Playful Software @playfulsoftware

Everything we build is focused on one goal: removing technological barriers to enable creativity, productivity, and capability on the web. playful.software Seattle Joined October 2020

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

4 days ago

The next staff-homemade-app we're highlighting gave me this immediate reaction: “How did he even think to do this?” Steve is the designer/engineer behind the animations that make building on Playful so fun to watch. At our last team gathering in Seattle, he built an app that uses your device's camera to read barcodes and lets you hide secret messages inside them. 🤫 Here's how it works: scan any barcode, and the app tells you if there's already a message waiting. If not, it prompts you to add one. Next time someone scans it? They get your message. Just imagine: You leave for work and send your partner a link to the app. They go to the kitchen, scan the sugar — "You're my sweetness." Scan the olive jar — "Olive you very much." (They don't have to be puns. But why shouldn't they be?) Scavenger hunts, running jokes with friends - the possibilities are endless. Before Steve did this, I didn't even know Playful could connect to your camera. Anyway, check out Steve’s amazing hidden message barcode app! And if you want to make your own (or something completely different) let us know! Shoot us a DM or email [email protected].

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

2 months ago

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

2 months ago

Tomorrow, 5/7/26: We’re hosting a free webinar to help teach you how to make mini apps in minutes. Solve your day-to-day problems, make stuff for your friends! It’s simple, fun, and genuinely useful.

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

2 months ago

The whole game changes when you stop trying to build for the world and start building for your world. Because, yeah, anyone can build something now. Distribution solved. If you built a tool that saves you an hour a day, who cares if a million people use it? It already worked. Not everything needs to scale.

Paul Mit @pmitu

2 months ago

yeah, anyone can build something now but how many of them can make it useful and distribute?

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

2 months ago

The tools that actually matter in people's lives won't hide the humanity behind the prompt. They'll celebrate it. That's the world we're building toward.

scott belsky @scottbelsky

2 months ago

i suspect any ai-native social consumer apps that ultimately get traction will feature a novel way of showing (even flexing) the human time/art/ingenuity behind each creation, and will be super collaborative. definitively not a stream of prompt-based generated stuff

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

2 months ago

She didn't ask permission or wait for someone to build it for her. She just... built it. This is what we have to look forward to. People are going to figure out exactly what it is they need and then make it. Fast.

Robleh @robjama

2 months ago

so i blocked youtube on my daughters ipad last week. today i learned she went to Replit and built a tool to watch youtube videos just by pasting the link. and i'm not even mad.

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

2 months ago

The shift isn't just that developers can build faster. It's that the rest of us get to build at all. Now we can all enjoy the journey from idea to actual usable thing. Even if that thing is just a chore tracker that actually motivates your kids.

Garry Tan @garrytan

2 months ago

I came back to code because AI made it possible for me to build at a level I couldn't before. I'm not coding despite being CEO of YC. I'm coding because this is the most important technological shift since the internet and I'd be an idiot to experience it from the bleachers.

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

2 months ago

Your own personal taste is the only taste that matters for the apps you actually use. When you make your own apps, there's no one else's vision to compromise with.

vas @vasuman

2 months ago

“Taste is the only moat” - VCs right before investing in gambling apps, AI to raise kids, and startups with 12,000 fake GitHub stars

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

3 months ago

Okay but what about an app that delivered daily facts in Sheldon's tone? A bazingapp of sorts...

Paul Graham @paulg

3 months ago

I know it's meant to seem an annoying habit, but I'd like it if I had a friend who was constantly teaching me random facts like Sheldon Cooper does.

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

3 months ago

The magic wand already exists. It's just you, describing what you need. We're here to help.

Garry Tan @garrytan

3 months ago

If I could wave a magic wand to bring the future into the present faster, iPhone would become an open platform with open APIs and real consumer choice instead of a walled garden that is increasingly behind the times like the travesty that is Siri

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

3 months ago

Or maybe... people who need things will just start making themselves things they need.

Logan Kilpatrick @OfficialLoganK

3 months ago

With AI coding, it’s possible every app / website becomes an App Store. The second and third order effects of this are interesting to think about.

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

3 months ago

600 people saying "it's over" every morning and somehow the most radical thing you can do is just… make something for yourself. Not for a "market fit" but for your actual life.

Wise @trikcode

3 months ago

There’s a new kind of burnout now. Not from working too much. From trying to keep up with tools, models, frameworks, launches, and 600 people saying “it’s over” every morning.

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

3 months ago

Yep, and take it a step further. Don't just build for an audience you're part of. Build for yourself. Your family. Your actual daily life. The best apps won't be on the App Store. They'll be yours.

George Lampropoulos @GeorgeLampro20

3 months ago

Why would you build an app that you are not passionate about? Like ik so many people who are building apps for cash grab purposes (Ex: looksmaxing/pure slop apps) Why not put your energy into building for an audience you are apart of? (Genuinely curious)

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

3 months ago

Tomorrow, we're hosting a free workshop for folks interested in dipping their toes into the world of AI for practical use. Newbs welcome. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regist…

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

3 months ago

Or... it could be the new sending a good juicy voice note to the group chat. Real, human uses for everyday life and connection.

Naval @naval

3 months ago

Coding an app is the new starting a podcast.

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

4 months ago

You could just make your own social media app and only share it with people you actually want to see content from. It'll probably be better.

Bella @BellaBaddie__

4 months ago

You’re offered $5 million to uninstall Instagram from your phone forever. Would you do it???

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

4 months ago

This problem doesn't exist if you're solving your own problems with personal tools.

Wes Winder @weswinder

4 months ago

no one talks about the biggest risk of vibe coding building so fast that you skip validation entirely speed is a superpower until it helps you build the wrong thing faster make sure people actually have the problem you’re “solving” before firing up claude code

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

4 months ago

Sharing is caring! Why not make stuff FOR your friends? Interact with your friends through the stuff you make! Everyone can be making and sharing!

Amjad Masad @amasad

4 months ago

The joy of sharing things you made with your friends is exactly why I got hooked on programming as a kid, and now everyone can do it.

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Playful Software @playfulsoftware

4 months ago

Tech that allows for the most genuine expression of self is progressive tech. That is all.

signüll @signulll

4 months ago

the internet right now is basically a cheat code for anyone willing to treat it as a playground rather than just a broadcast medium. professional & personal are converging in a way that benefits people who are genuinely themselves online. the personal brand cringe era is

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Ariah Noetzel @airnozel

4 months ago

@martymadrid @andruyeung Who's "we"? Everyone on here really buying coffee every morning? These "trends" not catching on is largely due to the influence of companies who would lose money if your needs aren't continually outsourced to them. I think we're smarter than that now.