8 ms·

Damn, now I need to move faster. My app must be ready by the time they close Wunderlist. I expected an eventual closure, but not that soon. I've spent the last

Damn, now I need to move faster. My app must be ready by the time they close Wunderlist. I expected an eventual closure, but not that soon. I've spent the last two years developing a todo app that would be a good replacement for Wunderlist (and Astrid, if anyone still remembers that). The app will include with some major / critical features both those apps lacked: proper hierarchies / first-class subtasks, automatically-activated contexts (e.g. location), snooze for arbitrary durations, a robust implementation of recurring tasks, and an infinite calendar-like timeline to look ahead. I went full waterfall on it, the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write. I'm currently testing an Android alpha version, and, for me, it works ridiculously well, much better than Wunderlist, which sat on my homescreen since August 2013.

roryisok 10y ago
I do remember Astrid! it was my goto app when I first got a smartphone. I use WP8 day to day but dabble in Android, I'd love to give your app a spin...
- thewhitetulip 10y ago
  astrid is open source now and available on play store.
piyush_soni 10y ago
And then one day a tech giant will contact you for acquisition and ....... :|
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  Yes, I'm aware of this problem. First, we're unlikely yo be acqui-hired, because we're based in Russia. Second, I simply don't believe that this app will reach the levels of success similar to Wunderlist or Todoist :))) But I definitely think that there should be a legal way of protecting existing users of an app from "Our Incredible Journey". Maybe some clause that permits the authors to open-source the app. Are there any examples of this in the industry?
  - GrumpSlverBear 10y ago
    Isn't that what happened with Astrid? It was at least part open source and they released that code when yahoo acquired it. Of course, the buyer may just ask you to remove that clause prior the acquisition.
Rotareti 10y ago
Sounds great! I hope it will succeed. The MS cloud is something I prefer to stay away from.
wikibob 10y ago
One thing that is great about wunderlist is the truly instant sync. Have you been able to replicate that? I vaguely remember reading an interview somewhere about how they accomplished it.
- tucosan 10y ago
  Except that it often does not work, when working on shared lists.
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  Yes. We're using Realm for realtime sync.
afarrell 10y ago
> the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write How many times did you make paper/cardboard mockups and user-test the interactions?
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  Quite a lot. Instead of paper, I preferred on-screen prototypes created in Photoshop and displayed as images on a phone screen.
  - Terretta 10y ago
    Check out: http://www.appcooker.com http://www.appcooker.com
disiplus 10y ago
wunderlist was the only todo app for me that stuck, mostly because it was simple to use, i would drop allmost anything to wunderlist without much structure. and thats why i kept using it. keep the advanced feadures but dont let them cluter the UI .
stymaar 10y ago
> I went full waterfall on it, the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write. Why would you write a ~9k “loc” long spec over 6 month instead of coding it directly ? The only reason I can think of, is if you want to out-source the development. Is there any good reason to work this way on a one-man project ?
- roel_v 10y ago
  Not OP, but once you have a spec, it's much easier to code up. If you're designing while you're coding, you have to switch all the time between 'how should this work' and 'how do I build this'. Thinking and writing down how something should work, should always be the first step - regardless of whether you're on your own or in a big team. (before the obvious objection: exceptions are toy programs which you write to find out how to build something, in which you focus on the technical aspects. The technical aspects ('how does it work') don't matter for the end user (= your potential customer), they only care about 'what does it do'.)
  - kuerbel 10y ago
    It was a hard lesson to learn, but "Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning" holds true in almost all cases.
    - kogepathic 10y ago
      In my experience there is far too little respect for well written specifications. Most colleagues of mine and a few managers see them as a waste of time ("you're over thinking this", or "we'll figure it out later") yet somehow the projects with a specification always end up being done more or less on schedule. The thing about specifications is that you need to be open to changing them if you find it's not working out. Specifications are not synonymous with waterfall development, and it's harmful to treat and view them as such.
    - stymaar 10y ago
      I totally agree with this statement, but here we're talking about 0.5 year of planning ! Planning is important, and cautiously thinking about your features before diving in can save you weeks later on. But spending 6 month in a tunnel, writing specs you'll spend at least a year to implement, is a huge risk : what if your users only use 30% of the features you designed, and lack a missing feature you didn't plan ? You could have figured it out way sooner have you built something earlier and released it. Also, your time to market is way slower and you don't risk losing years of work by missing a deadline … > Damn, now I need to move faster. My app must be ready by the time they close Wunderlist. I expected an eventual closure, but not that soon.
rl3 10y ago
>I went full waterfall on it, the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write. Wow. It's nice to see extensive planning like that. I usually just throw anything that seems like an important idea into a text file on the assumption that it'll be fully hashed out during production at a later time. That method entails far less work, with the caveat of occasionally wondering if you're delusional from time to time. In any case, good luck. I hope you kick ass. If Microsoft employs their usual design aesthetic, doing so should be very possible.
