Your writing
and media live
with you.

Your video, audio, photos and writing start on your own device, and the originals stay there. You pick who each file is shared with. You can put your story on your own website, served from your own device while it's on. Readers don't need an account.

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HummHive app demo showing the Cosmic Surfers episode’s media library.
HummHive app demo · Cosmic Surfers

So what is it?

HummHive is a protocol and an application to keep your media on your own devices and share it with the people you choose.

The application is what you see and click. The protocol is the rules underneath, so your device can share with other people's devices, peer to peer.

A Hive brings your material, people and tools together. For example: an episode's video and audio, the people you invite, and the tools you add. You choose who joins it.

See a Hive
take shape.

One episode’s material, the people behind it, and the story they share. Choose a step to explore how the pieces fit together.

Start a Hive, add the episode’s video, audio and photos, invite your people, then post the story to their feeds.

Make it, write it,
put it out yourself

From the crew’s Hive to a website they run.

The sample creator at camp with a laptop.

Putting the episode on a website is a separate choice from sharing it inside the Hive.

Back at camp, the crew has reviewed the shared material. Selected photos and writing become “Into the forest”.

They set up a website and serve the story from one member’s computer while it is on. Readers can open it without joining the Hive.

The original footage, audio and photos remain on each creator’s own device.

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Your people,
not the whole internet.

Invite them into your Hive. A Hive post stays off the open web unless you put it on your website.

Post the Into the forest story, and their feeds catch up as it arrives.

Send them messages and media, one to one.

See a story reach another member's feed

Keep another copy.

For anyone who doesn't want to use the cloud.

Keep your media on your own devices.

Ask a Peer-Host, a device in your Hive with peer hosting turned on, to keep another copy of the episode's files. In Cosmic Surfers, that can be another member's computer.

See how another copy is kept

What works.

On computers and phones: messages with media, sharing into a Hive, another copy on a Peer-Host, your website from your own device, and linking your devices.

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This is Cosmic Surfers, the sample Hive from the top of the page, with the episode “Into the forest”, so you can explore how the app works using sample content.

Watch it work.

A recording from the Equinox briefing of 24 September 2026: the team makes a story and puts it on a website from their own device.

Make a story, put it online · 2:19
Full Equinox briefing · 17 min

Put the story
on your own website.

Pick a few frames, add your writing, and put the episode's photo story on a website you set up.

One episode’s source material.

Forest path from the sample riding clipThe rider’s helmet in the sample footageThe sample campfire scene
  • Drone opening.mp4The ride through the forest
  • Rough cut.mp4The crew’s first cut
  • Interview audio.mp3Plays in the app
  • Three selected stillsThe images for the photo story

Sharing a clip with a group and putting a story on your website are separate choices.

Cosmic Surfers Photo-story preview
A motorcycle rider follows a narrow forest path in the sample episode

Episode 01: Into the forest

A narrow trail, a ride beneath the canopy, and a quiet evening back at camp. Three frames tell the story of the episode.

Read the photo story

The ride in

The wide frame puts the rider in the landscape. A closer view brings us back to the person making the journey.

A close view of the rider’s helmet

Back at camp

The campfire is the closing frame. The source clips stay in the crew's own libraries. Selected stills come together here for readers.

A rider beside a campfire with a laptop in the sample scene

The web story shows photos, writing, video and audio.

Keep it, share it,
export your data.

The episode starts with your files, on your device. They stay there when you share a clip or put a story on your website.

Keep your originals.
Offline, you still see what is already on your device.
Choose what you share.
Choose an audience for the episode's clip. Put selected photos and writing on a website you set up.
Export into a fresh Hive.
You can export your data as a file, then import it to create a fresh Hive. The file is plain text, not encrypted, so keep it private.
How export works
On your device
A rider on a forest trail, from the Cosmic Surfers sample episode.Cosmic Surfers · Sample Hive
Episode 01 · Source filesIn your library
Into the forestYour photo story

Where your story goes
after you post it.

Devices running HummHive pass it along, so members’ feeds catch up.

See how your device connects

A story reaches other devices.

The story appears in another member’s feed.

How this works

Sign and post a story from your device. Other devices exchange it so members’ feeds can catch up.

  1. You postA signed story
  2. Other devicesHold copies of the story
  3. Other feedsCatch up as it arrives

Scroll sideways to explore the full diagram.

Animated diagram: A story reaches other devices.

Website stories and restricted media travel differently.

The photo story and the source clip can have different audiences.

How this works

A story is public on the web only when it's on your own website. Restricted media is locked to the people you chose. Change who can see a file later, and anyone who already had access keeps it.

  1. Website storiesNot encrypted
  2. Restricted mediaEncrypted for its audience
  3. Audience changesAnyone who had access keeps it

Scroll sideways to explore the full diagram.

Animated diagram: Website stories and restricted media travel differently.

A copy beyond your device.

Ask a Peer-Host to keep another copy of an episode file.

How this works

You can check where the file is held.

  1. Your fileStarts on your device
  2. Peer-Host requestSent to a Peer-Host in your Hive
  3. Another copyCheck where it is held

Scroll sideways to explore the full diagram.

Animated diagram: A copy beyond your device.

Find a connection.

Find the devices that can exchange your episode’s material.

How this works

Find other devices. Servers help your device find other devices and connect from behind a home router.

  1. Your deviceLooks for other devices
  2. ConnectionServers help past a home router
  3. Direct pathUsed when available

Scroll sideways to explore the full diagram.

Animated diagram: Find a connection.

See your connections change.

See the devices connected while you share.

How this works

See which devices you're connected to and watch transfer activity change.

  1. Connected devicesShown as they connect
  2. Transfer activityChanges with connections

Scroll sideways to explore the full diagram.

Animated diagram: See your connections change.

Set the pace on your device.

Choose the upload pace for your source files.

How this works

Set how fast you upload and how many transfers run at once.

  1. Upload speedSet a maximum
  2. Parallel transfersSet how many at once
  3. This deviceYour own limits

Scroll sideways to explore the full diagram.

Animated diagram: Set the pace on your device.

Small apps, like plugins.

Sidecars add tools to HummHive.

Built
Note to Self, a private place for your own notes.
Planned
Playlists with group chat, and peer backup.
Planned for builders
Sidecars that go open source with docs, so you can build your own. The app does the hard part: keeping the data and moving it between devices.
Planned
Adding sidecars made by others.
Write to us about a sidecar

Explore HummHive in a sample Hive.

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