Show HN: Open-source, fully customizable voice and chat widgets for the web

Show HN: Open-source, fully customizable voice and chat widgets for the web(jovo.tech)

74 points by JanKoenig 5 years ago | 19 comments

JanKoenig 5 years ago |

Seems like the site is down? The announcement can also be found here: https://github.com/jovotech/learn-jovo/tree/master/news/2020...

JanKoenig 5 years ago | |

up again!

JanKoenig 5 years ago |

Hey all!

The clients are built with Vue.js and styled with Tailwind CSS, and the backend is built with the Jovo Framework.

Here are all the starters: - https://github.com/jovotech/jovo-starter-web-standalone - https://github.com/jovotech/jovo-starter-web-overlay - https://github.com/jovotech/jovo-starter-web-chatwidget - https://github.com/jovotech/jovo-starter-web-embeddedchat

sandGorgon 5 years ago | |

will you be doing Vue.js strictly ? what about nextjs, etc

JanKoenig 5 years ago | | |

we're most experienced with Vue.js, but want to add integrations with more frameworks, too!

it's also possible to use our vanilla JS client: https://www.jovo.tech/marketplace/jovo-client-web

stevenicr 5 years ago |

I poked around this a bit -

Is there moderation for the chat? Or maybe this is kind of a bare bones framework for others to build on maybe?

I tend to compare chat systems that run using sql or Mysql type of DB's for the backend, to ones that don't. Would this jovo framework be doing that or similar?

Problems I've had is that some chat systems using sql DBs start to fail when I get to about 20 - 25 simultaneous chatters. Is there any kind of benchmark showing the amount of users this kind of system can handle before it starts to stall - say using a VPS or basic dedicated server?

I've tried tons of chat systems over the years - sadly the two best (for my uses) depend on flash and so are dying soon - yet none since way back when I have found have the ability to handle 600 users at once and have good moderation tools, along with being tough to hack. So I am looking desperately.

JanKoenig 5 years ago | |

Great question! It uses the Jovo Framework (https://github.com/jovotech/jovo-framework) for the automation of the conversations.

Many people who build Jovo apps (mostly for 1-on-1 conversational experiences, not group chats) host them on serverless environments like AWS Lambda and use document databases like AWS Lambda. Haven't seen problems with scalability there.

We're currently investigating sockets though, which won't work on Lambda. Going to be interesting to see how this scales

stevenicr 5 years ago | | |

Thanks for the info - looking at the project notes I was able to see I was also confused as to if / which? other services this uses and what the privacy implications are - I wondered if it was using google translate or transcribe or similar 3rd party services and such.

Or if this is all self contained, perhaps adding some 'host your own, no 3rd party required, and keep it all private' as a selling point.

RyanShook 5 years ago |

Why does the site use Drift for chat?

JanKoenig 5 years ago | |

Great question! At this moment, Drift is convenient for us because I can reply directly from Slack. We have an internal demo where we can do this with our widget, too, it was a bit too early for this release though. Soon!

JanKoenig 5 years ago | | |

You know what, you're right. I've been getting a bit annoyed by Drift anyways. So until we launch our own automated chat and search widget, I might as well just remove the current one. Done

areichert 5 years ago |

What are some common use cases for the voice functionality? Is it mostly for speech-to-text features, or doing calls through the browser?

JanKoenig 5 years ago | |

Mostly speech to text, probably more on mobile then destop right now.

People are getting more used to interacting with technology using their voice (e.g. through Google Assistant) this is why we want to help developers offer "deep links" into their web functionality with fast speech input.

areichert 5 years ago | | |

Nice! Makes sense.

janober 5 years ago |

Here an archived version in case the page goes down again: https://archive.is/9Enrw

JanKoenig 5 years ago | |

thanks!