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  • Anonymous

    Great reaction, guys.

    +1 for the new logo!

  • Alain

    Haha, I noticed that icon similarity. I tend to open the wrong application now by accident.

    Perhaps you can take this opportunity to make the icon more refined. Apple’s icon is how good the HipChat icon could have looked (and don’t get me wrong, I love HipChat). Maybe that same amount of polish could go in to the new icon?

  • http://twitter.com/welfaretaco Michael Ireland

    I don’t give a rats furry butt which chat icon you guys use, I’m sticking with Hipchat. You guys provide a service that is VITAL to our business and I honestly find it hard to imagine how we’d communicate as easily without Hipchat. 

    I do own and enjoy two Apple products but as a consumer I’d rather you guys spend that time and money on improving Hipchat (is that possible?) instead of worrying about being crushed by Apples lawyers for the next two years. 

    If the theft was intentional, take it as a compliment. Apple only steals from the best. =) 

  • http://twitter.com/A2kammyo kammyo

    It would be cool for both companies if Apple would finance the change for you, as they precipitated the need.  They can certainly afford to replace your products, the banner hanging in your office, and your t-shirts. Good luck!

  • http://www.miamidesign.co Miami Design

    It’s your logo. Sue them and win.

  • Gerry Power

    4. Ask them to change it, or pay for you to change yours
    Maybe because I am Canadian, but that would be my first choice. 

  • http://mikestecker.com Mike Stecker

    Great attitude to take. You could have taken the low road and gotten nasty with Apple, but you took the high road. Keep your head up and move on. You have a great product BTW.

  • Anonymous

    The ironic thing about this is that if Apple came out with their new chat logo first and you came out with your design next, they would probably sue you.
    This is why I hate IP laws….stiffle smaller competitors and kill off innovation….le sigh….

  • http://benatkin.com/ Ben Atkin

    Great reaction. With GateKeeper you really don’t want to piss off Apple if native apps are an important part of your business.

  • Anonymous

    Class act, guys. Maybe you can write a great native app and get apple to return the favor by featuring you in the Mac App Store forever. Only thing that would make hipchat better is if it is native. 

  • http://www.facethebuzz.com Andrew K Kirk

    What about the option of asking Apple? I know it might sound absurd, but the costs are so low that it can’t hurt to try. 
    I’m not expecting a result, but shouldn’t we always strive to take the high road? Perhaps a civil, polite letter would have some traction. 

    Or, maybe, I’m just too naive :)  

  • Sean Walberg

    I noticed that this morning, too. Even removed iMessage from the dock to eliminate confusion.

    As an aside, I was giving a demonstration during a webinar a few weeks back and someone asked me “what’s that cool looking app in the dock with the two speech bubbles?” So kudos on coming up with something good, even if you end up abandoning it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/danieleran Daniel Eran Dilger

    Perhaps you should also show Apple’s original iChat logo, which you simply reused as your own (with the same shape and color) after changing the direction of the “gloss” sheen and shadowing it with a flipped, black and white version. You ripped off iChat’s logo. Apple did not sue you. You did not create something original and protected.

    Apple’s “new” Messages icon has less similarity with yours than yours had with iChat. Apple’s refreshed iChat logo also conveys some functional meaning, with its ellipsis. 

    Insinuating that Apple owes you something for your slightly derivative version of its iChat logo is ridiculous. You would have sounded far more legitimate (and would probably have gotten more attention for your product) if you’d instead thanked Apple for inspiration for the icon of your next Mtn Lion release (a flatter, glowing but less glossy icon), and then talked about what your product does that is novel or interesting. 

  • http://codeflow.org/ Florian Bösch

    Just send the invoice for the hours working on the logo to Apple.

  • SilentReign -

    I’m not Canadian, but that was my first though, too: how about asking Apple to change theirs?  I know it’s not likely to go anywhere, but it’s worth asking :)

  • http://twitter.com/paulcpederson Paul Pederson

    http://thenounproject.com/noun/blog/#icon-No328

    That’s just how you communicate the idea of two people having a conversation.

    As for the color and gloss, that’s just trendy, pointless 2.0 style.

  • Dwarftox

    It does not even look close to your icon … Why bother. 
    On another hand, you are responsible for ripping off their chat icons into your software.

    Who copy who again?

