recall-app.com
- Been burned before putting my collected notes into op-software only to find it doesn’t think how I work
- I prefer text files and directories for long term storage. (JSON Data Export _coming soon_? Hard pass)
- I don’t have problem with paying for software that I like to use. But I don’t like software subscriptions that lock up my info or have arbitrary limits. I’d rather have full data access with less functionality, and pay intermittently for better functionality.
- don’t want my data stored off site. Period.
There is interest in this topic. If this is your thing, I say keep at it.
It seems like the idea is to build a database of people, movies, Wikipedia articles and such and then be able to find them via search/links. But I'm not at all sold on why I need this in my life.
Is there a way to make the value clearer? Am I just not in the target audience? Who is going to see this and say "TAKE MY MONEY" and why?
I'm thinking of products that were instant sign-ups for me...
Spotify: For one price, listen to all the music on Earth whenever you want. TAKE MY MONEY!
Gmail: Fast email with 2 GB storage. This was such an instant sign-up they had to make an invite system to slow people getting access.
Maybe could add something like Lichess: Chess training and games, with modern UX, offered open source as a public good. I mean, if you're at all interested in chess, that's an instant sign-up, right?
Trying to say, this idea of presenting a clear value isn't limited to big players like Spotify and Gmail, but can also be done by smaller companies if the value presented is really clear.
What should someone see that makes them instantly recognize they need this in their life, because that's what I'm totally missing here.
I second that. It was really the first time in a while where I did not have to wait just to see the landing page. It is a little sad that is not considered normal, but here we are.
Another one would be authors that are writing books that involve a lot of places, things, or people that need to be either accurately described or, in the case of sci-fi or fantasy, have an imagined description that needs to be recorded for continuity.
I'm imagining it sort of like an online version of a file cabinet where you have folders on all kinds of topics filled with notes and printouts. A more digital analogy would be a visual, annotated bookmark folder.
I have some folders like this at work. I need to access a lot of various reference manuals or standards that are difficult or impossible to find online, either because they come from a vendor under NDA or come from databases that are expensive or just hard to maintain continuous access to. Sometimes they are scans of hardcopies that I've had to request because the information is just so old. Whenever I get my hands on something I know I'll probably need again, I save a copy to my folder system. I'd love some sort of better filing system for these that would allow me to annotate the documents and provide some sort of synopsis that would help me remember why it's useful or why I used it in the past.
Isn’t that clearly stated in the name of the post: It “helps you remember shit you are interested in.”
Personally I run into interesting things all the time, and it seems great to be able to have a place to store them so I don’t forget about them. That’s clear value to me. I’m honestly a bit puzzled how you don’t see value.
For me, I would need an app in order to start using this though. Otherwise it’s just to much of a hassle to add stuff (which means I wouldn’t do it).
web site >> mobile web site >> mobile (cr)app
To take an example, right when a search has brought you to something you want to read on reddit, reddit distracts you with a popup telling you it is ‘better’ to use the app. Well, once you’ve installed the app they punch you in the face right away because you’ll have a very hard time finding the content that led you to reddit. (What did you think would happen, honestly?)
There are some cases where you really need a mobile app but if I have a choice at all I use the web, particularly if it involves viewing content or ordering something.
>Personally I run into interesting things all the time, and it seems great to be able to have a place to store them so I don’t forget about them.
I've found an unexpected use case here for Telegram. I have Telegram open all the time in the background on all my computers and mobile devices. It has a 'Saved Messages' feature, which shows up in your contacts list like another conversation. Whenever I come across 'stuff' [or is 'shit' the cool word?] I want to remember it's really easy to just copy a link... or image/video URL... or some text I'm interested in... or scribble down an idea I've had and send/share it to 'Saved Messages' in Telegram.
Then, when I've got time to catch up and digest. I just open the 'Saved Messages' conversation in Telegram and there's all my stuff... er... 'shit' including; web previews, photos, embedded videos, etc. And it's there, instantly synced across all my devices. I also find myself using this as a really quick method of sending files between mobile devices and desktop/laptops. For me Telegram syncs instantly and 100% reliably --which is more than I've ever found Google Drive and its ilk to be capable of.
