[Hookt]

Hi everyone!

We just got featured on CrackBerry (thanks guys!) and thought this would be a good opportunity to start some open dialogue with the CrackBerry community

To be honest, we�re super encouraged by just how supportive the BlackBerry community has been already � tons of BlackBerry users have adopted us in just the short time we�ve been around.

We�re constantly working to improve, and our aim is to make Hookt one of the best social messaging experiences out there. We believe users are an integral part of what makes products awesome, so it�s really important to us to be getting as much feedback as possible.

We�d love to hear from you, and we want to help resolve any issues you may encounter with Hookt. Looking forward to meeting you and getting to know some of you a little better

The Hookt Team

[Mrwhite913]

Hookt is a great app my friends and i really enjoy it. My only problem is when i get a notification on my 9930 i recieve two different notifications. i receive the hookt notification and the messages notification. How can i get rid of that and just recieve the hookt native notifications.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

[koup]

Hello,

Love the app!
Anyway to add status updates to future builds?
Thanks

[anon(1464249)]

Hello,

I like Hookt and congrats to your mention on the front page of crackberry.com

IMHO, the biggest 'problem' mobile messengers face, especially the cross platform ones is 'contact discovery'.
Having a basis that allows to scan the contactbook (numbers + email), social networks, etc... help with the spreading of the app.
Having to solely depend on people 'inviting" others is being too optimistic towards your users.
The last thing you want is to see comments flying around saying "nobody uses it".

I have used all of them (basically) and the sheer joy of installing an app, allowing it to scan whatever it wants to scan and actually having contacts in the app before you even opened a chat or invited someone is amazing and extremely user friendly.

-I miss this kind of functionality in Hookt. Any plans to add this in future versions?
Hookt currently only allows adding users by their Hookt ID.

Eg: you can allow Hookt users to input his/hers twitter / facebook credentials in his/hers Hookt profile, making it searchable data and allowing access to uploaded pics, manual advertising by the user of the Hookt app on connected social networks,....

-Another feature that is missing in action is stopping it from appearing in the messages folder of my blackberry.
-Can someone tell me why Hookt doesn't sign you in automatically when you start it? Nearly all other messengers do...
-Currently when chatting, you can't see who sent the last line. It just displays the icon of your chat partner and his/hers name and your text. How about you add one arrow for you and 2 arrows for your chatpartner? It's a personal preference though, BBM does it by adding a circle when your chatpartner sent the last text and adding a checkmark with the text status if you sent the last one...

Here comes my last annoyance with Hookt lol.
The EXIT option in the menu, I appreciate it's there and that it allows me to completely shutdown the app so it doesn't run in the background but why does this mean not receiving notifications anymore? Does Hookt not use the BlackBerry API? I'm sure it does, cause it's integrated in the notification bar.
In comparison, another messaging app (which shall remain nameless) allows you to exit out completely and still get notifications, so it is possible. Is Hookt not using push notifications?
The previous paragraph has been edited

These are mere constructive notes, I still love Hookt and if I keep finding someone who uses it, I will do so to.

[trek750]

I have been using Hookt for the past few months and love it! So thanks for a great app. More and more of my friends (Blackberry and non-blackberry) are using Hootk, so it's been big help to us and we prefer it to Whatsapp and some of the other messengers we tried.

[Klotar]

As a BB user with friends on other platforms, a cross-platform messenger was something that I needed. I tried many, including Hookt. I did like many aspects of Hookt, but one thing I found that turned me away from it to something else was that the app would not stay logged in.

Often I would click on the Hookt icon, and find it opening up to the login screen. Doubly annoying to find it was logged off was that it wouldn't remember even my login info, so I'd have to type it in again. Other than that, I was happy with it's look and performance.

Thanks for listening.

[Hookt]

Thanks so much for the feedback! We've gotten a couple comments on this now, so we've got it on our radar to add some additional options/settings for message notifications soon.

Hookt is a great app my friends and i really enjoy it. My only problem is when i get a notification on my 9930 i recieve two different notifications. i receive the hookt notification and the messages notification. How can i get rid of that and just recieve the hookt native notifications.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using Tapatalk

[Hookt]

Yes! We've gotten lots of requests for this feature and it is coming out very soon

Hello,

Love the app!
Anyway to add status updates to future builds?
Thanks

[Hookt]

Thanks so much for all your feedback! We�ll try and shed some light on all of your points:

1. Totally agree with you on finding friends fast! (What�s a messenger without friends?) That�s why we�ve tried to offer users as many options as possible for finding friends, through Twitter, Facebook, Hookt ID and BBM.