  • SilentReign -

    I may be naive, as well, but I agree.  Though, I prefer “delusionally optimistic” to “naive” ;)

  • http://twitter.com/AdeptHavok Kyle Thompson

    It does look eerily similar. The least you could do is contact Apple and perhaps they would reimburse you for the costs it takes to chance the icon and logo for HipChat. 

    I’m glad you’re not taking a “THOSE BASTARDS I’M SO PISSED HOW COULD THEY DO THIS” approach, instead you’re just accepting that it could be a coincidence, maybe one that hadn’t been brought to Apple’s attention. 

    They’re not a “screw the small devs” company, so I’m sure they’d be glad to help you guys out in some way.

  • http://xdissent.com Greg Thornton

    Classy handling of the situation. But for those who are out for blood from Apple, I’d like to point out the Apple Developer Forums logo, which has been around quite a long while: https://developer.apple.com/devforums/

  • Anonymous

    this is just complete cluelessness on hipchats part

  • http://twitter.com/ericschiller Eric Schiller

    Change your logo to teal and your work is done.

  • Elton

    Oh man, I can’t believe this is true.

    Dear Pete: overlayed chat bubbles exist since, say, the dinosaur age of the internet. Just Google Images for “chat bubbles” or “conversation bubbles” or “chat” or whatever. You’re just embarassing yourself with this pedant stance based on pure nonsense.

  • http://powdahound.com Garret Heaton

    We’re not claiming that we own the shape – we’re concerned that their new logo is so similar that its confusing to our users. No other apps with bubble logos (iChat/Echofon/etc) have caused our users confusion in the past.

  • Mitch

    Apple used a chat bubble for iChat before HipChat was made. So in a world where people claim ownership over visual metaphors, Apple would be winning. This is not said world though, so it doesn’t matter who used it first. If HipChat’s icon was an exclamation mark within a triangle, I’m sure they’d be pissed at a lot of human-interface designers too.

    Even the composition of both speech bubbles is something I’ve seen before, many many times. It’s universal, and being annoyed that someone else used it is not worth the time, nor is it a sound argument.

  • http://twitter.com/somadigital Jason Fain

    Nice logo and sorry Apple has devoured it without acknowledgement… I had the same ‘copy’ issue happen to me about 10 years ago with my logistic client and their shuffle logo… My client kept their logo and brand… Neither party made any changes.

  • http://twitter.com/coolpowers Simon Windmill

    Nice bit of marketing, guys. I – and many other people – are now aware of a cool-looking enterprise messaging solution.

    It’s unfortunate that you chose what is now a standard representation of “chat” or “messaging” to be your unique company logo though. A quick image search for “chat icon” returned dozens of images, the first page was predominantly white and blue and many had the same proportions and positions of two chat bubbles. (Honestly I’m kind of sick of blue and white because of the visual confusion it’s causing me on my phone and Mac dock these days!) If Apple hadn’t gone that way for Messages, someone else would have. People who are saying you copied Apple first are missing the point – when you’re creating iconic imagery, you SHOULD be using things that are familiar to people.

    It’s also unfortunate that most people today have become aware of this via an article that is a wee bit sensational, throwing the terms “rip off”, “steal”, and “identical” around as if they were true . If we’d seen this blog post first, reactions wouldn’t be quite so extreme.

  • Dan Buchal

    People, Apple did not invent the Chat Bubble!!!  It’s been used in comic strips since 1897.  What was Apple doing back then?

  • Troll McTroll

    Hi I’m Troll McTroll.  You may remember me from trolling Raymond Wong on cultofmac.com.  Failchat needs to man up and sue Apple.  Would RIM stand for this? NOPE!  Be Bold!

  • Troll McTroll

    Also, any publicity is good publicity.  Even if they change the icon it’s still a net gain for HipChat

  • Troll McTroll
  • Hurr

    If I’m not mistaken, I think they were making computers.

  • Dan Buchal

    in 1897…haha

  • Faisal Hourani

    ah common… its 2 bubbles that are used to indicate messaging, you are the first one to use it in this position and Apple sure as hell did not copy you, get over it

    ref: http://bit.ly/whyYM8

  • http://rawlinson.us/blog Bill

    you are mistaken :O)

  • http://powdahound.com Garret Heaton

    We haven’t insinuated that Apple owes us anything (did you read the post?) or that they even saw our logo before making theirs (seems unlikely).

