Calling it futuristic isn't very descriptive of what it does.
In short (but not the tl;dr) this application attempts to act as a "contacts backbone"* for all possible "social applications". Basically it's a contacts list that shows you what services your contacts are subscribed to and what services you are subscribed to. The value proposition towards the individual is that you don't have to figure out what apps they are using, instead "it's just there"™. OP also claims that this will improve efficiency and reduce social network lock in (SNLI).
However, the problem of SNLI is not a search problem. Figuring out which apps your contacts use, especially the ones…ya know…you care about (like 10% of your contacts list) is not that difficult. The problem is getting enough people from your social network to switch to the new platform and abandon an old and familiar platform. The only time this works is if the new platform is somehow better than the old one. That is to say, the problem is with the social network application itself. And that problem is not addressed by this application.
Instead this application attempts to solve a problem that has largely been solved through concepts such as "notification center" which efficiently display notifications from your friends from whatever app it is you have installed.
Apps need to be experienced for people to start using them, a simple list of all the applications that your contacts have is not enough.
The App does somewhat offer a solution to getting users to switch to new platforms through notifying you when your contacts are engaging in a new service, ie. "Joe, Matt, and 4 others just added Yo to their profile."
That sort of notification AFAIK is not offered by anything else at this time. Accounts actively markets new services you may have heard of by notifying you when your friends actually start using them
How is it futuristic? What innovations does it include? From the frontpage, I can only see a meh-looking address book with features that have been in most for a while.
I don't want to be notified when my contacts change their telephone number, I just want it to be up to date. And my phone does that already. Also, you don't go into a lot of detail on what a "card" is... I assume it's like a profile on your service? Who updates this?
Check out this blog post I wrote: http://benguild.com/2014/05/18/announcing-accounts/
The goal is to turn it into a system of connections without strings attached, and ultimately reduce the reliance on specific or multiple networks for retaining long term contact with people.
Does that seem valuable to you? The big push for consumers is relationship portability between services
I have thought about this solution previously too. The main issue is, how do you solve the chicken and egg problem of getting critical mass for it to be useful?
Sidenote: Why did you pick the .ms sub-domain? It made me think of Microsoft, which obviously doesn't go with an iOS app.
It was the only one available that Google doesn't penalize or geotarget. I agree the Microsoft connotation is odd but if the project is a success we'll be able to acquire another domain.
Doesn't Android have something similar, where various accounts can be added, and the contacts will appear accordingly in Contacts? Nevertheless, the design looks quite interesting and I'm looking forward to further updates
I downvoted you. If you're going to give uniformly negative feedback on something like this, I highly recommend taking another minute or two to make it constructive for the OP.
Regardless of the utility or lack thereof (perceived or otherwise), someone or some group of people spent a good deal of time building this product. Dismissing their efforts doesn't offer them anything, and makes them less likely to share their future creations.
a couple notes:
* I have no connection to the authors.
* The app looks really complicated (i.e. overwhelming).
* The value prop isn't clear to me.
* What's a suggested service addition? The language I see in the screenshots uses a lot of jargon.
* It concerns me, likely to the point that I'll never download it, that the app is free. Clearly, selling it will prevent it from ever getting traction. However, giving it away suggests that I (and my friends) are the product.
Calling it futuristic isn't very descriptive of what it does.
In short (but not the tl;dr) this application attempts to act as a "contacts backbone"* for all possible "social applications". Basically it's a contacts list that shows you what services your contacts are subscribed to and what services you are subscribed to. The value proposition towards the individual is that you don't have to figure out what apps they are using, instead "it's just there"™. OP also claims that this will improve efficiency and reduce social network lock in (SNLI).
However, the problem of SNLI is not a search problem. Figuring out which apps your contacts use, especially the ones…ya know…you care about (like 10% of your contacts list) is not that difficult. The problem is getting enough people from your social network to switch to the new platform and abandon an old and familiar platform. The only time this works is if the new platform is somehow better than the old one. That is to say, the problem is with the social network application itself. And that problem is not addressed by this application.
Instead this application attempts to solve a problem that has largely been solved through concepts such as "notification center" which efficiently display notifications from your friends from whatever app it is you have installed.
Apps need to be experienced for people to start using them, a simple list of all the applications that your contacts have is not enough.
* quoted from the blog post