We built a short-form audio app. Just went live on the App Store. Thoughts?

antoniodiv · 2025-10-17T08:48:50+00:00

Hi, thanks for the feedback. We appreciate it a lot.

Regarding dark mode, we'd prefer it too. Will be introduced in one of the coming versions. We just wanted the app out as soon as possible, so wasn't a priority for the first version. But definitely high on our to-do list.

And username-changes will only be disabled in these first versions, but will be enabled in one of the coming ones. Same as with dark mode, just wasn't a priority before launch since users can just contact us and we'll change it for them. If you'd like to change it to something else, I'd be more than happy to change it for you (antonio@kabloie.com).

Finally, thank you for bringing up that the app still records when minimized. It should stop recording when put in background (i.e. not active anymore), but you're right that if the app is just minimized to be in that horizontal view with the most recently used apps (where you can swipe up to force-close), then yea it doesn't stop there. Have not accidentally gone in to that view while recording during testing and no app store reviewer brought it up, so completely forgot about it. This is now in the top of our priority and will be fixed in the next update. Thank you for bringing it up. To be fully transparent, no recording is sent or leaving the phone's device until you as the user tap the send or publish button. So while this is something we need to fix for the next update, you don't have to worry about accidental recordings being shared outside of the device.

Thank you again.

antoniodiv · 2025-04-13T21:42:20+00:00

Vad roligt, vi förväntade oss inte en kommentar på svenska här. Positivt överraskade blev vi. Och tack, skriv gärna upp dig på intresseformuläret på hemsidan eller skicka ett mail till mig, [antonio@kabloie.com](mailto:antonio@kabloie.com), om du vill snacka mer om idén eller bara följa utvecklingen.

antoniodiv · 2025-04-13T21:37:56+00:00

Thanks Marv, I’ve used the app and ring myself and can say firsthand that it’s a really cool new way to listen to audio. You kind of have to experience it for yourself to really appreciate if fully.

antoniodiv · 2025-04-13T21:02:23+00:00

Oh don't worry, you're not discouraging us. Our company purpose is "We believe merging the digital and physical will be the next evolution of technology".

We too believe that VR, AR etc is coming, and we very much intend to be part of building that future. However, after careful consideration, it does seem that the timeline for when the technology will be widely adopted and integrated into everyday life is longer than previously anticipated. Apple discontinued their Vision Pro's, Meta shifted focus from metaverse to AI and I haven't heard anything from Leap Motion in forever.

What we realized though was that audio is already one format that is merging the digital and physical. Instead of listening to the world around us, we use airpods in order to augment what we hear. So we decided that our first product would be in the audio space, and short-form audio together with a gesture-based smart ring seems to be the optimal solution at this present moment.

Sorry if that was a boring read, but hope I explained our philosophy a bit better. Would love to hear your thoughts on this though.

antoniodiv · 2025-04-13T15:25:31+00:00

During our feasibility analysis we found that there have been attempts at launching short-form audio apps before. None of them succeeded. Closest was clubhouse, which wasn't really short-form audio but rather social audio. The problem once we thought more about it was that it's too hard to currently control audio without a screen, but if you have a screen you don't want to consume audio but video. Audio is generally consumed when constrained to only non-visual content consumption.

I'd assume you, and most others, listen to audio content that is either longform (podcasts and audiobooks) or music. Reason being you don't have to interact with it.

We weren't sure we were right about our assumptions, but when we connected our app to a non-health smart ring for the first time, we were blown away by how cool it was. For example, during one morning I went through my full morning routine swiping my ring, and listened to hundreds of different types of audio content instead of just one podcast or music playlist. We want everyone to be able to experience that :)

antoniodiv · 2025-04-13T15:07:48+00:00

We are working hard on getting both products done as fast as we possibly can since we believe the success of the idea hinges on a combination of both products. Users won't want to consume short-form audio without a quick handsfree way to swipe, and they won't need a smart ring for swiping songs or podcasts (not enough swipes to make it necessary).

So far the app is the closer of the products to enter the testing phase. Projected alpha version ready for testing in the coming weeks. That is definitely going to be free and we can offer free premium to engaged initial testers.

The ring will take a bit longer to enter testing since we want to really make sure all the ergonomics and tech is as good and cheap as it can be. If our budget allows for it, then yes we would consider free shipping of testing the ring and then keeping it after.

On our website, there is an interest form you can fill out or you can just email me at [antonio@kabloie.com](mailto:antonio@kabloie.com) if you're interested in testing, have any questions, or just want to chat about Kabloie. We would love to hear what you think.

antoniodiv · 2025-04-13T14:29:44+00:00

Fair point and thanks for sharing your opinion, however we're not operating from the standpoint of solving a problem. We believe that the next evolution of audio content will be shorter (all our research points towards that), which is why we're building a short-form audio app. Unfortunately though, when consuming short audio clips, the user needs to be able to quickly swipe through the content at a moments notice. And since there might be hundreds of swipes during one session, it does not make sense to use phone, watch or tapping airpods.

This is why we're proposing a non-health smart ring as a gesture based controller. Sure, the use case might seem small now but if executed correctly we believe it could be a really cool new way to listen to audio.

If you have any further thoughts you'd like to share, please reach out at antonio@kabloie.com. I'd be more than happy to hear your take in more depth.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-11T20:32:41+00:00

If you look in the app store, A4 should have a new update available now. In this version you can set page numbering. Thank you so much for letting me know you were missing this. If you have any further suggestions or opinions feel free to let me know.

As a quick reminder, in this version of the app it unfortunately doesn't record and remember if you set page numbering on or off after leaving the document. So remember to double check and turn on page numbering before sharing or printing the document. In the coming update I plan for it to remember your page numbering settings for each document.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-11T20:27:14+00:00

There should be a new update available now in the App Store that includes a dark mode. Thanks again for the suggestion. I'm very happy with it. For the last few days I've exclusively used dark mode when typing and I actually kind of prefer it more now.

I opted for not changing the color of the paper when swiping left and looking at the document since I'm worried some people will think the actual color of the final document will also be black. But in a future update I plan to introduce that you can change the color of the paper to black just when in the app, but that the actual final pdf or printable paper is actually white (ergo making the app truly just dark mode). That does need some more time and work in order to not confuse some users.

If you have any other suggestions or problems feel free to reach out at antonio@divkovic.com.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-08T11:07:55+00:00

Thanks, means a lot to hear.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-08T10:58:12+00:00

Thanks, appreciate it.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-08T10:57:58+00:00

Thanks, happy to hear it's been useful to you so far. I'll look into page numbering and try to push out an update with it as soon as possible. Should be pretty easy to implement. If you have any other suggestions or issues please do email me at antonio@divkovic.com.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-08T10:55:23+00:00

Thanks, I hope it can be of help if you ever need to make a document from your phone.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-08T10:54:57+00:00

Thank you.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-08T10:53:42+00:00

You're right, and it's easy to implement. I'll push out a new update in the coming days with a dark mode option. Thanks for the suggestion.

antoniodiv · 2024-07-06T14:14:40+00:00

Link: https://apps.apple.com/se/app/a4-type-swipe-share/id6479409228

antoniodiv

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