The end, and the beginning, as Tact enters App Store
November 28, 2022
Tact is now available in the iOS and macOS App Stores. Read our official announcement. Get it here.
With this release, one chapter in the history of Tact ends, and another one begins. It goes from a silly little idea, to a real app in the store. While still being quite small, and possibly silly.
Looking back
I’ve written quite a bit about Tact over the past few years. About why we made it, and how it has evolved.
February 2021. Initial announcement
December 2021. Public beta announcement and my reflection on it
I just re-read these. Everything that I wrote before still holds true today.
Here is a key thought from my public beta reflection:
We designed Tact to be a safe environment, where you can be free from unwanted intrusion. The Internet can be unwelcoming and hostile. We can’t fix all of it, but we can design our own little corner of it, where you only hear from those who you want to hear from.
As I work on Tact, I keep going back to this idea, and it still very much keeps guiding how we think about the project. Today, I also add the aspects of sustainability and predictability. We have been running the project for a few years, and can continue running it in its current form for many more. We won’t need to “pull the rug” and surprise you with abrupt changes to our business or product. It will keep evolving, but in a fashion that extends, rather than disrupts.
Looking forward
I ask you to do three things.
Try
Just get it from the App Store, and try starting a chat with someone. It’s free and easy to get started, and you don’t have to pay anything if you have three or fewer chats.
If you don’t have anybody to chat with, here are the links for myself, Priidu, and our big Everyone joinable chat.
Buy
If you end up having more than three chats in Tact, it tells me you find it valuable and useful. Tact then asks you to buy a monthly or yearly subscription to create and join unlimited chats. You can also choose to buy the subscription even before you hit the chat limit.
The future development speed of Tact depends on how many people buy it. This does not concern operating Tact in its current form, or doing ongoing maintenance. There are very few ongoing operating costs, and we can keep the lights on basically forever in its current “side project” form, even if nobody buys it. We would very much like to spend more time and effort on Tact, but it will directly depend on how many people find it valuable and are willing to pay for it.
You may look at the current offering and say “Tact is expensive, and there are more feature-rich products out there for free.” And you’d be right. I humbly ask you to think of this partly as crowdfunding, and consider not only the current form of the product, but also where we can take the Tact vision further with your contribution.
Say
Don’t be a stranger. After trying Tact, and especially after paying for it, you have every bit of right to say what should happen next.
Tact is not “done” by any means. It has bugs like any software, and many features we chose to postpone, some of which you could even say are “essential” for this kind of chat app. What should we do next, and in what order?
Please let us know, and let’s keep building it together. I won’t promise that we will immediately build every idea that you think of, but we do value and consider all your thoughts and discussion.
Speak with us:
Chat in Tact: myself, Priidu, and a big “Everyone” joinable group
Bugs and discussions: our public community on GitHub
Email: support@justtact.com
Twitter: @justtact
Mastodon: @tact