- emodendroket 10y ago
  IMO your biggest competition is probably just whatever comes installed on the phone.
  - sklarsa 10y ago
    Closely followed by the top 5 "todo" apps in the app store with four star ratings or higher.
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  In case of this project (btw, here's a temporary website: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/), it was impossible to quickly throw it together. I had to think it through in one single chunk. The app combines four intersecting concepts: 1. Infinite timeline with addressable days. 2. Recurring tasks that support this infinite timeline. 3. First-class subtasks, which have all properties of normal tasks. 4. Contexts, which hide tasks from the list based on certain conditions. I simply couldn't create a working mental model that accounts for all possible interplay of these concepts without speccing it out in advance.
AdamGibbins 10y ago
If you need another tester I'd be happy to help out :) Currently I use OmniFocus, primarily due to the start dates which hide things until they're relevant, which so many apps (including Wunderlist) lacked. Sadly the Android support is poor and only covered by 3rd party clients that lag massively behind in functionality.
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  Thank you :) I've added a beta signup form at the bottom of the page: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/
huhtenberg 10y ago
> I've spent the last two years developing a todo app Without seeing what you have, a general remark would be that everyone and his cousin has clocked at least some time developing at least one ToDo app. It's a right-of-passage thing for a lot of developers, just like a Weather app is the same for UX designer wannabies. BTW, what set Wunderlist apart is not the features first and foremost, but their bold in-your-face marketing rooted in very pretty visuals and a fake arrogance routine. Whether they had proper hierarchies / first-class subtasks was quite secondary.
- intoverflow2 10y ago
  > what set Wunderlist apart A nice wood texture (not even joking, was totally sold on the visuals in the early days)
- kesor 10y ago
  What set Wunderlist apart is that they have been the archive of my project ideas for the last who knows how many years. While other apps came along and disappeared, I was sure Wunderlist was just "there" when I needed it.
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  (OP here) I've set up a quick website with more detailed descriptions and some screenshots: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ I'm absolutely aware of the rite-of-passage thing, but I'm doing this because I NEED a proper, working todo app. My life will crumble without it. And I'm prepared spend my time and money on it. In any case, there's no going back to Wunderlist now. As for marketing, I'm not worried. All I want is a working todo app, and it will be great if it turns out to be useful for other people.
  - salimmadjd 10y ago
    I wish you had put an email sign up option in your site. You're missing out on potential alpha users.
    - 10y ago
dinglebert1234 10y ago
Todoist is better.
Shadow6363 10y ago
Would you be willing to share the alpha? I've been a long time fan of wunderlist and just put a ton of things into it for an upcoming move. Kind of bummed it's being shut down and would love to try yours out.
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  Yes, of course. Here's the beta signup form, at the bottom of the page: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/
NoGravitas 10y ago
I like your list of features. I currently use OpenTasks on Android, because it's the only thing that syncs (via DAVdroid) with Nextcloud. But while Nextcloud supports task hierarchies/subtasks, OpenTasks doesn't. Will it be possible to do DAV syncing with your app? [For heavy-duty use and project planning, I use org-mode. But there's still no really satisfactory mobile org-mode story.]
mtgx 10y ago
First item on Microsoft's "To-Do" list: - Shut down Wunderlist Now let's hope they procrastinate just like everyone else.
VladimirGolovin 10y ago
It's too late to edit my original comment, but I've set up a temporary website, where I explain this app in more detail, and show some (temporary and very messy) screenshots and designs: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/
- richardboegli 10y ago
  This does look interesting
- frou_dh 10y ago
  Put a signup box for an email list on there, so that we can be reminded once it's closer to release
  - VladimirGolovin 10y ago
    Doing this right now, should be up soon. UPDATE: The signup box is up and running.
viach 10y ago
I wish you get lots of users in your app. And somewhere in several years it'll grow big. And Microsoft or Apple will buy it. And someone will need to move faster to release his to-do, which is much better, of course.
CMay 10y ago
I think the point of Wunderlist was the online synching across devices and the list sharing. It was that there was some trust built up with the brand. I wouldn't just start using some random todo app and allow it to sync my todo lists without having some level of trust built up. Something else that was critical is that I could use Cortana to add tasks to lists while driving or without typing on the keyboard. I think when I want to go deeper in organizing tasks, todo apps are often bad for that simply because a document format tends to do better once you're in the thick. It's better if those things are stored, tracked and organized with the work itself most of the time and todo apps tend to be outside that context.
ThisIsUnfair 10y ago
Does HN have a way of moderating astroturfing? I'm honestly curious. Im aware of the typical HN digressions but it appears lately, threads are just consistently hijacked encircled in twaddles and responses to channel traffic and discussion off to some app. What are the checks and balances if any to keep the astroturfing binge to a minimum and encourage discussions instead of traffic channeling bait.
