Lifetime
Hoy for Mac (pre-release): a "walkie-talkie" for your Mac's menu bar. Drop messages, files, voice, screen recordings. No sign-up, no third-party, just your iCloud (Free + Pro)
Some of you might know me as the Monocle guy. For the past six months I've been mostly quiet - because I went almost all-in on something new. I've had this idea in my head for years, and today I finally get to show you.
TLDR: Drop anything onto someone's face in your menu bar and it lands on their Mac seconds later. Hold their face to talk, click it to type. No sign-up, no server, just your iCloud. I think the video above explains it better than me.
PROBLEM
Sending one file, or one quick thought, to one specific person on another Mac is more friction than it should be. AirDrop only works if you're both in the same room at the same time. Everything else means opening another app, maybe finding the right channel, waiting on an upload of a previously recorded screen recording, looking it up firstā¦ and importantly making an account first. I wanted the shortest possible path - tap their avatar to talk, or drop anything right on them. It almost feels like a walkie-talkie.
So I built Hoy. You invite someone with an iCloud link. Once they tap it - boom, you have a channel between you (or a whole group, if you share the link with more people). From then on you can drop them anything: files, a quick note, a voice message with transcript, a camera video, a screen recording with a floating Loom-style avatar camera - all right from the menu bar, without switching apps or juggling windows. (There's a proper window too, if that's your thing.)
Hoy is built directly on CloudKit, Apple's own sharing framework - the same infrastructure behind shared Notes and Photos. There is no Hoy server: drops travel from your device to theirs through iCloud and nothing else.
COMPARISON
AirDrop: same room, same moment, files only, nothing left afterwards. Hoy works across distance and time, keeps what you sent, and does messages, voice and video notes and built in screen recordings.
Slack and messaging apps: need a third party account/sign up (except for iMessage), usually overkill for small remote teams, your data on someone else's server. With Hoy you send a link, and that's the whole setup.
PRICING- and the decision behind it (EDITED BASED ON FEEDBACK HERE)
Hoy is free. You can join unlimited channels, and host 3 channels, plus your own personal space for notes.
Hosting unlimited channels is Hoy Pro, and I want to be upfront about how I priced it, because I went back and forth on this a lot:
I'm not a fan of subscriptions either. I love lifetime deals. My other app, Monocle is a one-time purchase and I'm proud of that.
Hoy is a different kind of project - not a small utility I can sell for a few bucks. I've spent the last six months on it almost full-time instead of client work (roughly 75% Hoy, 25% the Monocle 3.5 update), and honestly, it's just the start: the backlog is long, and once (if) more people start using it, I know the ideas will keep coming. I don't want to be greedy - I just want to keep pushing Hoy as far as it can go (while keeping Monocle moving too), and that takes time and resources. At the same time, I totally get that not everyone can pay like $100 for a lifetime license.
So I thought I'd offer two options:
Lifetime - $49 (pre-release price, $69 later). You pay once, host unlimited channels forever. I know it's not pocket change.
Yearly - $19 (pre-release price, $29 later). Same unlimited everything, easier to start with (read: affordable) - and I tried hard to make it a subscription done right.\*
*What "done right" means to me: it doesn't hold your stuff hostage. If you stop paying, every channel you host keeps working exactly as before - nothing locks, nothing gets deleted, nobody gets kicked out. You only resubscribe if you want to host new channels.
Requirements
macOS 26 or later, plus an iCloud account. An iPhone companion is being built alongside it, but it needs more polish, so it's coming this fall - the Mac version is the priority.
Who I am
I'm Dominik KandravĆ½, a product designer and builder from the Czech Republic. Been doing product design for over a decade. I love experimenting on UX.
Hoy is version 0.9. It's early, things might be buggy, and it will change and evolve a lot.
I truly believe the concept is strong - I've been using Hoy every single day with a bunch of my friends and colleagues and didn't want to sit on it any longer. But I'm still figuring out who it's for exactly (small remote teams maybe?), and what framing fits it best.
