Ever thought "I wish I'd written that down"? I ended up building an app because of it

[JohnFromLiverpool]

Hi everyone!

I'm John, a dad from Liverpool, and I'd love some honest feedback on something I've created.

After going through separation and dealing with co-parenting arrangements, I found myself constantly saving screenshots, writing phone notes or forgetting to record important conversations altogether.

Eventually, I had over 20 incidents and conversations scattered across my phone, so I decided to build an app to keep everything organised.

It was originally just for me, but I realised other people might find it useful too.

That's how Clarity Log started! It's now available on iPhone and Android, with a free version for recording important interactions and keeping everything in one timeline.

Although co-parenting inspired it, it can also be used for workplace issues, tenancy matters and everyday situations.

I'd genuinely love to know:
How do you keep track of important conversations or incidents? And would something like this actually be useful to you?

If you'd like to have a look: https://clarity-log.com

I'm still improving the app, so honest feedback (good or bad!) would be really appreciated.

Thanks for reading!
John

You can't beat a paper diary in my opinion! Highly portable, no faffing with finding different screens and where you've recorded stuff, no risk of accidentally deleting things, no ongoing cost - buy a cheap notebook and that's it, all you need is a pen and you're done. If you want to categorise information, you can simply add tabs to the pages.

I'm by no means a technophobe but I do think there is a tendency to look to tech nowadays to solve problems that wouldn't exist if people had considered non-technical solutions first rather than thinking 'my phone is the only way to deal with this'.

Just downloaded I’ll look later

@FillerTrackOnTheAlbumOfLife While I agree with you and love myself a pen and paper, if you’re using this as evidence for family courts or work disputes etc then having the viewable evidence would work best as if not it will be a he said she said situation- especially family courts or even co-parenting depending what the other parent is like!

I think it sounds a great idea and whilst I have no use for it now that our co-parent relationship is good, this would have come in very handy a few years ago!

Genuine question - why would self-completed entries on an app be viewed in court as more robust than a written diary? The app will date stamp the entries, yes, but typing something into an app doesn't make it accurate or true, it doesn't even guarantee that the event or communication happened on the date you added it.

You can't beat a paper diary in my opinion! Highly portable, no faffing with finding different screens and where you've recorded stuff, no risk of accidentally deleting things, no ongoing cost

I started writing a diary in lockdown and have continued ever since. The diaries I used used to have a calendar page at the start of every month where I could note stuff down, but that's been removed so I have to use a separate small diary for that (and remember to check it) or use my email calendar.

I also use a paper A-Z and got roundly told off about it on here because I don't use my phone. Pointed out that the phone has a small screen, while the A-Z opens out into A4, I can make notes on it and no scrote on a scooter is going to snatch it. Was told I 'wasn't using the tech in the right way.'

Isn’t this what the notes app on your phone is for?

@FillerTrackOnTheAlbumOfLife Just as they can say you’ve written whatever you wanted and not what actually happened. If you are adding screenshots of messages/emails etc you can see who it was from. From what I understand of the app, you can add screenshots etc to it

But you'd just show screenshots as evidence for any written diary entries if they asked for them - I'm not sure why they would accept screenshots as evidence, there's nothing easier than faking a screenshot. The only way to provide evidence that is genuinely robust is to present the actual email or text message, including its metadata.

@FillerTrackOnTheAlbumOfLifeI agree, but if this is app where you can keep all these things in one place it’s easier to show them all together rather than flicking between emails and messages as of course they more than likely won’t all be on the same date etc. don’t get me wrong I’m not saying they would be accepted but especially with family courts they are more likely to accept a message you can show than written evidence where you could write whatever you wanted. Our court judge for example was huffing and puffing at the other party having to go back between dates to look for certain messages, I’m sure each would be different so I am using my own experience for this. I had these all in one folder but it did take me some time having to do this before court so having somewhere to add them all as I went would have been easier. Each to their own if they find it useful or not but I myself would have found this easier.

Hey! Thanks for commenting!
Thats actually a super good take on things tbh! My mum has a diary with EVERYTHING in it, abit risky actually because she had a mini panic attack when she thought she’d thrown it out by mistake ha! Was fine though!

I suppose the idea here is to be mobile with note taking, especially if recording some form of hostile incident and you want to keep it to hand with attachment screenshots etc.

Very valid points - and I hope there’s room for all! Paper diary and my record keeping app haha! Thank you for taking your time to post!