My 2c: Storage and speed are nowhere near as important as spam blocking... Which Gmail is superior at, and the primary reason for it's choice
To me, it would also be important that the data is stored in an encrypted form on the server and that the key remains in the browser and has to be stored by me.
Personally, I would like to have the option to discover people who work on similar notes, think travel app [1] for mental journeys. It would also be nice to have some social features like voting on links or sharing notes or sets of notes so that others can annotate them. Bonus points if those social features use an open protocol so that users from other note taking apps can join.
Unfortunately I would have to redo my syncing if the content on the server was encrypted which I don't plan to do anytime soon.
The social idea is great.
I don't see much value in letting someone else track the things I'm interested in over the course of my life though. Handing that kind of data over is highly likely to result in it being used against me later. Even assuming that you'd never think of using this data for market research or selling it to anyone the truth is that services are often bought up or management changes hands long after people started submitting their data.
> Mobile apps in the Play and App stores.
> News subscriptions - this feature will allow you to subscribe to news events relating to a note helping you stay informed on things you are interested in.
> Add more built-in data sources.
> Improved categorization.
> Spaced repetition.
> News/article feed based on user interests.
Charge 5 bucks a month for those features and see if people bite. That's a lot of stuff that most apps don't have. Especially the subscriptions and the spaced repetition functionalities.
If people pay for your work, then you've got all the signal you need to keep going.
Sure, I like not paying for things (if I don't have to), but if I start to use it and really get into it... if there is no clear monetization... it gets a little scary. Plus if I'm really into it, I want to support it. Some of my favorite apps are solo developers or small time shops (like Inkdrop)
We’re storing some valuable stuff here. I wouldn’t want to put the kind of time I put into research and then find one day it’s gone (like Reader, Delicious, etc.)
What are the plans in those instances?
What happens if Recall disappears one day?
It is understandable that there is some hesitation to invest your time into adding your information to a new application and the obvious fear that it may just disappear one day. I want to reassure you that we are fully committed to Recall for the long term. But in the unlikely and unfortunate case that Recall doesn’t work out we will ensure that there is more than enough time for users to export their data so that it can be moved to another application. We would also open-source the project to allow users to host Recall themselves.
Being able to export a snapshot would be ideal.
Doesn't seem too difficult to implement now that I think of it. Could use a likes/retweets ratio to determine what's actual content and what are engagement posts.
I won't use Recall. It's just another Web app, and thus subject to the whims of the owners (selling my data, injecting ads when other sources of income fail, etc). I would be much more amenable to a desktop app I have absolute control over. They keep my data (assuming I were to use Recall) on their servers - but no comments I found talk about data protection or what happens to my online data if they fail, sell or merge with another company.
These days if I don't get absolute control of my data it's just not going to happen.
A model I would be happy with is a desktop app that syncs with a mobile app, encrypts everything, and is purchasable with a one-time payment.
I'm tired of Internet-everything. It always ends in disappointment for me.
I have to agree with you, I didn't comment before because I didn't want to criticise something that has had a ton of work put into it.
If I was going to use something like this it would have to be local only with the potential to backup to the cloud of my choice, and sync (e2e encrypted) to other devices.
I'm not signing up for a subscription or web version for something I'm capable of doing with text files and folders on a computer, or in a notebook by hand.
I do think a ton of work has gone into this and it looks polished but I don't see a business model in it.
Put another way: Twitter wants you to spend as much time on Twitter as possible. If Twitter can interest you in fake controversies where people get mad about stuff that isn't true or makes no sense, Twitter will happily do that. But you're not gonna put "dig into more fake Twitter controversies" in your recall app. It's there to remind you of what you truly want, not just the things you can be tempted into wasting your life on.
I'd rather pay for an app that's going to make me better than get a free app that's going to make me worse.
This is classic programming from Big Don't Dig Into Conspiracies. Wake up, sheeple!
1. The space is fairly crowded, you'll be competing with Notion, Bear, Obsidian, Evernote to name a few. These guys are big.
2. The statement: "tool to help you remember things you're interested in" is too narrow / too weak. Obsidian has "a second brain for you, forever" which I find a lot more appealing (and broader).
