Listen to this articleThingthing is Barcelona, Spain-based startup with a vision to make a whole new immersive messaging experience. Here is our interview with Olivier Plante, Founder of thingthing keyboard:
Q: What is Thingthing keyboard and what was your inspiration for making it?
A: thingthing is an iOS third party keyboard that provides users with a quick access to their digital content, spread over the web or apps without switching apps.
Our inspiration came from our observation how content is spread all over the place or in a silo – for example apps like: calendar, Dropbox, Instagram, etc. Every app we use contains our content and wants us to share it inside the app. Now, we want an easier way to share our content while having a conversation. This is what we are addressing with thingthing keyboard – the inter-polarity of our content.
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Q: What was technically the most challenging part of developing it?
A: The harder part is the actual limitations of Apple’s keyboard API. We need to respect a certain memory threshold, some weird UX flows like “Full Access” makes it difficult for users to trust 3rd party keyboards. People choose thingthing keyboard because they know that we will never look at their data. We are THEIR product. This is one of our principles, one that unites us: full privacy!
But the most difficult technical challenge is making sure that we provide a coherent UX for our users, considering complexity of apps people are using.
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Q: What’s the coolest use of Thingthing keyboard you’ve seen?
A: Imagine this: user receives a question like “How about meeting next week”? If you are busy person, the first thing you will do is switching to your calendar, now this process cuts the conversation flow. Our goal is to give users ability to do stuff without ever having to switch app: for example, writing an email naturally, typing, pasting a Dropbox links and some pictures without need to change/switch app you are using.
Q: Who else was involved in the development of the Thingthing keyboard?
A: I must say that the most valuable feedback came from our beta users. Our user base is growing every day, but when we started, there were a few early adopters helping us to improve our prototype. Using their feedback, we were able to make our MVP. We’re currently in private beta, but we will be letting in more users from our waitlist soon.
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Q: When do you plan to launch it?
A: Our goal is to deliver an outstanding experience for our users. As soon as our beta users tell us “it’s right time” or “now it feels just right”, we will officially launch it.
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