I built reels.chat to research hooks that already worked — not invent ones that might.
Hey, I’m John.
Software engineer building reels.chat
I’ve worked as a software engineer on Insight Timer and Clove—apps used by millions of people every month. When I needed short-form hooks for a product, I kept ending up in the same loop: scroll TikTok, screenshot a few openings, and hope last week’s swipe file still meant something this week.
A caption can’t tell you why a video worked. A chatbot will give you fifty lines no current video has proven. The useful job is watching the openings that already earned views, then naming the pattern.
I built reels.chat for that job. Ask about a niche. It screens this week’s TikToks and Reels, watches the ones that cleared a view gate, and returns hook patterns with view counts attached.
This isn’t just my problem.
People who make or brief short-form keep describing the same gap: hours of scrolling called research, a swipe file that goes stale, and no easy way to attach a view count to an opening pattern.
“Scroll Reels for 4 hours. Call it ‘Hook Research’. Bill accordingly.”
“Your creative strategists are spending hours scrolling Instagram for ‘research.’ And by the time you finally make something, the trend has moved on.”
“How are you actually researching TikTok / Insta?”
I built it for the research step I kept skipping.
I needed current hook patterns with evidence while shipping apps. Not a generator. Not last quarter’s screenshots. This week’s openings, watched, with views attached.
reels.chat is that step before the next test: screen the week’s candidates, watch the ones that already performed, and keep the repeating opening. You still decide what to shoot. Your own account analytics still decide whether the pattern transfers.
If the job is “what’s working in this niche right now?”, that’s the page.
Don’t guess the opening. Watch the Reel that earned it.
Start with this week
Ask about a niche. reels.chat screens this week’s TikToks and Reels instead of dumping a forever corpus or last quarter’s screenshots.
Watch the openings that already performed
Most recent videos are not equally useful. It keeps the ones that cleared a view gate, then watches those openings the way a viewer does.
Patterns with receipts
A caption cannot tell you why a video worked. The result is a repeating opening pattern with the source videos and view counts still attached.
Research, not a generator
reels.chat does not invent fifty unproven lines. It does not schedule posts, scrape creator emails, or replace your own account analytics.
If this is the job you’re stuck on, write to me.
Tell me where hook research gets stuck, or try three days and ask about a niche.