go to the main page at www.urshoutbox.com to create your own room then share it across your social networks/email, etc. I created a hacker news specific "shoutbox" at http://www.urshoutbox.com/bLmYAL/hacker-news . If nobody is in there, please be patient and (I hope) people will join soon to start talking. The idea is to have trending topics on facebook/twitter/etc and have chat rooms to get…
2014 · urshoutbox.com
- 7AW
Create a chat, copy the URL, paste it wherever you want. Perfect for those that would like to continue a discussion on a social network without having to sign up for anything. http://beta.mss.gs/#!/page/home
2012 · beta.mss.gs
- 8TV
2021 · usetalk.io
- 9TA
Hi HN, For years I’ve missed the feeling of an always-on chatroom without the silos and social overhead of Discord. So I built Together: a single-room, no-signup group chat that you join with one click. No channels, no rules (yet), no onboarding flow. Everyone lands in the same place and can start talking in under a second. Why I made it - Forums and blog comments are great but slow; Discord/Slack feel heavy for casual drop-ins if you aren’t already a member of a community. - I wanted the simplest possible space where ~100 people could idle, share shower thoughts, and keep the…
Oct 2025 · together.lol
- 10PT
Hi HN, Poplar is a social space inside of a dynamic grid on your phone. Users can post and share images, video, text posts, and even live chats. Poplar’s interactive nature makes it a sort of “digital fidget toy”. You’re able to explore instantly loading content without ever leaving the grid and you can view a denser array of content per scroll. In deciding to build Poplar as a progressive web app (PWA), the goal was to create a unique experience as could only be achieved on the web without any design constraints. Best of all, you don’t need to download an app to try it. Although, if you…
2025 · pplr.app
- 11ST
Hey HN. We've been working on a community platform/Reddit alternative with a focus on building a place for people to create communities instead of just buckets of posts. We want communities to feel like a place where you want to hang out instead of just scroll. At a high level, our platform is like a Reddit/Discord/Patreon hybrid. We took all of the best features from each of those platforms and combined them under one umbrella. Here's a list of the core features of each community: 1. Customizable discussion boards: Community owners can set up threaded discussion boards for…
2023 · sociables.substack.com
- 12SO
Hey HN, My co-founders and I have been working on a project for the last month or so, and we'd like to get your input on it. We wanted to hear your thoughts on what we're doing - so check out our landing page, and let us know what you think/understand. Does it sounds like something you guys would want to use? http://www.thesharedweb.com/alpha/intro We'll tell you guys more about exactly what we're doing as the conversation evolves, but we just wanted to see what the initial reaction is, and what you understand (i.e. are we describing it in a way that makes sense). Really excited to hear your…
2010 · thesharedweb.com
- 13OA
Hey HN! I'm trying to create a community of people that are willing to contribute to the OpenDolphin project. The goal of the project is to build an Open Source _centralized_ social network that would ideally compete with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The main difference between the well established social and this one would be that it is going to be built and managed in the public, in the most transparent way possible. Features will be implemented and requested by the community - and generally speaking everything would be community-centric. If the project takes off, this might become one…
2022 · about.opendolphin.social
- 14IB
Hey HN, Like many of you, I’ve been using ChatGPT to brainstorm, debug code, and even plan projects. But as the number of conversations grew, I found myself scrolling endlessly trying to find old chats. It was frustrating and unproductive. So, I built PinFold – a Chrome extension to help manage and organize ChatGPT conversations. With PinFold, you can: Pin important chats for quick access. Organize conversations into folders (e.g., personal vs. work-related). Declutter your ChatGPT history and boost productivity. It's privacy-focused: no data is sent to external servers – everything is…
2024 · pinfold.me
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Hey HN, this is a side-project I've been working on for my senior year independent work in CS. Would appreciate any comments or feedback. www.aperator.com Thanks!
2012
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2025 · github.com
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2020 · github.com
- 18WS
Hey HN!! Many of us enjoyed the "If YouTube had actual channels" Show HN post last week. As developers of a similar project, we wanted to share our approach to building a simulated live experience. We’ve spent around 18 months working on this and have managed to add some advanced features, including content-based interactivity. We are super excited to be releasing both the live stream and the code behind it. Our idea was to combine the communal watching experience of television with the modern trappings of the interactive web. If you go to the stream, you will be watching along with everyone…
2024 · github.com
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I’m building a chat-first community app that uses Bluesky’s AT Protocol for identity. Current architecture: - Electron client - Spring Boot backend (monolith) - REST for servers/channels - Planning WebSocket-based messaging As a solo builder, I’m trying to balance simplicity with future scalability. At what point would you introduce: - a separate WebSocket gateway - pub/sub (Redis, etc.) - or keep everything in one Spring app until it breaks? Curious how others approached real-time chat systems early on. Project for context:…
Feb 2026
- 20BA
Hi HN, I recently built a simple Chrome extension called Twinbox to help organize DMs on X (formerly Twitter - yes, I reminded you again haha). The idea came from my own frustration with managing multiple conversations – it’s easy for things to get lost, especially when juggling personal, work, and project-related chats. The extension lets you: - Create folders to categorize your DMs (e.g., “Work,” “Friends,” “Projects”). - Keep things tidy and easier to follow up on. It’s free to use, lightweight, and privacy-focused – all the organization happens locally in your browser. I’d love to hear…
2024 · twinbox.me
- 21TI
Hello HN, I built Teamates.io[0] - a place for professionals to have small coffee chats with a random partner right now. Think of it like a virtual coffeeshop where you can chat with strangers while you're taking a little break. It's in open beta and you can try using it right now. Please be nice and professional to each other :) I noticed over the course of pandemic I missed random coffee chats with my coworkers and random chats with strangers. I think it's important to have these unplanned conversations. I would really appreciate the feedback from you all, since I believe it's a pretty…
2021
- 22AM
TLDR: I built a "quick and dirty " private social network for my friends, posted on Reddit and HN, got some interest so now have built it properly along with my brother. site link: https://intimost.com/login/ demo creds: [email protected] Demo123! Full version: I needed a social network where I can just send updates and nothing else. So I built it, my friends liked and now I have built it "for the world". Everything is private by default. - Text-only updates - No likes. Only views to acknowledge a post - [in development] Comments are private between the poster and…
Oct 2025
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2012 · github.com
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Hey HN,I'm Arthur, solo founder here. After struggling to get consistent traffic for my own startup, I realized I was spending more time guessing how to market than actually building. So I made something small but useful. MediaFast is a simple tool that gives you daily marketing roadmaps for Reddit, X, and LinkedIn. No fluff, just concrete tasks that help you get seen. It covers: – Where and how to post on Reddit without getting banned – What to tweet to get engagement as a SaaS founder – How to grow LinkedIn with cold DMs and soft content Since launching, I’ve gotten 15k+ visitors and $5.7k…
2025 · mediafa.st
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