from Hacker News

Mmhmm

by definetheword on 11/25/20, 5:04 PM with 171 comments

  • by satysin on 11/25/20, 7:50 PM

    Installed to tryout it out. I dislike it requires yet another user account just to try it out[1][2].

    Overall it is pretty simple to use with a decent UI and worked fine for my quick test of a Signal desktop app video call by selecting the mmhmm virtual camera in Signal.

    It did not work in FaceTime as there is no way to change the camera from the built in one (however I was able to change the audio source to mmhmm audio fwiw). Not sure if this is a FaceTime limitation or mmhmm?

    For £20 I would probably buy it but £10 a month (or £100 a year)?! No. Sorry.

    I fail to see why this type of application needs to be a subscription service and a rather expensive one at that. Unless I am missing something it doesn't rely on a backend service the mmhmm developers would need to maintain and outside of adding new features it isn't likely the OS APIs used to access the camera will change much, if at all, on a desktop OS these days so on going development costs to the core camera functionality already present is likely to be minimal.

    A nice product but not worth an indefinite £10 a month to me personally.

    [1] Also there does not appear to be a delete account option anywhere on the website. I hate this when forced to sign up just to try the software. I have emailed using the address on their website to request deletion but it should be a clear option on the account management page.

    [2] Also accepting an 8 character minimum (requiring upper, lower and special character) password while rejecting a 4 word (27 character) passphrase is laughable.

  • by frereubu on 11/25/20, 8:05 PM

    If the people who develop this app are here, it took me quite a while to figure out that it uses a "virtual camera" to work, and therefore potentially works with most videoconferencing software. That should be front and centre - for a while I wasn't sure whether it was a separate videoconferencing app because the screenshots are just the app, rather than it being used in Zoom or whatever. The only reference is "Funner Zooming", but for some reason that wasn't explicit enough for me without an example Zoom screenshot.

  • by AlexB138 on 11/25/20, 9:50 PM

    I played with Mmhmm during beta. It's a simpler to use OBS, from what I can tell. It's good for some laughs.

    They just came out of beta and announced that it would cost $9.99/month. I was pretty shocked to see a recurring fee for such a simple app, which, from what I could tell, offers nothing new over a long establish FOSS project. It strikes me as more of a one time $10 purchase. Would really like to hear how they justify a recurring cost on this.

  • by RobinL on 11/25/20, 7:34 PM

    I've used this and it's a great idea, and works well in some contexts.

    One downside to be aware of is that it routes your slides/screenshare through your webcam video feed.

    In some apps (e.g. Teams) this can dramatically reduce the quality of the slides, relative to a 'normal' screenshare.

    There's a setting in Teams to increase video bandwidth, which mitigates this a bit. But the slides will still look less good (at least, that's what people have told me).

    There's also a mix of compatibility - generally if you access the video conference in your web browser it works (because the browser can see the 'software' webcam they've set up), but the software webcam is inaccessible in some desktop apps.

  • by gnicholas on 11/25/20, 8:06 PM

    I tried this during the beta. Unfortunately, as others experienced, the resolution is severely limited in certain applications (I used Zoom). Zoom compresses the stream as if it’s video, when it’s in fact a slide.

    I discovered this when I was setting up for a very important presentation and had about 5 minutes to go to a fallback plan. I was pretty upset that there was no warning about this, since they were totally aware of it, and it completely undermined the value of using it in a live presentation.

    Later, I had to record a presentation to submit for a conference. I used it there and it worked fine in terms of quality. But even though I had bought a green screen, there were difficulties that resulted in subpar edge detection. I had to change my shirt multiple times to create enough contrast, and I had to use a background image that was ‘busy’ enough to mask the static that was visible.

    Maybe things have improved in the last couple months, but I was pretty let down when I tried this out.

  • by Brajeshwar on 11/26/20, 3:41 AM

    MmHmm is by Phil Libin, the erstwhile founder/CEO of Evernote[1]. I stumbled on it when looking up old connections for something I'm doing now. Here is a video of Phil introducing MmHmm[2]. In my very limited and a few interaction with him, I found him to be a kind person, and was super responsive to a small guy when he was very busy, and around its peak with Evernote (2010-2011).

    While waiting for MmHmm's invite, I got invited to try Around[3]. I haven't tried MmHmm but it seems to share similar features with Around. I find Around nifty while pitching prospective customers but rather too-much-ado for, say, our team meetings - face-to-face visual meetings with audio.

    After a while, all the bells and whistles wares down and we want to just stay at the basics. Just my thoughts from our small team's experience.

    1. https://evernote.com

    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8KhKBLoSMk

    3. https://www.around.co

  • by flixic on 11/25/20, 7:10 PM

    I like this approach. Everything it does can be achieved by OBS with a couple of plugins, but this is a very user-friendly packaging of great looking presets: use cases over technology. Also, super fun name.

  • by theshrike79 on 11/26/20, 7:13 AM

    For a one-time payment with a free trial, I would've definitely shelled money for this.

    But a subscription? £10 a month? No thanks. _Maybe_ £5 max.

    That price is competing with stuff like Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, Netflix, HBO and many others that give me hours of entertainment every day.