- grzm 10y ago
  Yes, there is moderation. If you have concerns about astroturfing, you can contact the mods via the Contact link in the footer.
developer2 10y ago
Your barrier in gaining popularity once you launch is going to be cross-platform support. It sounds like you started wholly with Android, with other platforms coming further down the pipeline. These days a product that does not have apps for at least Windows, Android, iOS, and OS X severely limits its customer base. Android essentially represents only a subset of phones and tablets. An app like yours is useless to many people unless it has desktop equivalents, as mobile-only access heavily restricts a user's ability to be productive where and when they need it. I might be an edge case, but I use Windows, OS X, an iPhone, and an Android tablet. Your app could be the most functional and usable todo app out there, but a competing product with 10% of your features is going to wind up being my choice simply because I get to use it across all my workflows. Platform support beats out the quality of the app, every time. Based on your screenshots, the app is wonderful. I simply suspect you have focused too much on launching a 100% complete product instead of starting with an MVP. Obsessing over having a perfect product that launches too late to market, while your competition launches early and takes your cake, is all too common a scenario.
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  Yes, we started on Android, because that's the most efficient way for me to dogfood the app. Another reason why we didn't start developing for more platforms in parallel is that the concept was unproven. I wasn't sure it would work. (Under "the concept" I mostly mean the approach where all non-snoozed or dateless tasks are shown in Today, and you swipe away the tasks that are not yet "ripe" to be done -- whereas in traditional apps you do the reverse - you select tasks to do by starring them during a review). Now that I found out that the concept clearly works well at least for one user (me), the next step would be to validate the concept on a wider group of users. An Android-only soft-launch, or even a closed beta should be enough for that. And if the concept is valid, we'll definitely develop for other platforms, the ones you mentioned. iOS and Android clients will be native, and the desktop apps (Windows and macOS) will probably use some cross-platform technology. And thank you for the kind words :)
  - developer2 10y ago
    First of all, clearly the advice I'm giving is a bit too early for where you are at presently. I think that's giving credit to you for the quality of the work you are producing. Basically, I want this app. You might want to dial back just a tad on the intricate details, out of fear you may wind up never shipping an initial version. Being a software dev myself, I understand that you could spend another year (hell, even 2-3 years) completely hashing out every minute detail. However I think that what you have is getting to the point of being "above and beyond what is necessary" that you need to stop tinkering so much, and find a way to ship something sooner rather than later. When you get around to desktop clients, ignore the seemingly negative consensus regarding Electron[1] if you think it's the right fit for you. All the negativity I've read about it is from "purists" who aren't specifically singling out Electron; rather they are hating on all non-native implementations. I noticed the mention of Xamarin on your site; never heard of it, but I'd be weary as they seem to be oriented more towards mobile whereas you're looking for a cross-platform desktop solution which is where Electron shines. If your goal were to be the gold standard for apps, you should be developing using native OS X APIs; the performance you get from a native implementation on OS X is astounding. However, if you do native OS X you're putting yourself in a position to do native Windows and possibly Linux apps, and the collective work required for native-everywhere obviously does not come easy or cheap - particularly if you are doing this as a solo project without assistance from a team. Electron is a perfectly fine balance for most UIs that are fairly simplistic, which is going to be true even for the most advanced todo-type app. Extra bonus being that if you put in the effort to plan out the Electron app side-by-side with your web/browser-based app, you can share the frontend development between the two, resulting in less overall work. [1] https://electron.atom.io/ https://electron.atom.io/
egypturnash 10y ago
I'm wondering if you're including the Astrid feature I still miss and have never found a replacement for: assigning locations to tags, so that you can do things like have an alert come up with "stuff I gotta do at home" when you get home. If you have this and an iOS version, then you have my money.
nojvek 10y ago
Hope your waterfall spec has caldev integration. I want a to do app that syncs with my iPhone todos and Google todos. I should be able to tell Siri to add something and mark it off later from my desktop. Or add couple of things with Siri, some auto populated from Gmail and notes. Basically I don't give a shit about a walled garden to do app anymore no matter how good it is. I don't want a new app. I'd rather use something that puts my existing apps on steroids.
ernestrc 10y ago
#!/bin/sh\n vim ~/todo.md
calsy 10y ago
Nice looking app, but screenshots are not much use. Do you have release anxiety? 2 years and nothings out but a landing page? If you had released it earlier you might have been able to get some traction right about now when people are forced to leave wunderlist. You want to move faster, then release the app. Customer feedback positive and negative will get you making changes quick smart and you'll get a good sense of initial demand. App development is a continuous process that requires constant input from users. No point in adding features no one asked for, you're just wasting your time. As a wise man once said 'It's better to have released and failed than to never have released at all'.

