TinyChat – I think it’s going to be big
Posted on: February 17, 2009Author: Cali Lewis
14 comments so far (is that a lot?)
I just experienced what may be the most promising complementary service to Twitter since TweetDeck.
It happened accidentally. Neal was checking out a Web app called tinychat because The Red Ferret Journal recommended it. When you go to tinychat.com, you get a simple screen with a Click to Create Your Chatroom button. Neal clicked it and got a link to his chatroom. He sent me the link via iChat and then he clicked the Enter Chat Room button. It gave him the option of entering a Nickname or signing in with twitter. He clicked the sign-in with twitter and thought better of that option. He didn’t want to enter his twitter account information, but since there wasn’t an option to go back, he went ahead and signed in using his Twitter account. I joined him in the chat room and then other people starting showing up too. As they changed their nicknames they were names we knew so it was obvious that tinychat had tweeted the link to the chat. That would be annoying except that it’s optional. If he hadn’t signed in using his Twitter account it wouldn’t have tweeted. It would just be a private chat.
That tie-in to Twitter is what makes tinychat more than just another chatroom client because it makes it extremely simple to make a dynamic conversation happening on Twitter even more dynamic. Imagine, you’re watching The Big Bang on a Monday night. Sheldon says something particularly brilliant and so you tweet it. Your Twitter friends ping you back to tell you they’re watching too. You can have a conversation on Twitter that’s just fine, thank you very much, OR you can step it up a notch by moving the conversation to tinychat. People who want to chat about Sheldon, can join in. People who don’t can skip it.
Tinychat looks just like any other chatroom you’ve ever been in, but it’s ease of use in combination with Twitter that makes me think I’ll use this pretty often. It’s browser based and the twenty or so people that joined us during our test who were using Safari seemed to have the best experience. It also worked great for chatters on iPhones. The chat stalled out for almost everyone in the room at least once in the thirty minutes we used it. A page refresh brought them back in. Our participants wished for the ability to expand the chat window and the ability to moderate the room if any mean people need to be kicked.
Chats are disposable, unless you save a copy. When everyone navigates away from the page, it goes away for good.
The chatroom consensus was that the bugs we experienced were easy to overlook because the service is new and TinyChat + twitter will create better, more exciting conversations.
UPDATE: We tried the chat out for about 45 minutes and all was great! Having no moderator capabilities though is a killer. Once one person decides to crash the party (especially once they know they can’t be kicked), it’s a terrible experience for everyone. They have to come up with a solution for it to really be a valuable tool.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
This is DEFINITELY a very promising app. I didn’t find any stability issues for the ~10min I was in chat on WinXP using Google Chrome. Unfortunately it became very apparent that some sort of moderation feature or password protection is needed to ensure that things stay decent and respectable.
Overall I’d definitely see myself using this, even with the current bugs.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Ok, this is totally cool. Instant chat-room. We should try this on the next cali live or geoff smith stream.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Tough first experience. There were too many Cali Lewis impersonators, and no way to moderate or ban someone. Unfortunately there are some people who just can’t help ruining things for others. I am sure in time they will expand the application so that the person who opens the chat can boot someone. Thank you for sharing this application.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
It’s too bad someone had to spoil it.
February 17th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
it was mentioned that the moderator function is being coded. Once in place this app has real potential
February 17th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
What’s old is new again. Chat rooms are back! (Not that they ever went away.) TinyChat offers a quick and easy way to connect with people in a private chat environment. Looking forward to seeing the app progress and add more functions!
February 17th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Hey.. DM me next time.. sounds really fun. Love ya..
Dave Curlee just killed me with a DM reply to my tweet this evening so very funny.. We could have laughed about it in tinychat. I can’t quit laughing even though I’m pooped!
Martha
February 17th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
TinyChat is great! I had just posted about 3 useful Tiny services: http://jashsayani.com/the-3-useful-tiny-services/
February 18th, 2009 at 3:07 am
@tvwithme I’m enjoying the live tweeting of #underbelly and #ladettetolady. What do you think about using this? http://is.gd/jUzG
February 18th, 2009 at 3:20 am
TinyChat ties chat to Twitter
http://www.geekbrief.tv/tinychat
(via @CaliLewis)
February 18th, 2009 at 4:44 am
This sounds very similar to TweetChat which uses hashtags to create Twitter chat rooms:
http://tweetchat.com/
Robert
February 18th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Some info on TinyChat and how it can integrate with Twitter and your friends. Cheep and disposable. http://www.geekbrief.tv/tinychat
February 18th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
@Schofe @stephenfry Have you tried this? http://www.geekbrief.tv/tinychat It works very well and might be useful for busy twitter sessions
February 19th, 2009 at 1:53 am
I was playing around a few years ago and created an instant chat room app that provided encryption. Maybe I should “brush it off”, finish the final features and offer it for public consumption…