  • by rcfox on 11/25/20, 9:53 PM

    I've used Webcamoid[0] on Linux to do silly camera filters during a Zoom happy hour. This one looks a bit more polished, but Mac only for now.

    [0] https://webcamoid.github.io/

  • by adrianhon on 11/25/20, 6:13 PM

    Had a lot of compliments and questions when I’ve used this app in talks. It’s simple but it’s easy to use and it gets the job done.

  • by warent on 11/26/20, 12:19 AM

    My 2 cents to add is please use this sparingly unless you're intentionally being humorous. When altering what would normally be reality, less is much, much more.

    I've gone to a couple online networking events recently and there's always some people with video modifications that turn them into an unbelievably tacky advert.

  • by cambalache on 11/25/20, 10:06 PM

    Something tangentially relevant to this, it is curious how this epidemic is forcing rapid change that was resisted for many years, and some of that change I suppose will stay. Companies resisted remote-working, educational institutions were very lukewarm towards remote classes/degrees, now all of that is the new normal. It is not a perfect comparison but this reminds me of the sweet changes during and just after WW2. It seems society needs a kick in the butt from time to time shake things up.

  • by nmeyer on 11/25/20, 6:22 PM

    Anyone know how it works? Does it create a virtual camera source that Zoom can source from?

  • by rodolphoarruda on 11/25/20, 7:33 PM

    Click the download button and roll the dice expecting to see a Linux version available. No luck.

    The product looks great, by the way.

  • by drtournier on 11/30/20, 3:54 AM

    Quick thoughts about it. I hope the authors read these comments and make something more integrated. It's not because it's funny that I will waste my time duplicating slides that I already made using ppt/gslides/keynote.

    Other remarks:

    Good:

    - Seems fun to use and build things, liked the humor Needs improvement:

    - UI could be cleaner, the nagging about free premium takes a huge part of screen real state

    Bad:

    - No support to use google slides, powerpoint or keynote. If you think I will spend time redoing my slides in your tool, forget it. It just made me so pissed off that I deleted the app from my mac right away.

    - Pricing should be transparent. No free tier (even with a watermark) is a huge bummer.

    - Performance in older macs is subpar. My video slurred a lot in a 2015 Macbook 12'

  • by jelling on 11/26/20, 3:20 AM

    On a business level, the only happy future I see is if they can eat into Zoom’s market share by giving away a superior presenter tool and then switch to being a conferencing platform themselves.

    If they can’t, Zoom and others will add the same features if a large number of people find them valuable.

    So I’m baffled that they are trying to monetize this already especially since they recently closed ~$30mm. Happy to hear other opinions.

  • by vmception on 11/25/20, 6:44 PM

    maybe target this to livestreamers - entertainers - than the corporate workplace crowd

    the pitch seems jarring

    but other people seem to have corporate workplace uses for it and that's a bigger audience so maybe have at it!

  • by vsri on 11/25/20, 9:00 PM

    I used this app for a while, interesting concept but didn't quite do it for me.

    One thing worth mentioning: it's a bit tricky to uninstall. Still appears as a camera in your system after uninstall. Had to go in manually and delete a bunch of preferences.

  • by gtsop on 11/25/20, 9:35 PM

    Am I the only one who thinks this is a terrible name to help a product spread? I can't even imagine myself saying "I am using mmhmm for this effect" to my colleagues. They would be like "what was that you said?"

  • by jidiculous on 11/25/20, 9:16 PM

    The coolest feature is kind of hidden away in its support article[1]:

    > A Screen share slide is also a great way to show the screen of your iPhone or iPad to quickly demo an app, for example. To use your device in a Screen share, first plug it into your computer, then select it with “Add Screen Share”.

    This potentially provides an easy way to use your far better iPhone camera as an external webcam for your Mac.

    [1] https://help.mmhmm.app/hc/en-us/articles/360056971194

  • by jariel on 11/26/20, 2:32 AM

    Super fun. Mmhmm folks - some marketing tips: the entire landing page says nothing, provides no information. Then the abstract value prop but we have no idea what it is until we're many seconds into a video - even then it's not clear.

    'What it is' needs to be clear very quickly or people won't go any further and 'Makes your Zoom calls fun' is not 'what it is'.

    Finally, the video gets showcase pretty fast, with so much exemplary items, please just within 10 seconds explain what it is, give some basic examples.

  • by franga2000 on 11/27/20, 9:32 AM

    "Funner Zooming" being the biggest most-emphasised bit of text would normally make me click away immediately, but since this is HN, I gave it the benefit of the doubt. But then I kept looking and still had no idea what it was. Turns out, it's a macOS app for adding live effects to your camera. Why is that not on the front page and above the fold???

  • by klik99 on 11/25/20, 11:26 PM

    Interface is great, I’d pay for “easier OBS” to reduce cognitive load when presenting a dynamic presentation (I’ve used mmhmm for conference talks and sales and investment pitches). Why I don’t use mmhmm is the CPU load, compositing screen share and running green screen significantly impacted my MacBook Pro load. Fix this and I’m back in. Sweeten the deal - multiple slide decks running concurrently.

