Quick Dynalist - The native Android app for Dynalist

pottster · January 24, 2019, 11:10am

Coming along nicely Louis.

The inevitable question. Any plans for an IOS version?
(My wife is an iphone diehard. )

Louis_Kirsch · January 24, 2019, 11:57am

Sorry, I don’t think so. I only use an iPad but don’t really need it on there, so not a good investment of time.

berdan · January 25, 2019, 10:13am

This app has worked wonders for my ability to quickly capture thoughts and ideas as well as storing information from other Android apps. Great work!

One enhancement I’d love to see, but one that I can understand if its not implemented: I used to run MyLifeOrganized (MLO) as a task manager. The quick add widget for MLO on Android defaulted to disappearing after you had entered something and tapped the send button, but you can long tap the send button to keep the widget visible and add another item. Most of the time I only added one thing at a time and this set up made the process really smooth.

Translated to Quick Dynalist the two workflows would be:

Open Quick Dynalist
Enter text
Tap ADD ITEM
Quick Dynalist adds to Dynalist and then disappears

and

Open Quick Dynalist
Enter text
Long tap ADD ITEM
Quick Dynalist adds to Dynalist and then clears + focuses the text field
GOTO 2

UI wise MLO handles it like this:

Louis_Kirsch · January 25, 2019, 12:32pm

Hi Berdan,
Thanks for your kind words and suggestions. I’m not a big fan of the long tap because that diminishes the use-case of rapid entering of multiple items.
Usually, if I only want to add one item, I tap ‘Add item’ and then outside of the dialog which makes it close. This is also quite rapid.

Nevertheless, multiple people have voiced their need for a fast add & close option now. I guess we can have the best from both worlds with two buttons. I’ll make sure to add one in the next release.

Jon2 · January 25, 2019, 5:34pm

I love this! My one rec is to add a widget that would allow you to type directly on the home screen and have it be added right to the inbox

Louis_Kirsch · January 25, 2019, 8:24pm

Thanks! Input fields are not permitted in widgets on Android. I’m also not sure how this would be faster compared to the dialog. Can you describe more precisely what you think is missing?

Jon2 · January 25, 2019, 10:51pm

Hi, the dialog is fast. I was just hoping (but it sounds like a pipe dream) that i could just see a blank box on the home screen and start writing directly from there. I think it would help with brainstorming and such. Oh well, one can always dream…

Louis_Kirsch · January 26, 2019, 11:46am

You would still have to touch the blank box to get the keyboard up. But instead you can touch the quick dynalist icon and you can immediately start typing. I don’t see a difference.

pottster · January 26, 2019, 12:41pm

Better still, tap the Quick Dynalist icon and tap the mic icon. Google’s voice typing is SO good now.

Louis_Kirsch · January 26, 2019, 9:07pm

@pottster Yes, a voice feature might be something I should include. You can already invoke it through the voice assistant, but that is obviously a bit slower.

I have a bunch of new features (and probably not too many more coming in the near future).

Markdown formatting
Navigation through the item hierarchy (press items / press up / press back)
Sharing current list

List of your documents in the navigation pane

Shortcuts to specific inboxes. Either shows the dialog or the list.

I don’t think we can make entering new items and checking specific lists much faster than this

Stephen_Dewitt · January 27, 2019, 11:30am

Wow Louis this is all amazing, well done and thank you!! - do you think it would be possibe to see these inbox lists as a widget? My use case is that my ‘focused’ list would be right there on my desktop

Stephen_Dewitt · January 27, 2019, 12:43pm

Edit: sorry, fixed now - oddly enough it needed me to log onto dynalist on something other than the android app - once it all updated on the web on my laptop, quickdynalist kicked into action … but the info must have been there on the dynalist servers for the version of dynalist on the laptop to update … so why couldn’t quickdynalist access it … hmmm, weird.

Hmmm @Louis_Kirsch having a problem with the new version - after half an hour it’s not picking up any of my lists despite using a mix of #inbox #quickdynalist and setting one as #primary #inbox - it all worked fine before the update - I tried generating a new API key ( and reinstalling etc) but nada … I don’t expect you to troubleshoot but is there a known problem atm? Thanks!

Louis_Kirsch · January 27, 2019, 1:45pm

Hey Stephen,

Thank you, I sent you a private message. Would still be good to investigate this.

I might create a widget, it’s a bit of work though, don’t expect it too soon.

Stephen_Dewitt · January 27, 2019, 6:50pm

Re widget that’s cool, please don’t feel pressured at all

Kevin_Murray · January 27, 2019, 9:57pm

I use an Android app Notification Shortcuts so I can access QuickDynalist anywhere by pulling down notifications. It’s great for capturing that fleeting thought.

Louis_Kirsch · January 28, 2019, 9:17am

I’m curious, does it also work with the shortcuts?

Kevin_Murray · January 28, 2019, 11:03am

Yes. You can add shortcuts to the notification list.

Stephen_Dewitt · January 28, 2019, 11:04am

Yes it’s very nice this

Louis_Kirsch · February 3, 2019, 6:19am

I have some really awesome stuff coming up, just waiting for the API change to make the update complete We might not even need the original dynalist app anymore.

Kevin_Murray · February 3, 2019, 10:13pm

Sounds promising. It would be great to have a version of Dynalist for writing, where the note could pop out and there were a few basic functions like word count.