    The only thing that’s bothersome to us is that there’s now a chat app out there with a logo similar enough to ours that our real users are getting confused. Nobody ever had trouble running iChat next to HipChat, nor any other app with a bubble logo. Clearly the new Messages logo is more similar than anything else to date. This just means we have to spend some time rebranding instead of working on more beneficial product updates. That’s a bummer for a small team like ours.

  • NocturnDragon

    Original iChat icon comparison: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/360769/iChat_icon.png
    It’s not like it was a red elephant.

  • http://www.ghoststreet.co.nz/ Tim

    what would apple do in this situation?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5241456 Bryan Paronto

    This is a relevant blog post linked below… Goes to show you.. good iconography is hard to come by, or perhaps theres only one good school of thought on the matter..

    http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ThereIsOnlyOneCloudIconInTheEntireUniverse.aspx

  • Donald Hosek

    They had the Apple Crate, a primitive computing device designed by the great-grandparents of Jobs and Wozniak. Ezekiel Wozniak was proud of the fact that he managed to make the Crate perform addition and subtraction with just five pieces of wood and two screws. Jedediah Jobs pointed to the polished oak trim that was the centerpiece of the new design language of these primitive Apple computers.

  • David

    This is the first I’ve heard of HipChat. So I recommend option 4. Enjoy the increased attention, hopefully gain a few sales!

  • AP

    Yes you did. You said “suing the bastards” for infringement was an option. You decided against on purely pragmatic financial grounds, not because you didn’t think Apple was infringing you in the first place.

  • Ilikeschool

    fuck off, fan(dan)boy.

  • http://twitter.com/rigal François
  • http://twitter.com/imagesbybay IMAGES by Bay

    It is interesting that the curve of the Messages and HipChat or very identical and the iChat is different from both. Try and layer the icons on top of each other.

    Well I think you should take it as Apple really like you icons and then just move on :)

  • Simon75

    Sue the bastards! There is no way that they came up with it on their own! No way!

  • xxdesmus

    Typical Apple … copy someone else and then call it “revolutionary”. It’s too bad they get away with this kind of BS just because they have billions.

  • edd

    yeah, and your team invented the shapes of the 
    bubbles. right…

  • http://profiles.google.com/joramoudenaarde Joram Oudenaarde

    Quote: …After all, who signs up for a service for the logo?

    Actually, a lot of people. While I agree that changing the logo might be the best option out of the three, I don’t think it’s wise to be so light hearted about a logo. Don’t underestimate the way people browse and find apps… if I (for example) see an app that appears to do exactly what I’d like it to do, but their logo looks absolutely horrible, chances are I won’t feel comfortable with buying it. After all, a badly designed logo or interface can take away all the comfort in using the app, regardless of how well the app itself works :)

    Having said that, a new icon is, as you mentioned, probably the fastest and least time/finance consuming option. Too bad Apple didn’t pay attention and created a more original logo though.

  • http://SocialSteak.com/ Stephen Robinson

    Obvious post written for marketing is obvious.

  • http://anthagio.com Anthagio

    The amount of Apple fans that came here and commented without even reading the post is astounding. You’d think people who are fans of such products would be able to take a couple of minutes to read something before responding to it.

    Whatever option you choose, I wish you guys the best of luck.

  • Nick

    Was on the godaddy site the other day and I noticed some art that ALSO was very similar to your hipchat logo.  Wondering if there was some creative commons image that was used initially?  Obviously this logo isn’t EXACTLY the same, but shares many features with yours: 

  • Ziyad

    I have those two app beside eachother, and I always open Messeges by mistake! :S << on those late long nights of work. 

  • Jeff French

    Contentious issue! I understand the frustration, but ultimately agree that the right choice is just to create a newer (and better!) logo. With this experience as context, you now have a new chance to create something even more unique and memorable.

  • Discus-this

    Dell also has this exact icon. Maybe it’s a secret cult thing that we common folk do not know about.

  • http://www.facebook.com/criticaldave David Katz

    Still waiting for that new icon – similarity with Messages is a real pain.

  • http://www.andycru.mp/ Andrew Crump

    Actually he said that others had suggested to “Sue the bastards!”. 

    HipChat has a logo that is significantly different to apples ichat  logo before them, but the same could not be said of the new apple message logo in relation to HipChats. 

    Even so, Pete and hipchat have taken a very balanced view and even suggested that apple probably didn’t copy them anyway “Do I think they copied us? Probably not (but as a designer, I’ll take the compliment)”.