3. Focus on your differentiators: the automated data capture and news feed is AWESOME. This is your sales point. Something like "Your personal automated newsroom". What you're selling is a Bloomberg terminal for your own stuff. You could sell to companies to "get notified of your competitors' products"
4. Since things are stored locally, drop the "sign in" part. You'll get a lot more people on board if they only have to install an app. Get people to sign in to allow cloud backup / syncing.
5. This looks like good stuff!
With that being said, I see two issues:
1. The branding is unrelatable. I don't need help remembering the things I'm interested in. Most people don't, I reckon. However, I'd bet that most people have trouble organizing data related to their interests. This right here is the heart of your product: Bookmarks++. Bookmarks on anabolic/androgenic steroids.
2. "Media" as the default selection immediately makes me feel like this is another Letterboxd. I know it's not. I know it's nothing like Letterboxd at all, but that's the feeling it gives me.
So, yeah… the first feeling I got looking at the homepage was: "Recall? Movie Posters? Is this Anki meets Letterboxd?"
I know that this isn't your intention, but as we both know: the first five seconds are crucial. It's so easy to click away.
Good luck! I hope this helps and I hope you succeed.
2. I went with media as the main image as I thought it would be the most relatable. I guess I could put the everything section first.
Functionality to build on top of the core concept Reminders, obviously Tools to plan & schedule with friends
Business model: Sell ads or coupons to the bookmarked locations. Unfortunately this model sucks pre-scale, but it could be started locally if that helps.
The idea could definitely be gamified, if people still do that and if the planning with friends feature works there is a viral aspect to the idea.
I do a lot of browsing/research from my phone, and I would love a method of better categorizing things than sharing a url to myself on slack.
I would love something like this that I could quickly hit with a share sheet from iOS, add some quick notes/tags, and then just keep on browsing. Bonus if it could include a screenshot that I could markup/highlight or automatically take an archive.is snapshot of the site for later backup reference(I've lost many research references over the years due to link rot).
Here's a feature request: make it easy for me to import/dump stuff from the other methods that I've tried to use to store things I'm interested in. For example: HN favorites, Reddit saved posts, Firefox bookmarks, Instapaper bookmarks, ios notes
Thanks for the feature request. I have import browser bookmarks in my backlog. I think I can prioritise it higher. If you share your email I can mail you when its ready.
An import from Pocket would be cool
I'm wondering if you considered or is using RDF for the linking (since Wikipedia, imdb, etc. seems to implement some kind of ontology)
There is a huge market for knowledge tools for students and academics, and universities, libraries and high schools often buy these tools in bulk to be a student resource.
I gather all my academic articles in Zotero and can cite them into my papers from Zotero > Obsidian > Pandoc Cite
I think your tool could be a great way to help me gather all the media around my research.
If you could tie into a citation workflow, into pandoc, you’d be on a big winner.
Look into how academics might want to go from your tool > obsidian > pandoc > word to generated cited references from your tool.
https://citeproc-js.readthedocs.io/en/latest/csl-json/markup...
I didn’t know this before but if you have an undergrad, you can add a one year honours in research even at a different institution or a two year masters by research.
We’ll that’s how it works in Australia anyways.
We already have several online database that could serve as "global knowledge graph" (wikidata, golden, imdb, rateyourmusic, goodreads, letterboxd, anidb, etc). The problem of to integrate it.
It has been a huge quality of life improvement for me after I started using it, But I guess Anki and the HW requirements creates friction for a decent adoption of this system.
For example, if I setup a task that I need to purchase a road toll sticker every year and that can only be acquired at a gas station, the app should track when the current sticker expires and prompt me when I am at a gas station. At the store, I get a notification with all missing gorceries that I've earlier identified back home and inserted in the "Groceries" task list. When I come back home, the app will prompt me to, for example, read the gas meter that is due that day.
I'm currently using Google Tasks for these tasks but it's less than optimal, although the gmail integration is pretty cool. Your Recall app could make up the Archival module of a great tasklist; i.e, if items come up that seem important and I might later need them (such as, say, a particularly interesting hackernews thread or news item), I need a fast and easy way to archive them with as much context and metadata, so I can easily reference them later. Such items could have optional reminders, so I can snooze them and they keep popping up.
