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Ily — The smart home phone that connects generations
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Hi everyone, Ily is a new kind of home phone for families. Built with younger kids and grandparents in mind, it makes communication simple. Connect with one click for phone calls, video chats, and text messages, or share photos and drawings - all on a safe, closed system, no matter what device you use, thanks to the Ily app for iOS and Android. Traveling parents, far-away relatives, and little ones without phones can now all be together. Anytime, and from anywhere. We're looking forward to get your feedback on Product Hunt today! We're also hosting office hours at our NY HQ to have potential backers come experience Ily live!
@ilan what are you seeing with the beta? Are kids initiating calls? What's their understanding of timezones? Who hangs up?
Feeling like the crowd here (myself included -- also I don't have kids, doesn't help) has a slightly hard time picturing what families/kids actually do with Ily and would love to hear more about real usage.
@virtualgoodz well, we're seeing snapchat like metrics, very high engagement, and kids adopt it right away. They initiate calls, send drawings, send text messages when they get back from school, and they get super excited when Ily rings, for the first time, they know people are calling them specifically, not on their parents' phones...
perhaps difficult to get funding without the dedicated hardware, but a kid-side comms app for iPad, Fire, Samsung tablet paid via subscription would be sufficient. so many kids under 10 already have those. why burden kids and parents with another expensive device to be charged, broken, lost?
Whats happened since the pre-launch kick-off previously hunted here? Looks like the same product
@bentossell Hi Ben. At that time, we've opened a round of pre-orders on our website to sell out the very first production batch, which we did in two weeks, then closed it (that was last July). We wanted to wait until we were fully ready before launching our Kickstarter campaign, which we are now, since we're already being used by a bunch of Families in Beta, with outstanding feebdack, and getting really close to mass production planned for the next couple of months.
@ilan cool.
What made you work on a 'home-phone' hub when lots of people seem to be ditching them?
@bentossell Kids under 10 have less way to communicate and stay in touch with their parents, grand parents, family than me growing up. The landline itself is not relevant anymore because just voice, just phone numbers... Communications have evolved thanks to Whatsapp, Messenger, Facetime... We want to bring the power of modern communications to a device that's home based (Kids under 10 are home very often..), and stripped down of apps, browser, games. It's only about communications, and family. The rest of the family doesn't need the device itself, just the app for Android or iOS to stay in touch
As a young dad, I really get the kids communication problem. But I think you have a big big market with grandparents, you could sell Ily by hundreds to retirement homes :)
@elieslama Thanks Elie, yep, already on it :) Great BtoB opportunity for us indeed
How does this match up to something that we already have - Skype on a tablet and/ or mobile phone.
Hustle X