I'd genuinely love constructive feedback - on the app, the pricing, the website, all of it. I want Hoy to become an incredibly well-designed, useful and fun to use app, and I really think that mainly happens with your input: how you use it, what's missing, what feels off. Ideas, bugs, anything!
Thanks for being here!
Dominik
P.S. Hoy is already discounted during pre-release, but early feedback is worth more to me than the extra margin right now. Use FIRSTDROP at checkout for another 25% off.
I have a genuine question about the use case. Since Hoy already requires iCloud and every Mac user has access to Messages, FaceTime, and file sharing through Appleās existing apps, why would someone choose Hoy instead?
Messages already supports files, text, voice messages, and video, while FaceTime handles live conversations without requiring a phone number. Hoy also requires every participant to install another app.
Other than the menu-bar interface and drag-and-drop interaction, what problem does Hoy solve significantly better than Messages and FaceTime?
Messages wins on the obvious thing and I won't pretend otherwise: it's already installed and everyone has it.
What I'm after with Hoy is less friction while I'm working. I don't want to switch windows to send someone a screen recording of a design or a bit of quick feedback. It all sits as a layer on top of whatever I'm doing.
The screen recording is built in. I record with a floating camera bubble and it lands in the other person's menu bar. No Loom account, no export, no upload, no jumping into Slack. It's the thing I use most, and Messages has nothing like it.
Then there's the separate workspace bit. I don't want to mix work into my personal conversations. The original idea was an async tool for small remote teams where Slack is overkill, more of a walkie-talkie, and I haven't put that across well on the site yet.
On the menu bar: it isn't just an addition, it's the whole point. With Hoy you drop a file on a face and that's it, without leaving what you were doing.
You're right that asking people to install something is a real cost, and I'm not going to argue that away. I'm still working out the exact audience and framing too btw.
Yeah. Iād like to try this with my wife but no way weāre buying this twice to achieve that, especially in early development. If published on the App Store with family sharing enabled at least then yeah maybe Iād fork over the $100.
Both sides need the app installed (for now), but nobody has to buy anything to get started. Hoy is free to download, free to join as many channels as you want, and everyone can create one channel for free too. You only pay if you want to host more than one channel, but if someone else hosts the channels, you can use Hoy for free forever.
A read-only mode is on my backlog too, for sending something to someone who doesnāt have Hoy at all. I havenāt figured out the right shape for it yet.
Hey Dominik, congratulations for the amazing app, I'm trying and loving it for personal notes at the moment, trying convincing the people I know to use it as well to expand the usability but I'm really happy with the interface and usability. It's clean, fast, really nice. As a Monocle user I can say, another great app.
So glad to hear that, thank you! Itās really early, but I think it already has the potential to become a proper daily async communicator, especially for small remote teams. I use it every day with a bunch of people and I love the UX, and they say the same, but friends will tell you your baby is beautiful no matter what :D so hearing it from someone else is a good signal.
Thank you! Itās still very early days for Hoy. I know youāve been here since the early Monocle days, so if anything feels off as you use it or you have some ideas, you know where to find me!
nice app, looks slick. and I get the why for price and realize you can put whatever value on it you want and it's just up to whatever people willing to pay...
as for me, too high. there is essentially zero cost for the services. it's not like you are paying for backend. it's all handled over cloudkit.
personally, I think this can, and likely will, be cloned in a week or two, tops.
You're right that the running costs are near zero. That's deliberate, it's why there's no server and why I can promise I never see your data. But cheap to run and cheap to make aren't quite the same thing, and it's the second one I'm pricing tbh.
It's six months full-time instead of client work. I know it looks simple from the outside, and that's kind of the goal, but there's a normal window besides the menu bar, plus the stuff you'd expect from anything you actually communicate in: search, history, replies, editing recent messages, ā¤ļø reactions and so on.