I don’t see myself replacing my Obsidian notes with this any time soon, but it could serve the niche of the first pass of research – a quick way to collect information, where afterwards I’d consolidate my findings into more permanent notes in Obsidian.
What would make this really useful is more data sources. As far as I can tell, Recall’s “create note with search” only uses Wikipedia right now. It would be awesome to be able to compile information from multiple sources into one note. For example, I was just looking into anemia. It would be cool if, in addition to Wikipedia, I could pull in some information from WebMD, Mayo Clinic, or Harvard Health, too. A more fine-grained way to pick and choose what information I want to add would also be useful.
Nice project, I’ll keep an eye on it! Also, good job with the mobile UX, it’s pretty good!
One issue I have with data dumps like this is keeping them from getting bloated. Say I use this a lot and have gathered 10,000 entries over two years -- how can I be sure that 1 entry I want to recall isn't lost in the sea of the other 9,999?
No tagging system. Categories are not tags. Tags are essential, and also search options for basic things like searching all contents of note, or just note names, or just within a category/folder. Customisation of home screen (recent and fav notes), pinned notes, etc.
This is why I'm building my own notes app, just for me, no plans to release it. I think these kinds of apps end up being very personal, in terms of customisation and features. For example, I need specific UX that allows fast access to notes, and I definitely prefer having an old fashioned "save" button in the note rather than auto-saving as you type (I can't stand that). Lots of little details that please me but not necessarily others. Also.. kind of on the easier side of web app building, which suits me!
There are many different “brain types” (apologies if that’s an established term already, I’m using it generally). We know the different types of learners (auditory, visual, kinaesthetic), and we’re just starting to realize the wide range of the different internal senses (aphantasia has now branched significantly and we’re (for example) finding people with nothing but a monotone inner monologue, or people who can easily visualize a 3D shape but can’t use their “mind’s ear” to hear, and many many more.)
Personally, I am a kinaesthetic learner/thinker with object permanence issues and one of the challenges in my life has been keeping track of things. In interviewing people I’ve found that this combination is not very common in the population, but is there. One of the strengths of his combo is “feeling” the connections between things. Like Graph database vs SQL.
This tool strikes me as being written by someone who struggles with similar challenges, whether they have the same combination of mental traits or not.
- “What was the movie with that really meaningful theme? I think it would help communicate what I’m trying to communicate..”
- “I’m at a restaurant. Did I like this compelling menu item the last time I had it or am I going to be re-disappointed?”
- “Friend asked me for book recommendations. What books have changed me for the better and why?”
- “What breakthroughs have happened in (branch of science)? Yes I could read papers, but which ones have I already read?”. I have an example on this one, though I can’t tell you why I remember it clearly: When it came out way back in the day I read one of the first articles about connecting organic material to silicon (Scientific American I think). Over the years that led to OLED technology and I think the whole journey (and it’s offshoots) are pretty cool.
- “Who have I met who would be interested in ______?” / “... who I can ask for good advice about this problem?”
For many these are trivial questions, but for people like me they can be as challenging as climbing a mountain.
My problem with an app like this is that it is a huge investment before it pays off. And will it pay off? Will I check an app while out for dinner? Some people might but I definitely wouldn't.
Restaurants are more complicated because of the social view of checking your phone while out with people, but I think a similar place where it shines is the grocery store. The number of times I bought the same flavour of listerine that I can’t stand is upsetting.
I want a browser extension to "send to recall"
It could save me to have 100 tabs saved by groups of interest...
No need to figure it out immediately. Here are some ideas that spring to mind:
- Should automatically or manually ingest bookmarks
- Should be able to integrate with macos notes somehow
- Should be able to integrate with email providers - this is bordering on insanity but casual users might like it. Bonus points if you respect privacy and do it securely. HN will hate me for this suggestion, but half of it works at privacy violating corps anyway. Perhaps it could be done as a gmail or google docs addon?
- Integrate with reddit or anything that lets you save or favourite urls
I scatter links all over the place and would be nice to have them all centralised and searchable. Its a really cool app imo.