At the same time however, it�s very important to us that we respect user privacy and the trust that they�ve placed in Hookt. So when it comes to address book syncs we generate SHA-1 hashes from contact details (basically non-reversible codes), and use those hashes to connect users. This way, the contact information from your address book is never pulled, stored or even known to us anywhere on our end.

It�s great that you�re enthusiastic about the delight of finding friends fast, but just so you know, there are some apps out there that pull and store actual contact info from address book scans, and people (rightfully so) aren�t happy about this. It�s not just your privacy that�s at stake, but that of your friends who happen to be in your address book. As such, it might be valuable to include the SHA-1 hashing of contact info during address book syncs in your comparison of the different messengers.

2. We�re a bit unclear what you mean with making Twitter/Facebook credentials searchable? At first read it sounds like a terrible idea, but we�re sure you mean something different there

3. With regards to Hookt messages showing up in the messages folder, thanks for bringing that up! We are getting a couple comments on this and have it on our radar.

4. On auto sign in, we recently implemented a �Remember Me� checkbox on the Sign In page, which makes signing back in a bit easier for those who choose this (you won�t have to re-type your credentials every time). Does that work for you? We found through our users that it�s important to them to be able to fully sign out, so auto sign in may not quite work in our case.

5. That�s a great suggestion for implementing an indicator on the main Chats page showing whether you or your friend sent the last message. We�ve been looking into adding something like it and will hopefully get to it soon

6. With the last comment regarding �exiting� the app, yes we are using BlackBerry Push and are aware of our current limitation that stops notifications from going through when you �Exit� Hookt. We�re hoping to adjust this in the future.

Hope we covered everything! And again, thank you so much for your detailed comments. Definitely let us know if you encounter and other difficulties, we�re more than happy to work with you to get them fixed.

Cheers! And best of luck with your messenger comparative analysis.

PS. One last recommendation, it might be interesting to include straight up SMS in your analysis. Despite the rise of messaging apps, basic SMS remains the dominant medium for mobile messaging.

Hello,

I like Hookt and congrats to your mention on the front page of crackberry.com

IMHO, the biggest 'problem' mobile messengers face, especially the cross platform ones is 'contact discovery'.
Having a basis that allows to scan the contactbook (numbers + email), social networks, etc... help with the spreading of the app.
Having to solely depend on people 'inviting" others is being too optimistic towards your users.
The last thing you want is to see comments flying around saying "nobody uses it".

I have used all of them (basically) and the sheer joy of installing an app, allowing it to scan whatever it wants to scan and actually having contacts in the app before you even opened a chat or invited someone is amazing and extremely user friendly.

-I miss this kind of functionality in Hookt. Any plans to add this in future versions?
Hookt currently only allows adding users by their Hookt ID.

Eg: you can allow Hookt users to input his/hers twitter / facebook credentials in his/hers Hookt profile, making it searchable data and allowing access to uploaded pics, manual advertising by the user of the Hookt app on connected social networks,....

-Another feature that is missing in action is stopping it from appearing in the messages folder of my blackberry.
-Can someone tell me why Hookt doesn't sign you in automatically when you start it? Nearly all other messengers do...
-Currently when chatting, you can't see who sent the last line. It just displays the icon of your chat partner and his/hers name and your text. How about you add one arrow for you and 2 arrows for your chatpartner? It's a personal preference though, BBM does it by adding a circle when your chatpartner sent the last text and adding a checkmark with the text status if you sent the last one...

Here comes my last annoyance with Hookt lol.
The EXIT option in the menu, I appreciate it's there and that it allows me to completely shutdown the app so it doesn't run in the background but why does this mean not receiving notifications anymore? Does Hookt not use the BlackBerry API? I'm sure it does, cause it's integrated in the notification bar.
In comparison, another messaging app (which shall remain nameless) allows you to exit out completely and still get notifications, so it is possible. Is Hookt not using push notifications?
The previous paragraph has been edited

These are mere constructive notes, I still love Hookt and if I keep finding someone who uses it, I will do so to.

[anon(1464249)]

Thanks so much for all your feedback! We’ll try and shed some light on all of your points:

1. Totally agree with you on finding friends fast! (What’s a messenger without friends?) That’s why we’ve tried to offer users as many options as possible for finding friends, through Twitter, Facebook, Hookt ID and BBM.