roryisok 10y ago

I do remember Astrid! it was my goto app when I first got a smartphone. I use WP8 day to day but dabble in Android, I'd love to give your app a spin...

thewhitetulip 10y ago
astrid is open source now and available on play store.

piyush_soni 10y ago

And then one day a tech giant will contact you for acquisition and ....... :|

VladimirGolovin 10y ago
Yes, I'm aware of this problem. First, we're unlikely yo be acqui-hired, because we're based in Russia. Second, I simply don't believe that this app will reach the levels of success similar to Wunderlist or Todoist :))) But I definitely think that there should be a legal way of protecting existing users of an app from "Our Incredible Journey". Maybe some clause that permits the authors to open-source the app. Are there any examples of this in the industry?
- GrumpSlverBear 10y ago
  Isn't that what happened with Astrid? It was at least part open source and they released that code when yahoo acquired it. Of course, the buyer may just ask you to remove that clause prior the acquisition.

Rotareti 10y ago

Sounds great! I hope it will succeed. The MS cloud is something I prefer to stay away from.

wikibob 10y ago

One thing that is great about wunderlist is the truly instant sync. Have you been able to replicate that? I vaguely remember reading an interview somewhere about how they accomplished it.

tucosan 10y ago
Except that it often does not work, when working on shared lists.
VladimirGolovin 10y ago
Yes. We're using Realm for realtime sync.

afarrell 10y ago

> the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write How many times did you make paper/cardboard mockups and user-test the interactions?