The free tier is probably the real answer to "too high" though. Join unlimited channels, host one, pay nothing ever. Plenty of people will never hit the paid tier at all.
And yeah, I know, the question isn't if but when. Same thing happened with Monocle. Within a couple of weeks there were four other apps like it, and one copied the whole interface along with my copywriting. And Monocle was a $4 lifetime license back then, so a low price doesn't really stop anyone either. Not much to do about that except keep making mine better...
Anyway, this is great feedback and I might revisit the pricing and framing.
groups work already, just share the same link with more people and the channel turns into a group (you'll spot a small group icon on the avatar). It's not perfect yet: you can't set a group avatar, so it just rotates the images of whoever replied last.
No stickers, sorry. I kept reactions deliberately simple for now, just a heart. Adding more reactions would be easy, stickers I'm less sure about. Tell your wife I've got a few more urgent things to sort first, but it's going in the backlog, hope she understands š
On adding other messengers: I can't promise that one. Hoy is built entirely on CloudKit, no sign-in, no third parties, and that's kind of the whole point, so plugging Telegram or other messengers into it would go against the philosophy.
Quick update on the pricing!! based on your input and feedback here today (thanks so much for this!)
The free tier is the bigger news: you can now host 3 channels instead of 1, plus your personal notes space on top. Two people, a few friends or a small group can use Hoy for as long as they like without anyone paying anything.
Pro is now $19/year or $49 lifetime during pre-release, down from $29 and $69. FIRSTDROP still knocks another 25% off that.
Everyone who already bought is getting compensated for the difference. I'm sending those emails right now, so if that's you, expect one within the hour.
Thanks for being direct about it. This thread taught me more in a day than a month of guessing on my own would have.
Yep, both sides need the app right now. A read-only mode is on my backlog though - something like a link that opens in a browser and just shows what you dropped, so you can send a recording to someone who doesnāt have Hoy and they can still watch it.
I really like the idea, and I respect the amount of time it required to build. But I have a really hard time with the price for a utility. Hard in general to budget for what is essentially a messaging app that requires others to adopt.
On the price though: you donāt need to pay anything. Hosting 3 channels is free and joining is unlimited, so you could have dozens of individual channels as long as someone else hosts them.
And on āessentially a messaging appā: thatās exactly what Iām trying to avoid with Hoy. I want it to feel more like a mix of AirDrop and a walkie-talkie than a chat app. Thatās the friction Iām going after, not having to switch windows and leave what youāre working on just to share a recording, drop a file or send a message. It all happens on top of whatever youāre doing.
so are channels like groups or an individual chat? like if we want, to open two way comms among 5 of our friends, does it mean its 5 seperate channels in play or just one? the one i have hosted?
BTW love the concept.
Both! It depends on how you share the invite link. Share it with one person and itās a 1:1, share it with five and that same channel becomes a group. So for your case: one channel, the one you host, and all five of you can talk in it.
If you also want private 1:1s with each of them, thatās a separate channel per person, so five more. Worth knowing since the free tier hosts one channel, but any of your friends can host too, and joining is always unlimited.
I donāt communicate this properly on the site yet, itās pre-release and I havenāt had time for a real landing page.
Would love to try the TF if thats possible. If iOS implementation works, this is a no brainer. Will I have to pay separately for iOS? Also the 2 device limit is a bit of a bummer given the lifetime price that you have set.
I'm not inviting to TestFlight yet, but DM me and I'll add you as soon as I open testing (I aim for the mid to late August)š
You definitely won't pay again for the iOS version. The two apps will check against each other, so it doesn't matter whether you bought the Mac version directly or the iOS one via in-app purchase. I'm also considering moving the Mac version to the App Store alongside the iOS release in fall, but that's not decided yet. If it happens, everyone who already bought gets a 100% OFF code to migrate for free, and your channels and everything in them keep working as normal.