At the same time however, it’s very important to us that we respect user privacy and the trust that they’ve placed in Hookt. So when it comes to address book syncs we generate SHA-1 hashes from contact details (basically non-reversible codes), and use those hashes to connect users. This way, the contact information from your address book is never pulled, stored or even known to us anywhere on our end.

It’s great that you’re enthusiastic about the delight of finding friends fast, but just so you know, there are some apps out there that pull and store actual contact info from address book scans, and people (rightfully so) aren’t happy about this. It’s not just your privacy that’s at stake, but that of your friends who happen to be in your address book. As such, it might be valuable to include the SHA-1 hashing of contact info during address book syncs in your comparison of the different messengers.

2. We’re a bit unclear what you mean with making Twitter/Facebook credentials searchable? At first read it sounds like a terrible idea, but we’re sure you mean something different there

3. With regards to Hookt messages showing up in the messages folder, thanks for bringing that up! We are getting a couple comments on this and have it on our radar.

4. On auto sign in, we recently implemented a ‘Remember Me’ checkbox on the Sign In page, which makes signing back in a bit easier for those who choose this (you won’t have to re-type your credentials every time). Does that work for you? We found through our users that it’s important to them to be able to fully sign out, so auto sign in may not quite work in our case.

5. That’s a great suggestion for implementing an indicator on the main Chats page showing whether you or your friend sent the last message. We’ve been looking into adding something like it and will hopefully get to it soon

6. With the last comment regarding ‘exiting’ the app, yes we are using BlackBerry Push and are aware of our current limitation that stops notifications from going through when you ‘Exit’ Hookt. We’re hoping to adjust this in the future.

Hope we covered everything! And again, thank you so much for your detailed comments. Definitely let us know if you encounter and other difficulties, we’re more than happy to work with you to get them fixed.

Cheers! And best of luck with your messenger comparative analysis.

PS. One last recommendation, it might be interesting to include straight up SMS in your analysis. Despite the rise of messaging apps, basic SMS remains the dominant medium for mobile messaging.

1. I am currently staring at the 'add friends' screen and the only thing i can do is add friends by number, email or Hookt ID.

2. This ties in with number 1 actually, what i mean is allowing to connect to facebook and twitter services and pull friends automatically from those networks (i imagine this is done by checking the email)

4 & 6. I don't get the point of a messenger app that allows you to sign out. Isn't this supposed to 'replace' or at least be an alternative to SMS? Why not just keep logged in at all time effectively solving the problem with the notifications stopping.
If someone sends me a message through Hookt, i want to receive it realtime, be notified realtime so i can respond ot it in realtime...

In regards to your comment about SMS. It's true that SMS is currently still the dominant form of messaging using mobile networks, it's cheap, easy and most importantly, it's compatible with every mobile phone out there smart or dumb. I feel however that through the uprise of smartphones and cheap data plans Messengers will gradually take over. In an ideal world, only one messenger will breakthrough with the masses and allow every smartphone with whatever OS to communicate with each other (like SMS). But considering this isn't an ideal world and the fact that most people applaud competition (including myself) there is room for several messenger apps that go about messaging their own unique way.
In order to get the most friends on the app of your choice however you need to be able to grab those details from a common place, eg facebook, twitter, etc....

Simulated example:
I am called A and i have Hookt
friend X has WhatsApp
friend Y has PingMe and does not have me in his contactbook
friend Z has Touch
We're all on facebook.
Friend Y downloads Hookt in his spare time to try the app, Hookt should then allow to scan facebook which automatically adds me to his friends list so he notices i have Hookt as well and we can start chatting.
Maybe even post a message on facebook saying "Y has just connected with A through Hookt Messenger" (if allowed of course)

The difference for me to choosing my messenger of choice and deleting the others is the amount of friends using that messenger. The more people using Hookt, the more will flock to it. Get it out there, advertise, facebook, twitter, ...

Keep up the good work!

PS: on your suggestions for the comparison chart, it's impossible for me to add those features now in the chart, but i will be adding a small description of the apps and I will make sure to include your suggestions in this description.

[ba_hamilton]

My group use to use Hookt. We still have BB users in our group so we gave Hookt a try. The one big limitation of Hookt is that you are limited to 10 users in a group. We would be back on Hookt if it could handle bigger groups. 25 seems like a good nice round number

[jordandub]

Only thing that's stopping me and friends using Hookt is the sign-out / exit problem. If you got a notification that you got a new message without the app running in the background this would be a huge step towards it being taken up more imo.