VladimirGolovin 10y ago
Quite a lot. Instead of paper, I preferred on-screen prototypes created in Photoshop and displayed as images on a phone screen.
- Terretta 10y ago
  Check out: http://www.appcooker.com http://www.appcooker.com

disiplus 10y ago

wunderlist was the only todo app for me that stuck, mostly because it was simple to use, i would drop allmost anything to wunderlist without much structure. and thats why i kept using it. keep the advanced feadures but dont let them cluter the UI .

stymaar 10y ago

> I went full waterfall on it, the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write. Why would you write a ~9k “loc” long spec over 6 month instead of coding it directly ? The only reason I can think of, is if you want to out-source the development. Is there any good reason to work this way on a one-man project ?

roel_v 10y ago
Not OP, but once you have a spec, it's much easier to code up. If you're designing while you're coding, you have to switch all the time between 'how should this work' and 'how do I build this'. Thinking and writing down how something should work, should always be the first step - regardless of whether you're on your own or in a big team. (before the obvious objection: exceptions are toy programs which you write to find out how to build something, in which you focus on the technical aspects. The technical aspects ('how does it work') don't matter for the end user (= your potential customer), they only care about 'what does it do'.)
- kuerbel 10y ago
  It was a hard lesson to learn, but "Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning" holds true in almost all cases.
  - kogepathic 10y ago
    In my experience there is far too little respect for well written specifications. Most colleagues of mine and a few managers see them as a waste of time ("you're over thinking this", or "we'll figure it out later") yet somehow the projects with a specification always end up being done more or less on schedule. The thing about specifications is that you need to be open to changing them if you find it's not working out. Specifications are not synonymous with waterfall development, and it's harmful to treat and view them as such.
  - stymaar 10y ago
    I totally agree with this statement, but here we're talking about 0.5 year of planning ! Planning is important, and cautiously thinking about your features before diving in can save you weeks later on. But spending 6 month in a tunnel, writing specs you'll spend at least a year to implement, is a huge risk : what if your users only use 30% of the features you designed, and lack a missing feature you didn't plan ? You could have figured it out way sooner have you built something earlier and released it. Also, your time to market is way slower and you don't risk losing years of work by missing a deadline … > Damn, now I need to move faster. My app must be ready by the time they close Wunderlist. I expected an eventual closure, but not that soon.

rl3 10y ago

>I went full waterfall on it, the spec is 266 pages long and took half a year just to write. Wow. It's nice to see extensive planning like that. I usually just throw anything that seems like an important idea into a text file on the assumption that it'll be fully hashed out during production at a later time. That method entails far less work, with the caveat of occasionally wondering if you're delusional from time to time. In any case, good luck. I hope you kick ass. If Microsoft employs their usual design aesthetic, doing so should be very possible.

emodendroket 10y ago
IMO your biggest competition is probably just whatever comes installed on the phone.
- sklarsa 10y ago
  Closely followed by the top 5 "todo" apps in the app store with four star ratings or higher.
VladimirGolovin 10y ago
In case of this project (btw, here's a temporary website: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/), it was impossible to quickly throw it together. I had to think it through in one single chunk. The app combines four intersecting concepts: 1. Infinite timeline with addressable days. 2. Recurring tasks that support this infinite timeline. 3. First-class subtasks, which have all properties of normal tasks. 4. Contexts, which hide tasks from the list based on certain conditions. I simply couldn't create a working mental model that accounts for all possible interplay of these concepts without speccing it out in advance.

AdamGibbins 10y ago

If you need another tester I'd be happy to help out :) Currently I use OmniFocus, primarily due to the start dates which hide things until they're relevant, which so many apps (including Wunderlist) lacked. Sadly the Android support is poor and only covered by 3rd party clients that lag massively behind in functionality.

