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Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

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Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#52

Bug: If "Tasks" is turned off for a Google WorkSpace domain, it shows as an error. The error dialogue is persistent too and I've no option to close it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/2xxcvc7r54mrnua/Screen%20Shot%2020...

Hi Brajeshwar. Indeed, we need access to Google Tasks because all the tasks created in Routine are stored in a specific list in your Google Tasks account. We do not store the tasks on our server.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We prefer to warn users instead of just using their Google Account. As for why we use Google services. It's because most professionals do use Google Calendar. Some don't, we understand. We might serve them in the future but we have to start somewhere. We advertise the desktop app (instead of the Web app) because Routine is intended to be used through a desktop-wide keyboard shortcut so you can capture thoughts and ta…

Thank you for making clear how it works, as that was not directly clear. This is one of the problems with granting access tokens.. there's no way of knowing what'll happen with them. Why not just release a macOS version on the appstore? Or, if you've created a swift version anyway, use that codebase for a universal app? There are also quite a number of apps that allow myself to 'convert' it to a 'native' app, with th…

We could have released on the macOS App Store but there was no benefit at first. We want to control how many people use it at first to make sure that we fix the bugs as they come. We've been working on this for only a few months.

Let us check the problem regarding your 401 and come back to you. Sorry about that.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We prefer to warn users instead of just using their Google Account. As for why we use Google services. It's because most professionals do use Google Calendar. Some don't, we understand. We might serve them in the future but we have to start somewhere. We advertise the desktop app (instead of the Web app) because Routine is intended to be used through a desktop-wide keyboard shortcut so you can capture thoughts and ta…

(for now at least) That's why advertising the service around privacy is being criticized. It's a business. It will do business things. Saying it won't do those things is a distraction...like this conversation. People who seriously care about privacy are not using Google to manage their information. They are not even your potential users, because they don't use Google. Not storing data on your servers is a sound way t…

We are not trying to say that Routine has been built around privacy like Protomail could say. We do not make such claims on our website.

But since we are asking users for their Google credentials, we thought it was more transparent to explain, for each service, why we needed it and what it meant. We prefer to be transparent than just ask for a bunch of permission without explanation as other services do.

And yes we are tight to Google because it was simpler for us to start this way. Again, most of the professionals we target use Google Workspace. In the future, the service could evolve and support other services like Outlook.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#56
> Switching to your browser to then click on the Google Calendar tab to be able to look at your next meeting is just too much work.

Is this really that big of a problem? This is the second YC startup in this batch that is trying to fix this. I’m usually already in the browser, and if not I can cmd-tab into there in seconds. From there it takes me literally less than 2 seconds to type “cal” + enter to look at my Google calendar.

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#57
post #53

Congratulations on the launch. I can’t find a link to the iOS version on your “/hn” landing page, is it already available? Also, maybe it’s just the logo, but the design looks really similar to sorted3.

No inspiration from sorted3 but similarities with the circle on the logo indeed. The same could probably be said of many other productivity tools, like Sunrise :)

Regarding iOS, you can find it here: https://apple.co/399lDrW

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#58
post #53

Congratulations on the launch. I can’t find a link to the iOS version on your “/hn” landing page, is it already available? Also, maybe it’s just the logo, but the design looks really similar to sorted3.

Hi zcoops, Here's the app store link for you https://apple.co/399lDrW Beware that the iOS app is meant to be used with the MacOS app as it still miss a lot of the desktop features

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#59

Warning - google accounts only. What's the deal with all these google-only apps? And on the other hand the de-googling of everybody on HN. It's super annoying, and basically forces you to use a throwaway google account. Also, with the whole supplychain security, why not just also promote your webapp, instead of a bundled electron app? ### In order for Routine to provide the value you are looking for, it needs access…

We prefer to warn users instead of just using their Google Account. As for why we use Google services. It's because most professionals do use Google Calendar. Some don't, we understand. We might serve them in the future but we have to start somewhere. We advertise the desktop app (instead of the Web app) because Routine is intended to be used through a desktop-wide keyboard shortcut so you can capture thoughts and ta…

Probably a stupid question: why not CalDAV?

Re: Launch HN: Routine (YC W21) – Tasks, notes and calendar all in one product

#60

Just a heads up. My Google account only has a first name so when I tried signing up got this error {"reason":"invalid JSON OAuth response: missing required field family_name","method":"GET"}

Should be fixed ! Thanks for the report.
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