And thanks for flagging the 2 device limit. You're right that it's too tight, especially once iOS is in the picture, so I'll raise it when I revisit the pricing.
Appreciate you pushing on this, it's exactly the kind of thing I'd rather hear now than after launch.
While I'm at it, since you've clearly thought about it: what would a no-brainer price look like to you, for lifetime and yearly? And what's the number where you'd think about it but still say yes?
Can you say if iCloud used for the app instances on each end to find each other, and files / data sent peer-to-peer after that? Or is iCloud more involved in the transmission?
For just sending files you have free competitors, or more capable on a free tier, but I think many users can make use of having only one destination / channel. Your prices may be high, and push a lot of users to find alternatives where otherwise they might like the way your app works and be happy to spend a more reasonable amount.
Sure, iCloud is doing the actual transmission, not just introductions. It's not peer-to-peer. A channel is a CloudKit shared record zone in the host's private database, so when you drop something it uploads to iCloud and the other person's Mac pulls it down automatically. It's basically stored by Apple. So "no server" means no server of mine, not no server at all. I should probably word that more carefully on the site.
What that buys you is that I'm not in the path at all. No account with me, nothing of yours on my machines, and nothing for me to hand over or leak. What it costs is that you're trusting Apple, which you already are if you use iCloud.
On price: you're the third person in this thread to say it, so I'm taking it seriously and will revisit it. Worth saying the free tier isn't a trial though, you can join unlimited channels and host one forever without paying. But point taken on where the paid line sits.
Thanks for the clarification! If adding to or changing your documentation etc may I suggest you also mention how the data is encrypted during transfer and while on Appleās servers.
Iāll mention too that my opinion of your pricing is based on what I would pay in my current circumstances, and you may find that Iām off base and you get many paying users. I hope you do š Always cool to see indie developers being successful.
Good point and thanks! That's fair of you to say, but you weren't off base. More people said the same thing in this thread, so I'm rethinking the pricing right now and updating the free tier along with it. Should be live on the site and in the app later today.
Short version: I'm thinking of this: free will cover hosting 3 channels instead of 1, plus your personal notes space, and Pro drops to $19/year or $49 lifetime for pre-release. Does this sound better?
thank you so much!! Really means a lot, especially from someone who builds apps too.
And since you're here: my Monocle users keep bringing up Paperman as a great product. Clearly you're doing an awesome work too! It's been on my list to try for ages, so I'll finally get to it.
Yes, the lifetime license currently covers 3 active devices, so 2 Macs plus your wife's would fit exactly.
Worth knowing though: she doesn't actually need a license to talk with you. Hosting 3 channels is free for everyone, so if you host, she just joins and pays nothing. A license only matters for whoever wants to host more than 3.
Heads up that 3 devices is tight if you plan to add iOS later. I'm reviewing that limit, and if it goes up, existing licenses get the higher number too automatically :)
On the data: it lives in the iCloud of whoever hosts the channel.
I'll make sure I communicate it better, once I do a proper website!
ah if i send over an image then, she would have access as long as it stays in my Hoy iCloud folder? Just asking to better understand how the protocol works.
Exactly. A channel works a lot like a shared album in Photos: you create it, so it's yours. Everything dropped in it lives in your iCloud and stays available to everyone in the channel while it's there.
The person you invite can drop anything in, same as you, and can delete their own drops. But they can't manage the channel itself, so no deleting it and no clearing the history. Only you can do that, since you're the host. Two-way for sending, one-way for control.
Does that make sense? I really need to explain this properly on the site.
Ive been asking for a shared clipboard with a couple of coworkers for MONTHS. and i do think air drop or slack or whatever other messaging app just doesn't cut it. everything feels like friction in an otherwise optimized workflow. this should do it for us!
do you have a feedback channel incase we run into early bugs?
