Shared houses and co-living

A shared house has a kitchen, a living room and a front door, and people who come and go. A few phones peppered through it make it easier to reach each other without a group chat.

What it does

• A house phone anyone can use. Put a Lounge phone in the kitchen. Anyone in the house scans its code, presses the key it flashes, and it’s their phone: their people on the keys, their calls ringing there. When they walk away it forgets them.
• Who’s around. Press MENU, then 5 to show you’re open to chat; idle phones elsewhere in the house can show who’s here (off until the house turns it on).
• House-line keys. An idle Lounge phone can have keys that call as the house: one housemate, someone’s desk phone, or a whole group (the whole house) at once, where the first to answer takes it.
• A party line. An always-open room everyone in the house can drop into.

Around the house (labs)

With the labs firmware, phones on the same Wi-Fi talk to each other directly, with no server and no internet:

• Intercom: lift, press “Kitchen”, and the kitchen phone rings. “All” rings every room.
• Doorbell: a phone by the front door rings the house phones with the door’s name; whoever lifts talks to the door.
• Dinner’s ready: one key, every phone beeps and shows the words.

The labs build runs on the board; the intercom between two boards is so far tested on a computer. The intercom is meant for your own home network: its audio isn’t encrypted (calls through a server are).

Start

1. Get started and create the house as a space.
2. Set up a Lounge phone on an old tablet in the kitchen.
3. Add a party line under Rooms.