Show HN: A tool to help you remember shit you are interested in (recall-app.com)
I've been working on Recall for a while now, it had some initial traction in the beginning which has since died down now. I am facing the inevitable question of whether to continue with the project. I just put out a new release and it would be helpful to get advice from the community on what they think of the idea and my implementation.
179 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 245 ms ] thread> 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)
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).
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.
[0]: https://github.com/NeoApplications/Neo-Backup
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33344734
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.
To me, when something gets lost I accept it gladly, because IMHO the thermodynamics of my effort vs my available time make it irrelevant.
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 want a browser extension to "send to recall"
It could save me to have 100 tabs saved by groups of interest...
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.