VladimirGolovin 10y ago
Thank you :) I've added a beta signup form at the bottom of the page: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/

huhtenberg 10y ago

> I've spent the last two years developing a todo app Without seeing what you have, a general remark would be that everyone and his cousin has clocked at least some time developing at least one ToDo app. It's a right-of-passage thing for a lot of developers, just like a Weather app is the same for UX designer wannabies. BTW, what set Wunderlist apart is not the features first and foremost, but their bold in-your-face marketing rooted in very pretty visuals and a fake arrogance routine. Whether they had proper hierarchies / first-class subtasks was quite secondary.

intoverflow2 10y ago
> what set Wunderlist apart A nice wood texture (not even joking, was totally sold on the visuals in the early days)
kesor 10y ago
What set Wunderlist apart is that they have been the archive of my project ideas for the last who knows how many years. While other apps came along and disappeared, I was sure Wunderlist was just "there" when I needed it.
VladimirGolovin 10y ago
(OP here) I've set up a quick website with more detailed descriptions and some screenshots: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ I'm absolutely aware of the rite-of-passage thing, but I'm doing this because I NEED a proper, working todo app. My life will crumble without it. And I'm prepared spend my time and money on it. In any case, there's no going back to Wunderlist now. As for marketing, I'm not worried. All I want is a working todo app, and it will be great if it turns out to be useful for other people.
- salimmadjd 10y ago
  I wish you had put an email sign up option in your site. You're missing out on potential alpha users.
  - 10y ago

dinglebert1234 10y ago

Todoist is better.

Shadow6363 10y ago

Would you be willing to share the alpha? I've been a long time fan of wunderlist and just put a ton of things into it for an upcoming move. Kind of bummed it's being shut down and would love to try yours out.

VladimirGolovin 10y ago
Yes, of course. Here's the beta signup form, at the bottom of the page: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/

NoGravitas 10y ago

I like your list of features. I currently use OpenTasks on Android, because it's the only thing that syncs (via DAVdroid) with Nextcloud. But while Nextcloud supports task hierarchies/subtasks, OpenTasks doesn't. Will it be possible to do DAV syncing with your app? [For heavy-duty use and project planning, I use org-mode. But there's still no really satisfactory mobile org-mode story.]

mtgx 10y ago

First item on Microsoft's "To-Do" list: - Shut down Wunderlist Now let's hope they procrastinate just like everyone else.

VladimirGolovin 10y ago

It's too late to edit my original comment, but I've set up a temporary website, where I explain this app in more detail, and show some (temporary and very messy) screenshots and designs: http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/ http://tuskarr.tilda.ws/

richardboegli 10y ago
This does look interesting
frou_dh 10y ago
Put a signup box for an email list on there, so that we can be reminded once it's closer to release
- VladimirGolovin 10y ago
  Doing this right now, should be up soon. UPDATE: The signup box is up and running.

viach 10y ago

I wish you get lots of users in your app. And somewhere in several years it'll grow big. And Microsoft or Apple will buy it. And someone will need to move faster to release his to-do, which is much better, of course.

CMay 10y ago

I think the point of Wunderlist was the online synching across devices and the list sharing. It was that there was some trust built up with the brand. I wouldn't just start using some random todo app and allow it to sync my todo lists without having some level of trust built up. Something else that was critical is that I could use Cortana to add tasks to lists while driving or without typing on the keyboard. I think when I want to go deeper in organizing tasks, todo apps are often bad for that simply because a document format tends to do better once you're in the thick. It's better if those things are stored, tracked and organized with the work itself most of the time and todo apps tend to be outside that context.

ThisIsUnfair 10y ago

Does HN have a way of moderating astroturfing? I'm honestly curious. Im aware of the typical HN digressions but it appears lately, threads are just consistently hijacked encircled in twaddles and responses to channel traffic and discussion off to some app. What are the checks and balances if any to keep the astroturfing binge to a minimum and encourage discussions instead of traffic channeling bait.

grzm 10y ago
Yes, there is moderation. If you have concerns about astroturfing, you can contact the mods via the Contact link in the footer.

developer2 10y ago

Your barrier in gaining popularity once you launch is going to be cross-platform support. It sounds like you started wholly with Android, with other platforms coming further down the pipeline. These days a product that does not have apps for at least Windows, Android, iOS, and OS X severely limits its customer base. Android essentially represents only a subset of phones and tablets. An app like yours is useless to many people unless it has desktop equivalents, as mobile-only access heavily restricts a user's ability to be productive where and when they need it. I might be an edge case, but I use Windows, OS X, an iPhone, and an Android tablet. Your app could be the most functional and usable todo app out there, but a competing product with 10% of your features is going to wind up being my choice simply because I get to use it across all my workflows. Platform support beats out the quality of the app, every time. Based on your screenshots, the app is wonderful. I simply suspect you have focused too much on launching a 100% complete product instead of starting with an MVP. Obsessing over having a perfect product that launches too late to market, while your competition launches early and takes your cake, is all too common a scenario.