I can see how this could grow into very valuable product:
- Saving web-articles removing all the watery text from it, stripping original down to an essence
- Not just linking articles on similar topic, but coming up with some insights/synthesis of new knowledge by blending linked knowledge (i.e. when several articles exploring some topic from different perspectives it could make whole puzzle come together)
- Feed the news into the insights/synthesis module and notify only if some interesting stuff is generated
Maybe it's having been burned too often by services that I pay for but still fail, but I'd only make the effort if it was independent of your continued operation as a business. If it were all local to my computer or phone and relied on a cloud storage service like iCloud or Dropbox, then I'd give it a whirl.
Sorry, but that's a possible hurdle you're facing if my hesitation is common.
I'm not giving my data to some random small startup.
I also will assume that anyone praising the UI has not actually tested the application but only seen the homepage, because the UX is abysmal. In just 3 minutes it has managed to frustrate me:
- You cannot create a new category from the selector of category while creating a note,
- You have to look for the button to create a new note if not from search, and the fact that it appears on hover only is awful,
- The UI for seeing a note is ugly, the bullet points just seem like a straight up bug because of how weirdly they are placed.
I'd like:
- 2d visualization of the notes and their relationships (just because it's cool)
- some "typed" notes (e.g. for People, or Organizations) so I can keep track of my friend's birthdays, their kids' names, etc. Also reminders to stay in touch for the people you want to prioritize etc.
- a shareable space so you can expand knowledge within your company. People can master areas by learning, and can claim knowledge by passing a quiz or self-assessment. You can also see who knows about what.
If I was investing time in building a personal knowledge base then I'd want to be super-clear about how to export my data from the service. I didn't find any mention of this existing now, just a commitment that it would be there if the service was discontinued.
Good luck!
I don't want Amazon to hoard its information about what books and/or movies I like. I want that to travel with me and let me share it but under my control.
To me, when something gets lost I accept it gladly, because IMHO the thermodynamics of my effort vs my available time make it irrelevant.
What have you tried do so far to market the product?
This app doesn't help with this example, but being interested in something is not enough to remember it.
The first requirement of thought is memory. You can only think with it.
I'm not trying to be cryptic here - it's just a very complex subject unsuitable for this medium because of size, and also I'm not native and lack the proper terms for this kind of conversation.
A small anecdote: my father is approaching the age of 80, and recently approached me sharing he has noticed he was "losing his memory" and didn't like it. I surveyed him and we understood the only memories that were sometimes slipping were only stupid stuff like day-to-day low-priority routine tasks - things that he could really go without: the fact he was forgetting them was more impactful to him at that time than not having performed them, because "he always had such a good memory". Long story short: I instructed him on how to use alarms and calendar on iPhone (he's already a frequent and somewhat comfortable smartphone user). He used them for a while and enjoyed the ease of not having to "remember" the tasks. Shortly afterwards he felt annoyed by so many alarms, and drastically reduced usage. Now he's happy and "feels lighter" knowing he is healthy and not at all forgetting stuff he deems important, and can count on easy tech to help when needed. He also now benefits from scheduling long-term important stuff on google calendar, and having multiple notifications to remember him 1 month prior, 2 weeks, 1 week, 3 days. What he's realizing is there's better usage for his brain and energy than storing easy "memories".
https://www.recall-app.com/faq
>What happens if Recall disappears one day?
>It is understandable that there is some hesitation to invest your time into adding your information to a new application and the obvious fear that it may just disappear one day. I want to reassure you that we are fully committed to Recall for the long term. But in the unlikely and unfortunate case that Recall doesn’t work out we will ensure that there is more than enough time for users to export their data so that it can be moved to another application. We would also open-source the project to allow users to host Recall themselves.
For example, if they are acquired and shuttered (like when fitbit bought and closed Pebble), if legal says they can't, or if the money needed to open source it after the fact is not available because they went bust and already owe creditors (you might need money to do a license review to ensure that releasing the code doesn't violate any third party licenses in software the project depends on).
While I'd like to use that service I have to agree with you. I want to self host this goldmine of personal information myself as well.