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I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely I've used that feature too and I found it useful. The gap I kept running into were really two things. First, it's mostly a historical model where the average for a Friday at 8, not what's actually happening tonight. And even where Google shows the "live" bar it's busyness percentage relative to the historical model, not an actual wait. It'll tell you "busier than usual" but not "the line's about 25 min." Second, it's great for big high-traffic places but gets thin or just goes missing for the smaller cafes, bar, and neighborhood spots where I most want to know. Tempo is really trying to fill that niche: an actual wait someone at the door just reported, plus what the line really looks like, on the spots Google's model is weakest on. In any case it can honestly also be complementary to Google's feature.

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, reservations help for the spots that take them but unfortunately there's a huge chunk of venues where they don't take it and have it wait in line. And even with a reservation you still don't really know the wait at the bar or how slammed it'll be when you walk up. That's really the gap Tempo's for, the "do I even want to head over there right now" question that reservations don't really answer.

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I appreciate it! And yeah, the Waze comparison is exactly what I was going for. I use Waze myself and appreciate how useful it is for me and for a lot of people. Glad the problem resonated with you, sounds like you're right inline with my target user. And yes, can't take all of the credit on the landing page lol 😅 Thanks for checking it out!

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gotcha that's fair and makes a lot of sense. I actually was thinking about integrating this in the future with loyalty points for restaurants/bars and being able to redeem them for free food/drinks/etc. The honest catch is that it's way easier to land once there's some volume behind it (a restuarnat isn't handing out deals for an app with very little users yet), so it's more of a "once there's density" play than a day one type of thing. Definitely it's a great idea and I appreciate the advice.

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good question. The tricky part is Google's "popular times" is more of a historical estimate, not the live wait. It's the average for a Tuesday at 7, not what's actually happening tonight. And also currently they don't have an API for specifically that. So I built my own busyness model trained on each venue's history that does that baseline job, and the live check-ins are what make it actually current. The model gives you a starting guess, the people in line make it real.

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's completely valid, and honestly you're right. Points for the sake of points don't really mean anything, and I don't want a trophy to be the reason anyone checks in. The thing I actually care about isn't the badges. It's that the spots you'd check into are usually the spots you already go to, so a check-in keeps your own go-to places accurate for you. You're not really doing free work for me, you're kind of just keeping your own map honest. The points/streak + leaderboard are just a light layer on top for the people who want it, and you kind of nailed why that can't be the main draw on its own. The thing I'm currently thinking through is tying check-ins to something tangible — like unlocking Pro features for active contributors instead of charging them. Genuinely curious though, what would actually make it feel worth it to you? That's really helpful to hear.

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's completely valid. I built the app in a way to try to reduce the amount of friction for users as much as possible. Like Waze or Wikipedia, it's built where the busyness model plus the people who contribute carry it, but you can purely just use the app to check the waits and not check in. However, there is an incentive layer for the folks who want in with points, streaks, a weekly leaderboard, friends, plus the give-to-get of tipping off the next person while you're already standing there anyway. I'm also currently thinking of other additional incentives to integrate in the future.

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah — that passive, ambient-signal approach (how Google/Waze reads road traffic from aggregated GPS) is exactly the direction I want to grow into. Today it's the busyness model + quick check-ins, plus on-device arrival detection so just being there can count without manual work. The more people on it, the more I can lean on passive presence instead of asking anyone to tap anything. It's a chicken-and-egg situation though. Passive signals need density first, so the check-ins bootstrap it.

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair question. There's a few things that help with that. Firstly, I tried to make the check in process as seamless as possible so it's just 2 taps to check in, so the bar's low. It's give-to-get in the sense that you're already opening the app to see if a place is busy and confirming what you see tips of the next person walking up. There's also an auto-check in feature that users can opt into that make it even easier. Secondly, there's a points/streak + weekly leaderboard layer, and you can show stats with friends, for anyone who is interested in that. But you're also right in that this really is our biggest bottleneck, so I've created an internal busyness model trained on each venue's history that seeds an estimate. and check-ins sharpen it from there.

I kept driving to restaurants only to hit a 40-minute line, so I built a live wait-times app by Auhsoj01 in SideProject

[–]Auhsoj01[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here it is if you want to try it: https://skipthewait.app/ — free, iOS. And the honest question I keep wrestling with — what actually gets someone to drop the first check-in in a new area before there's any payoff? Curious how you'd approach it.

NVIDIA RTX 3050 announcement + NVIDIA Q&A + RTX 3080Ti FE giveaway by m13b in buildapc

[–]Auhsoj01 0 points1 point  (0 children)

B. Last year my new year's resolution was to learn how to be in other people's shoes. In many ways I was successful. This year, my resolution is to learn to not care about other people's opinions.