  • by beaugunderson on 11/25/20, 10:17 PM

    I use mmhmm to share my screen as a camera in Zoom--this lets me share both my face and the text editor I use for meeting agendas in a way that lets everyone else see each other instead of just my shared screen.

    That said, screen sharing hasn't worked since the app update released on the 16th and I'm finding it impossible to get a response from mmhmm's support (or anyone that works there, honestly).

  • by kvlr on 11/25/20, 9:33 PM

    I used mmhmm today to record a quick demo [1] and think it works really well for that. I like the looks a lot more than the normal rectangular overlays in Zoom or ScreenFlow.

    [1] https://twitter.com/mkvlr/status/1331630391233564676

  • by lpellis on 11/26/20, 11:35 AM

    I dont know why they dont put their original video (from the producthunt launch) on the landing page, its really good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8KhKBLoSMk&feature=emb_titl...

  • by cube2222 on 11/25/20, 10:24 PM

    I've been using it for the few last days, doing onboarding for new employees.

    So far I really like both how easy it is to record the sessions with it, as well as how I can quickly switch between sharing my computer screen and iPad screen (using AirServer).

    A nice addition being that the recordings will contain my head talking in the corner of the screen.

  • by mosselman on 11/25/20, 6:31 PM

    Is there a open source that will let me replace the backdrop of videos? Something for ffmpeg maybe?

  • by justforfunhere on 11/26/20, 7:20 AM

    Just checked out the promo video on the webpage. It looks really well made. Congratulations to the team behind it.

    This space is witnessing a lot of innovation and disruption and time is also ripe to do so.

    Hoping to see AR/VR bring next wave of disruptions.

  • by fevangelou on 11/26/20, 11:35 AM

    From the site's footer...

    "Mmhmm is the newest product by All Turtles, a mission-driven product studio that works to solve meaningful problems worldwide."

    Didn't know backgrounds for Zoom are meaningful problems that need to be solved.

  • by epa on 11/25/20, 10:00 PM

    Tried out mmhmm in beta, very cool. I deleted the app because I can't share my screen in zoom to show presentations easily. Its somewhat useless if that is not integrated properly.

  • by stcredzero on 11/25/20, 7:53 PM

    Is this name a reference to 80's video games?

    https://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Mmrnmhrm

  • by sirjaz on 11/25/20, 11:01 PM

    This needs to be released for Windows, and before everyone complains windows still owns 88% of the world wide desktop/laptop market

  • by elondaits on 11/25/20, 8:01 PM

    I absolutely loved this, and I will show it to my boss in a couple of hours, who I already know will like it more than me.

    This is a game changer for online workshops and conferences, if not anything else for the ability to prepare several "shared screens" and switch between them as if switching between presentation slides.

    The only feature I was surprised is not included is the ability to "save" the video size and position for each slide, so it automatically appears in the right place, out of the way.

  • by AshamedCaptain on 11/25/20, 7:25 PM

    "Desktop software is dead!" "Everything can now be Electron!"

    Yes, do this on iOS or Android or Electron.

  • by gcatalfamo on 11/25/20, 10:34 PM

    This or OBS for mac?

    Note: OBS is not hard at all, so I might be looking for something less CPU/GPU intensive

  • by ilyas121 on 11/25/20, 6:54 PM

    Can I use this with msft teams?

  • by ashneo76 on 11/25/20, 10:04 PM

    Account on opening up. No. Bye

  • by joshxyz on 11/26/20, 3:52 AM

    I cant wait to say "Hey, have you tried out oom-hoom?"

  • by dariosalvi78 on 11/26/20, 1:26 PM

    alternative, with reacher features set and free: http://camtwiststudio.com/

  • by Niccizero on 11/25/20, 9:40 PM

    Mac only... hard pass.

  • by robofanatic on 11/25/20, 9:17 PM

    Looks like Teachers might use it for remote schooling

  • by nicbou on 11/26/20, 1:59 PM

    That's an excellent 30 second demo

  • by dchuk on 11/25/20, 7:29 PM

    Can this be used with Google slides?

  • by uvic on 11/26/20, 2:14 AM

    nice app... but why did i click on Mmhmmm ???????

  • by einpoklum on 11/26/20, 12:18 AM

    Closed source available for download for Mac. Oh great.

  • by hammerbrostime on 11/26/20, 3:53 AM

    Brilliant logo

  • by mobb_solo on 11/25/20, 7:33 PM

    I thought I made up 'FUNNER'.

  • by SubiculumCode on 11/25/20, 6:26 PM

    mac only?

  • by monkpit on 11/25/20, 6:36 PM

    The music on the demo video sounds really off, like it’s coming from a cheap radio. I’m watching/listening on my phone, but other things don’t sound that way on these speakers. It sounds shrill and tinny.

  • by fermienrico on 11/25/20, 7:00 PM

    We've lost our ability to produce content with simplicity, decency, discipline and sophistication: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLByTa5duIolYRtq45Cz_G...

    Engagement metrics, click ratios and all this fricking noise - I want us to go back when watching the History channel on TV was actually about History. There are a handful of video content producers on the internet that I can watch without getting my blood pressure out of control.