6 ms·

Layer Brings A Scalable Communications Platform To Any Mobile Or Web App

47 points by rokgregoric 13y ago

eniax 13y ago
Great job guys, really looking forward to see it in action.
gdonelli 13y ago
Just watched the presentation at TC disrupt. We need a open communication framework so bad. I hope these guys succeed with their mission
- crtg 13y ago
  Hey, if you are around soma you can swing by:)
danielraffel 13y ago
Looks promising, excited to see how it develops and can't wait to try playing with it.
- rokgregoric 13y ago
  You can signup for beta access on http://layer.com http://layer.com.
vickparty 13y ago
a much need communication platform...i'm definitely rooting for these guys!
fady88 13y ago
Hi
salimmadjd 13y ago
Ron Palmeri has a knack for picking great teams and ideas. The concept of an infrastructure that can later become the standard of communication is great with huge potentials. Internet was built to be the standard of communication and I feel Layer takes that spirit a level higher to application infrastructure. I wasn't able to figure out if there is a strong security play, especially in the current zeitgeist. They touched on doctor nurse communication so perhaps security is an adoption.
- rpalmeri 13y ago
  thanks! security and privacy are huge aspects of what Layer is doing. given the team's background we will invest heavily to ensure that the core infrastructure and client side SDK are locked down. my guess is we'll have more people on that aspect alone than most developers can afford to deploy on the full stack.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - maxwin 13y ago
    is voice(instead of text) message available fro the current API?
giosico 13y ago
Worried about cost lock in. Can you comment please?
- tomazstolfa 13y ago
  At Layer we will always offer a free tier for low volume products, and only charge once an app gets meaningful traction. We are here to help apps built on top of Layer win.
  - giosico 13y ago
    Thanks for the reply. Good to know.
maxwin 13y ago
This is great. Is there an open source version? This is great of quick prototyping, but eventually I would like to have full control over the stack.
jamesjyu 13y ago
Great domain name ;)
cmelbye 13y ago
Their tagline is: "The open communications layer for the Internet". I'm curious, what's open about it?
- tomazstolfa 13y ago
  The Layer UI kit will be open-source from day one. The SDK and protocol will be opened up soon after. Like mentioned in our presentation today - we are on a mission to make communications better for everyone, and we firmly believe that open is a better option. A bit more about Layer: https://layer.com/introducing-layer https://layer.com/introducing-layer
slantview 13y ago
This all sounds like someone replying to them-self. Edit: 15 comments besides mine, and 15 employees listed on the site. /conspiracy
vaughan 13y ago
I was recently working on an iOS app where I needed a 1-to-1 chat feature. I was surprised that there wasn't an established market leader in this space considering how many apps use such a feature. When I saw this post I immediately thought "yep, that is a gap I'd seen in the market". Some existing platforms included Scringo, Lobi SDK, QuickBlox. None seemed polished or customisable enough for my purposes. See more here: http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-existing-APIs-for-implementing-Chat-in-an-iOS-and-Android-application http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-existing-APIs-for-impleme... I ended up using an open-source iOS chat UI control (https://github.com/jessesquires/MessagesTableViewController https://github.com/jessesquires/MessagesTableViewController) and Firebase (here is a sample project of a real-time iOS chat app: https://github.com/firebase/firechat-ios https://github.com/firebase/firechat-ios). It was incredibly easy to setup a real-time chat app and provides me with full UI customisation and a flexible and scalable data backend. Send and receive code: // Setup. self.firebase = [[Firebase alloc] initWithUrl:kFirechatNS]; // Listen for messages (real-time). [self.firebase observeEventType:FEventTypeChildAdded withBlock:^(FDataSnapshot *snapshot) { // Add the chat message to the array. [self.chat addObject:snapshot.value]; // Reload the table view so the new message will show up. [self.tableView reloadData]; }]; // Send message. [[self.firebase childByAutoId] setValue:@{@"name" : self.name, @"text": aTextField.text}]; Thoughts on Layer If Layer was around when I was looking I would have tried it out, however I am happy with Firebase as my backend now. The API looks insanely easy to use though. Media sharing features would be difficult to implement using what I described above so Layer would be advantageous here. Great branding. Also Layer, please make your iOS framework available on CocoaPods.
- tomazstolfa 13y ago
  Thanks, this is great feedback! Please get in touch with us, we'd love to chat more - hello@layer.com
- tadruj 13y ago
  As I understand Layer also has offline/sync functionality, contacts & some UI goodies to glue all of these together.
- rokgregoric 13y ago
tadruj 13y ago
Will there be a JavaScript API for the Web?
- tomazstolfa 13y ago
  Yes, it is in the roadmap. Let's nail mobile first ;)
wauter 13y ago
Soooo, does anybody else immediately think about Diaspora here? How does Layer compare to, say, e-mail on the one hand, and Diaspora on the other?

