Chris Nolet

Founder at Button Computer · ex-Apple

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

Hi there! I'm Chris, one of the founders, and happy to answer this question.

So it takes 6–8 seconds to pull out your phone, open an app and connect to AI. The Action Button helps, but with custom hardware, you get that down to fractions of a second. It really does feel magical when you have low-latency voice AI at your fingertips like you do with Button.

After building this a hundred different ways, I can definitively say that having a button that you use to start/stop/interrupt the AI is the right UX. Once you're committed to having a button: you have to decide the best place to put it. Is hiding a software button inside an app really the best place for this?

I think that hardware makers could achieve the right UX with a hardware button on the phone or watch – but it hasn't happened yet, and we didn't want to sit around and wait.

The hardware button is really just the start: things really fall into place when you start designing apps for voice first. iOS is such a visual platform; very few developers integrate Siri with App Intents. Consumers don't expect it. I suspect phones with large screens will always be 'pixels first,' and voice will always play a supporting role on those devices. The nice thing about rebooting with a new hardware/software platform is that you get to reset expectations. Apps that run on Button are designed for voice first. It's radically different and very cool. That's why we say AI is better on Button.

Happy to respond here if there are other questions!

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@asjorias @_opencv_ Nice! I’d do the usual social: Show HN, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter. If you have PMF, scaling is a lot easier with virality. Before PMF, our only job is to get PMF, and it’s just a hustle to get the first 10-100 customers who love the product. (Ship product, talk to users, repeat.)

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@budhiraja1702 @_opencv_ 🙈 This is going to haunt me. I promise I deleted the favicon! I think Next is just serving the default instead of leaving it blank. If it’s any consolation, the landing page was thrown together quickly, but the iOS and macOS apps are being built with painstaking perfectionism.

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@_opencv_ @asjorias 😂 I don’t know what to say… I appreciate the conversation. I genuinely think Vibe Code Go is a good idea! I think the name maybe misleads people to thinking it’s not a serious tool. But I really do think agentic coding unlocks the ability to code from our phones sometimes.

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@asjorias @_opencv_ Thank you! And super-impressive to have built Stockz as a solo founder at 18… Let me know if I can help in any way. It looks great!

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@aflatoonAutoma @_opencv_ 🙏 Thank you so much!

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@aflatoonAutoma @_opencv_ 🙈 This is going to haunt me. I promise I deleted the favicon! I think Next is just serving the default instead of leaving it blank. If it’s any consolation, the landing page was thrown together quickly, but the iOS and macOS apps are being built with painstaking perfectionism.

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@asjorias @_opencv_ There’s a lot more to the story – as there usually is! I have a lot of experience: second-time founder, ex-FAANG, former venture partner, built some cool things. Vibe Code Go isn’t actually for vibe slop – it’s a real tool for serious engineering work, I promise!

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@brixes_ @_opencv_ 😬 I’d like to think it was both, but I’ll take the complement! 😆

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@leo_litrico @_opencv_ Thanks for the support! You’re absolutely spot-on: voice input is critical. (I can’t imagine using the app without it.) So many other roles have been untethered from their desks since the mobile revolution, 15 years ago. Agentic coding unlocks that possibility for SWEs.

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@JoeDdo @_opencv_ Yes! So many people do this already – it’s actually something people go crazy trying to solve. We just want to make it easy, elegant, simple.

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@realyashnegi @_opencv_ Thanks, Yash! 🥲

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@alamshafil @_opencv_ You can use voice input! Making requests is easier than you’d think. Although yes, for more complex tasks, you probably would want to switch back to the Mac. (You can go back and forth.)

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@mrdviteri @_opencv_ 🫧 I think it’s amazing how much more effective great engineers can be now, though, so – bubble or not – I’m grateful for the new agentic tools that we have. It’s an incredible time to be an engineer.

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@mark_attar87913 @_opencv_ Not the first time I’ve heard that 😜 Sorry for the confusion! It’s using Claude Code under the hood, so it does support reasonably any language. It works best for web development, though.

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@SaidAitmbarek @_opencv_ Wait, there’s an indigo gradient on the top section! Doesn’t that count? 🎉

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@Nitieo @_opencv_ Ngrok or FRP! It’ll be automagic in the future, but in the mean time, there’s a Preview URL on the Mac app that you can use to configure that. It also has a git-diff view for code changes.

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@l1feofeddie @_opencv_ Yes! It’s actually a real app, and I’m a real founder. Please feel free to sign up for the waitlist and ping me if you have any questions!

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@_opencv_ @aflatoonAutoma Honestly, I don’t see any of the issues described here… And believe me, I’d go crazy if I knew there was a pixel off. You’ll have to more specific. (Also, no attitude, I’m asking genuinely. I am actually a professional, not just vibe slopping.)

[Chris Nolet @chrisnolet]

@aflatoonAutoma @_opencv_ Actually I’ve added a Plan and Act toggle since the hackathon prototype 😄 The new, native version is significantly less dangerous by default. (Unless you like to live dangerously, in which case you do you! We support that, too.)