[Klotar]

Remembering the credentials would be a good step in the right direction (for me, not you - hehe). I respect the desire of some users to fully sign out, and those that do can always sign in when they wish to. However, I prefer to stay logged in at all times -- so autostart on bootup and staying logged in is important to me. I don't want to be automatically signed out for any reason.

However, I'd settle for an indicator on the icon that shows that I'm signed in -- which should make everyone happy without a lot of extra programming. e.g. if I see a green dot next to the Hookt icon (not the Hookt message indicator, I mean the main program icon), I know that I'm connected and available. But if I notice that there is no green dot, I can click the icon and get logged back in.

HOWEVER, if push was supported (and TBH, I don't know if it is or isn't), then I wouldn't care one way or another. But I hate receiving an email saying, "I tried to send you a Hookt message but ... xxxx", and when I go to check, sure enough I am asked to log in.

Again, thanks for listening.

[Llamainthehouse]

my plan is a social networking plan and i was wondering if hookt would still be free if i have that plan

[Hookt]

As a BB user with friends on other platforms, a cross-platform messenger was something that I needed. I tried many, including Hookt. I did like many aspects of Hookt, but one thing I found that turned me away from it to something else was that the app would not stay logged in.

Often I would click on the Hookt icon, and find it opening up to the login screen. Doubly annoying to find it was logged off was that it wouldn't remember even my login info, so I'd have to type it in again. Other than that, I was happy with it's look and performance.

Thanks for listening.

Hello! Yep, we just checked this with the team and this is not how the app should be working. Thanks for sending the feedback, we are definitely going to work on a fix for it.

Cheers!

[Hookt]

my plan is a social networking plan and i was wondering if hookt would still be free if i have that plan

Hey there! Most phone companies only include certain social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Hookt may not be part of these 'social networking plans' so it would need to use your data OR you could use it with a WiFi connection. Our suggestion would be to check with your carrier just in case.

Thank you!

[black.rhino]

If the app stays logged in permanently (a la bbm), on ALL platforms (no good if the iphone app logs out while mine doesnt), and his totally realtime, this will become my ONLY im choice and i'll evangelize!

[Bla1ze]

Were you guys aware the Android version of Hookt actually works great on the PlayBook? It has sounds and notifications as per normal.. You should try it out.. convert the .apk to .bar and give it a go.

[anon(1464249)]

Were you guys aware the Android version of Hookt actually works great on the PlayBook? It has sounds and notifications as per normal.. You should try it out.. convert the .apk to .bar and give it a go.

com.airg.hookt-1.bar

source: http://forums.crackberry.com/playboo...aybook-715816/

[Klotar]

I reinstalled Hookt a couple days ago, and upgraded to v1.5.7.

I'm not sure how new this version is, but each time I checked the application, I was still logged in. This persisted through multiple reboots. So, contrary to my earlier posts, I have not found myself logged out unexpectedly yet.

Edit/Add: Features I might like in future versions might be: configurable font size (current font is a bit small for my preference), and support for landscape mode.

[Hookt]

Hello friends! We are super excited about our latest release!

This new version of Hookt includes:

• Status updates : Share your status with all of your Hookt friends.
• Share your Hookt status: either on Twitter or BBM
• Photos are now organized by folder so you can easily find which one you want to upload and share
• French and Japanese translations have been added

So, what'ya think?

If you have any comments or feedback, please let us know! The team is open to all of your awesome suggestions.

Thanks a lot guys, enjoy

[trek750]

Loving the new status feature.

[symbotier]

Hey... The wife and I have been using Hookt for a few weeks now and it was working great. But for the last few days it seems to loose some messages and/or have slow delivery. Anybody else experiencing this? Is there some slow-down with the Hookt servers happening?

[Hookt]

Hey... The wife and I have been using Hookt for a few weeks now and it was working great. But for the last few days it seems to loose some messages and/or have slow delivery. Anybody else experiencing this? Is there some slow-down with the Hookt servers happening?

Hello there!

We just checked with the team and there are no reported issues for BB regarding messages. Perhaps it's a connectivity issue - this is very common when a device switches between networks (3G, Edge, etc). Just in case, double check that all recipients have a strong connection (3G and up).

If the issue persists, please notify us so the team can look into it.

Thanks for using Hookt. Cheers from Vancouver

[aerodynamics]

I have friends that Iknow are on hookt but when Itry to add them it says that they are not and it says to invite them. Why is this happening?