47 points by rokgregoric 13y ago

eniax 13y ago

Great job guys, really looking forward to see it in action.

Just watched the presentation at TC disrupt. We need a open communication framework so bad. I hope these guys succeed with their mission

crtg 13y ago
Hey, if you are around soma you can swing by:)

danielraffel 13y ago

Looks promising, excited to see how it develops and can't wait to try playing with it.

rokgregoric 13y ago
You can signup for beta access on http://layer.com http://layer.com.

vickparty 13y ago

a much need communication platform...i'm definitely rooting for these guys!

fady88 13y ago

salimmadjd 13y ago

Ron Palmeri has a knack for picking great teams and ideas. The concept of an infrastructure that can later become the standard of communication is great with huge potentials. Internet was built to be the standard of communication and I feel Layer takes that spirit a level higher to application infrastructure. I wasn't able to figure out if there is a strong security play, especially in the current zeitgeist. They touched on doctor nurse communication so perhaps security is an adoption.

rpalmeri 13y ago
thanks! security and privacy are huge aspects of what Layer is doing. given the team's background we will invest heavily to ensure that the core infrastructure and client side SDK are locked down. my guess is we'll have more people on that aspect alone than most developers can afford to deploy on the full stack.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- maxwin 13y ago
  is voice(instead of text) message available fro the current API?

giosico 13y ago

Worried about cost lock in. Can you comment please?

tomazstolfa 13y ago
At Layer we will always offer a free tier for low volume products, and only charge once an app gets meaningful traction. We are here to help apps built on top of Layer win.
- giosico 13y ago
  Thanks for the reply. Good to know.

maxwin 13y ago

This is great. Is there an open source version? This is great of quick prototyping, but eventually I would like to have full control over the stack.

jamesjyu 13y ago

Great domain name ;)

cmelbye 13y ago

Their tagline is: "The open communications layer for the Internet". I'm curious, what's open about it?

tomazstolfa 13y ago
The Layer UI kit will be open-source from day one. The SDK and protocol will be opened up soon after. Like mentioned in our presentation today - we are on a mission to make communications better for everyone, and we firmly believe that open is a better option. A bit more about Layer: https://layer.com/introducing-layer https://layer.com/introducing-layer

slantview 13y ago

This all sounds like someone replying to them-self. Edit: 15 comments besides mine, and 15 employees listed on the site. /conspiracy

vaughan 13y ago

I was recently working on an iOS app where I needed a 1-to-1 chat feature. I was surprised that there wasn't an established market leader in this space considering how many apps use such a feature. When I saw this post I immediately thought "yep, that is a gap I'd seen in the market". Some existing platforms included Scringo, Lobi SDK, QuickBlox. None seemed polished or customisable enough for my purposes. See more here: http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-existing-APIs-for-implementing-Chat-in-an-iOS-and-Android-application http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-existing-APIs-for-impleme... I ended up using an open-source iOS chat UI control (https://github.com/jessesquires/MessagesTableViewController https://github.com/jessesquires/MessagesTableViewController) and Firebase (here is a sample project of a real-time iOS chat app: https://github.com/firebase/firechat-ios https://github.com/firebase/firechat-ios). It was incredibly easy to setup a real-time chat app and provides me with full UI customisation and a flexible and scalable data backend. Send and receive code: // Setup. self.firebase = [[Firebase alloc] initWithUrl:kFirechatNS]; // Listen for messages (real-time). [self.firebase observeEventType:FEventTypeChildAdded withBlock:^(FDataSnapshot *snapshot) { // Add the chat message to the array. [self.chat addObject:snapshot.value]; // Reload the table view so the new message will show up. [self.tableView reloadData]; }]; // Send message. [[self.firebase childByAutoId] setValue:@{@"name" : self.name, @"text": aTextField.text}]; Thoughts on Layer If Layer was around when I was looking I would have tried it out, however I am happy with Firebase as my backend now. The API looks insanely easy to use though. Media sharing features would be difficult to implement using what I described above so Layer would be advantageous here. Great branding. Also Layer, please make your iOS framework available on CocoaPods.

tomazstolfa 13y ago
Thanks, this is great feedback! Please get in touch with us, we'd love to chat more - hello@layer.com
tadruj 13y ago
As I understand Layer also has offline/sync functionality, contacts & some UI goodies to glue all of these together.
rokgregoric 13y ago

tadruj 13y ago

Will there be a JavaScript API for the Web?

tomazstolfa 13y ago
Yes, it is in the roadmap. Let's nail mobile first ;)

wauter 13y ago

Soooo, does anybody else immediately think about Diaspora here? How does Layer compare to, say, e-mail on the one hand, and Diaspora on the other?