Early feedback on a new AI Character chat app
Oliver Acevedo
7 replies
I hope you guys aren't sick of these AI apps. I know there's been a lot. I've been heads down working on this app, not knowing there were going to be so many others like it but here we are.
My take is a little different though. It's supposed to be a fun and easy to use app. So you can create a character just by using a name or short description. The app will then figure out the actual name of the person/character that you're trying to make and it will generate a picture and a personality based on that name. No prompts or instructions to worry about.
Once the character is created, then a chat opens and they introduce themselves and ask you for your name. The character then proceeds to try and have an engaging conversation with you with context and short/long term memory. It's pretty entertaining to see these characters take on their personas.
Right now it's all completely free while I test it. I have the web app deployed and the Android and iOS app on their way. It's all basically the same app, just different layouts so you get the same functionality on any platform. The web app also works pretty well on mobile devices if you want to use it like that.
I'll be adding premium features when I launch, but for now I was hoping I could start getting some feedback from you guys on your thoughts. I'm an indie developer so I've been doing this 100% on my own. Design isn't my strong suite, but I love coding and would be more than happy to take suggestions on how I can improve this app.
If you'd like to test this out "pre-launch", the web app is hosted at https://chatwithcharacters.com/
Replies
GaganDeep Tomar@gagandt
Your pitch was very humble and honest. Let me try the app and share some feedback.
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@gagandt Initially it the motivation behind it was because I wanted to build an app that my kids could use to chat with their favorite characters on. I started building it and they got really excited about it and asked me to share it in an upcoming career day at their school. I did and was surprised how many of their friends were really excited about this app. So they asked me if it would be something that I could release to the app store. That's when I started getting a bit more serious about it and started taking it more seriously.
Soon after that, I found several other apps with similar ideas but they all felt a bit too complicated for kids. I wanted to keep mine simple and fun to use. So there's no need to write prompts, etc. Just give the character a name, and it does everything else for you including generating a profile picture for the character.
Initially I wasn't planning on monetizing it since it wasn't really going to be released, but to make it public I would need to find a way to pay for the tokens that are used by the AI. So eventually I'll need to set some kind of message limit and have a subscription plan for heavier users.
All in all, I think it's a fun way for kids to interact with historical characters and/or movie personalities that they otherwise would not be able to interact with. They have "interviewed" Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln. They've asked Taylor Swift random questions as if she was their bff. Personally, I think it's pretty neat watching a movie and being able to ask the character specific questions regarding the movie. I asked Jack Sparrow how come Bootstrap Bill wasn't cursed like the other pirates that stole the gold. Things like that which may not be too clear in the movie. The characters do a pretty good job and answering them and keeping the conversation engaging and entertaining.
I tried the app and the experience is pretty smooth. Of course the UX can be refined with time.
However, I'm curious what is your motivation behind building this app?
The site is not reachable :(
@ashimanski Sorry, I had pasted the wrong url. I fixed the URL now so it should work. Thanks for letting me know. Good luck with your launch as well!