[toast76]

(Shameless plug) https://smidge.app

We had this problem with our product (BugHerd) and built a solution for it. Our success rate was ~1% and we thought we could do better.

We created a JS embed that you install in your web app. It allows you to segment your users and place a call with them from within your app (using webrtc). Unlike email/calendly/zoom square dance, Smidge has a 17-20% success rate to call. It's been huge for us and we're now opening to beta. Would love feedback

(Screensharing, "request a call" and page/user calling coming soon!)

[Aldipower]

Looks good! But it's unfortunately just another "non-self-hosted" solution. Which is of course not your problem. But if you really like to offer privacy to your users, like us, we need a self-hosted solution, so no calls goes to or over foreign servers. Even the loading of the app itself is a problem.

[areichert]

We're working on a self-hosted alternative to Intercom if you'd like to check us out :)

https://github.com/papercups-io/papercups

[toast76]

Yeah I can understand that. This early version requires calls be routed via a server, but being webrtc it can be P2P. We'd like to provide recording and transcription in the near future (with the appropriate user permissions).

Down the track I believe we can deliver a self-hosted solution.

[Aldipower]

Yeah, I mean, it is not a problem to have a server, it just must be ours. :) And paying for a self-hosted solution is also not the problem. We just cannot give up our users privacy, so all the request needs to go to our domains and servers.

[aliakhtar]

I agree, this occurred to me too. I don't want to share my user data with a 3rd party service.

[toast76]

You can also use Smidge without sending us any PII, but obviously segmentation will be limited.

Also in the next couple of weeks, with just a user id, you will be able to place a call directly from Zendesk (for example) without us knowing anything about the user.

[aliakhtar]

Can you make it so I determine the user segment on my end and just send you the user id and segment id? I'd totally use this then.

[toast76]

Yep absolutely. You bucket users on your end and just pass through the user Id and the segment name. Then mirror the segment as call groups on our end e.g. segment='high value'

[agustif]

chaskiq.io is a nice open-source self-hosted intercom replacement.

Has varius API integrations too

[Aldipower]

This looks very promising! Do you think it is a good idea to install the development environment in a lxd container and run it in production? Because I could not find any documentation for self-hosting it. Just the heruko docs..

[agustif]

Hey, I'm currently working on installing this for our company as internal tool. I wouldn't know. But yeah, I'm kinda doing the same and maybe using dokku/ledokku to manage my own heroku-like infra

It is a nice project, but the docs need some love. You can also hire premium support for 30usd/month directly from the creator of the project, which I'm sure would happily help you with your prod deployment!

You have also development docs on docker / ubuntu / mac / win!

https://dev.chaskiq.io/en/articles/install-chaskiq-on-ubuntu...

I would certainly try/ dig deeper / pay 30usd, it's the best alternative I've found so far!

[aliakhtar]

Looks cool, but why can't I find a screenshot of what the widget would look like on my website anywhere?

Edit: Found the answer on the video. Looks like nothing is shown until the founder starts a call with the user.

Suggestions:

- It'd be great if the user could initiate calls too, e.g if they fit in a certain group, let them initiate a call as a form of 'customer support'

- Can you allow audio only calls?

I LOVE this idea though. Will definitely be a user.

[toast76]

Sorry, we are still working on the landing page.

We don't show the user anything until you call them (so as to not interfere with drift/intercom etc). When you call them the current UI is like a mobile call UI.

EDIT: we are working on user initiated calling as we speak (it will show availability of support staff/CSRs)

Audio-only calling is in the next week or two

[alangibson]

Nice design, but I'd definitely get some screenshots toward the top of the first page. As a non-video-watcher, that's the first thing I look for.

[aliakhtar]

See my edit!