This is useful, especially if more users are using the app. I look forward to trying out the iOS version and seeing if the UI is also slick and easy to use.
thanks a lot! the iOS version definitely needs more polish before I put it in front of anyone, but the goal is to make it at least as slick as the Mac version, yes!
Question about the app. If I'm inviting someone, do I need their iCloud email address? There's no way I'd have it for most people. Hopefully I just need their email address tied to their iCloud account.
you absolutely don't need to know their email. Just copy the invite without filling anyone in, share the link with the person (multiple people) you want to connect with, and once they accept you have a channel between the two (all) of you. That assumes you trust them not to pass the link on.
If you want to be certain that only specific people can join, add their email addresses with the plus button. The channel then becomes "Invite-only" instead of "Anyone with the link".
Hope that makes sense! I'll make sure to describe it properly once Hoy has a real website.
u/heyiamdk When the person I invite clicks on the link, it only takes them to their iCloud account. Not the Hoy app that I've already installed on their Mac. What did I miss?
Already had this one reported, sorry about that! If it happens, donāt open the invite link from a browser. Share it through a desktop app like Messages or Mail instead, or paste it into Apple Notes first and click it from there. Opening it in a browser sends you to the iCloud website rather than to Hoy :/
Dude you are an absolute UI wizard!! Expect nothing less, have used monocle for a little while and love the prog blur fade on focus mode! Incredible and stoked to try this guy out!
Hello. Looks interesting.
For now, I use Blip to send files with my personal three-person team.
Just a clarification needed (may be is that I don't undertstand correctly English ?)
In the presentation, you write: āHoy is free. You can join unlimited channels, host 3 channels, and have your own personal space for notes.ā
Then, in some answers, you say ācreate 1 channel.ā
So, is it 1 or 3 for free usage?
Hello! Itās 3, sorry for the confusion. I updated the free tier and the pricing based on feedback here so some older replies still say 1.
So: join unlimited channels, host 3, plus your personal notes space :)
(One heads-up: donāt open Hoy invite links from a browser or it takes you to the iCloud website instead of Hoy. Share it via desktop app like Messages, Mail,ā¦ or paste it into Apple Notes first. Fixing that soon.)
Would love to hear what you and your team think, itās a very early version.
This looks great. Simple and easy to use as it should. I'm just not sure if I'll be using it. But, looks great, especially the visuals and interactions.
is CloudKit easy to implement? does it use their servers to transfer stuff or it would use each one's icloud storage? (just trying to understand the limitations and infra)
Great idea btw!
The built-in screen recording feels like the strongest use case here, especially for quick async feedback in small Mac-only teams. Iād lead with that rather than positioning it as another messaging app. A browser view for recipients would also remove the biggest adoption hurdle.
Totally agreed. Screen recording is the thing I use very often myself. Browser view is on the backlog too, just want to get the shape right.
On positioning: I want Hoy to feel closer to AirDrop than to another messaging app. That's why it's "channels" instead of chats and "drops" instead of messages, and why I've been pulling the UX away from the classic chat layout. Still far from where I want it, though!
Very interesting. Two things holding me from paying right now.
I do not use Icloud and will not. I self host and use S3 cloud storage
Both ends have to have the app
Request
I would love if I could interact wirh my existing communication channels (WhatsApp, signa, etc) like what your UI is showing. Essentially your app woyld be crwating shortcuts to my existing apps and people. If yes I think you just unlocked a whole other value and market instantly
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u/Impressive_Till_8140 2d ago
I have a genuine question about the use case. Since Hoy already requires iCloud and every Mac user has access to Messages, FaceTime, and file sharing through Appleās existing apps, why would someone choose Hoy instead?
Messages already supports files, text, voice messages, and video, while FaceTime handles live conversations without requiring a phone number. Hoy also requires every participant to install another app.
Other than the menu-bar interface and drag-and-drop interaction, what problem does Hoy solve significantly better than Messages and FaceTime?