VladimirGolovin 10y ago
Yes, we started on Android, because that's the most efficient way for me to dogfood the app. Another reason why we didn't start developing for more platforms in parallel is that the concept was unproven. I wasn't sure it would work. (Under "the concept" I mostly mean the approach where all non-snoozed or dateless tasks are shown in Today, and you swipe away the tasks that are not yet "ripe" to be done -- whereas in traditional apps you do the reverse - you select tasks to do by starring them during a review). Now that I found out that the concept clearly works well at least for one user (me), the next step would be to validate the concept on a wider group of users. An Android-only soft-launch, or even a closed beta should be enough for that. And if the concept is valid, we'll definitely develop for other platforms, the ones you mentioned. iOS and Android clients will be native, and the desktop apps (Windows and macOS) will probably use some cross-platform technology. And thank you for the kind words :)
- developer2 10y ago
  First of all, clearly the advice I'm giving is a bit too early for where you are at presently. I think that's giving credit to you for the quality of the work you are producing. Basically, I want this app. You might want to dial back just a tad on the intricate details, out of fear you may wind up never shipping an initial version. Being a software dev myself, I understand that you could spend another year (hell, even 2-3 years) completely hashing out every minute detail. However I think that what you have is getting to the point of being "above and beyond what is necessary" that you need to stop tinkering so much, and find a way to ship something sooner rather than later. When you get around to desktop clients, ignore the seemingly negative consensus regarding Electron[1] if you think it's the right fit for you. All the negativity I've read about it is from "purists" who aren't specifically singling out Electron; rather they are hating on all non-native implementations. I noticed the mention of Xamarin on your site; never heard of it, but I'd be weary as they seem to be oriented more towards mobile whereas you're looking for a cross-platform desktop solution which is where Electron shines. If your goal were to be the gold standard for apps, you should be developing using native OS X APIs; the performance you get from a native implementation on OS X is astounding. However, if you do native OS X you're putting yourself in a position to do native Windows and possibly Linux apps, and the collective work required for native-everywhere obviously does not come easy or cheap - particularly if you are doing this as a solo project without assistance from a team. Electron is a perfectly fine balance for most UIs that are fairly simplistic, which is going to be true even for the most advanced todo-type app. Extra bonus being that if you put in the effort to plan out the Electron app side-by-side with your web/browser-based app, you can share the frontend development between the two, resulting in less overall work. [1] https://electron.atom.io/ https://electron.atom.io/

egypturnash 10y ago

I'm wondering if you're including the Astrid feature I still miss and have never found a replacement for: assigning locations to tags, so that you can do things like have an alert come up with "stuff I gotta do at home" when you get home. If you have this and an iOS version, then you have my money.

nojvek 10y ago

Hope your waterfall spec has caldev integration. I want a to do app that syncs with my iPhone todos and Google todos. I should be able to tell Siri to add something and mark it off later from my desktop. Or add couple of things with Siri, some auto populated from Gmail and notes. Basically I don't give a shit about a walled garden to do app anymore no matter how good it is. I don't want a new app. I'd rather use something that puts my existing apps on steroids.

ernestrc 10y ago

#!/bin/sh\n vim ~/todo.md

calsy 10y ago

Nice looking app, but screenshots are not much use. Do you have release anxiety? 2 years and nothings out but a landing page? If you had released it earlier you might have been able to get some traction right about now when people are forced to leave wunderlist. You want to move faster, then release the app. Customer feedback positive and negative will get you making changes quick smart and you'll get a good sense of initial demand. App development is a continuous process that requires constant input from users. No point in adding features no one asked for, you're just wasting your time. As a wise man once said 'It's better to have released and failed than to never have released at all'.