After a long wait, Informant 5 is now available in iTunes.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/informant-5-agenda-task-planner/id1141040577?mt=8
After a long wait, Informant 5 is now available in iTunes.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/informant-5-agenda-task-planner/id1141040577?mt=8
For those of us who are eligible for a free upgrade (ie subscribe to PI Online/Weather etc…) where do we download the upgrade? (Ie Apple App Store, this website)
Also, should we uninstall the current version or just allow it to upgrade?
Thanks!!!
You will want to install the current v5 version. you can leave the Informant 4 version on your device.
You will want to install the NEW version:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/informant-5-agenda-task-planner/id1141040577?mt=8
YOu can choose to keep the old version if you like.
It’s still early ;-)!
Good luck!
Perhaps in US. In Europe it’s 7pm. But we live for you in future (9 houres ahead) 😉
Will it be a new version we have to search in the app store? Or will the old version be updated to 5?
There will be a NEW version in the app store. If you don’t see it when searching (you may not if you see this post within a few hours of me writing)… you can use this link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/informant-5-agenda-task-planner/id1141040577?mt=8
Are you able to get an update from Apple with an eta?
Since we’re stuck waiting for Apple, any chance of sharing the new web product pages or screenshots to keep us from going crazy?
Its out now! https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/informant-5-agenda-task-planner/id1141040577?mt=8
It’s out!
Can’t use option to buy:restore informant Sync licence.
The App crashes for me, if I try to go into the “shopping” Page.
Maybe the shop-functionality is not online since the App is still not sold in the American Shop?
There seems to be a propagation issue. It should resolve itself within a few hours. I had the same thing for a while, but now its working properly.
There seems to be a propagation issue. It should resolve itself within a few hours. I had the same thing for a while, but now its working properly.
Crash when I touch the shopping cart icon
It works now
good to hear. It sounds like it is starting to propagate. Apple claims 24 hours but history tells us it is usually 3-8 hours.
There seems to be a propagation issue. It should resolve itself within a few hours. I had the same thing for a while, but now its working properly.
Crash when touch icons with padlock
I’m also unable to continue after tapping the shopping cart button to purchase subscription…App quits everytime.
There seems to be a propagation issue. It should resolve itself within a few hours. I had the same thing for a while, but now its working properly.
It’s EUR 27,5 in Europe? Really? This means that the app costs over EUR 2 a month. For a calender app… For the sake of comparision: Emailing including caldav and carddav costs me EUR 1 at the moment.
Anyway, I’m willing to subscribe for a year if I could still use ios reminders / tasks within PI, when the subscription ends after a year. Will they still work, or are reminders / task also part of the sync subscription? If not I’m out.
sorry, it’s EUR 26,5… one EUR less 🙂
iOS reminders will work forever, if you pay the “buy it” $25/yr price. Even after the 1st year subscription ends.
Ok, I’ve downloaded Informant 5, given it a try and, alas I’m quite disappointed:
(1) To swap between focus, calendar and task views before I needed just one tap now I need two, and I must see a little animation between these two. If I swap often this animation is going to drive me crazy! Also, there was really no reason to hide all choices behind the first tap because now there is a lot of useless empty space at the bottom of the screen
(2) Filter are completely unchanged. There’s been for long a little “bug” impeaching me to choose “see only this” for a tag which has no color, and this has not been addressed. I’ve been waiting forever for AND/OR tag filrers, and this is still something which is not at all in your to-do list
(3) I would really like to have the chance to attach a note to a task or event, but this is still not possible
(4) I don’t care AT ALL about weather (its presence actually annoys me) but I do sync with Toodledo and Google Calendar. With this, a subscription price of 23 GBP/year is really WAY too much. I know you want to keep things simple, but you should at least offer choice to buy weather and sync separately.
I am really frustrated that small new features that I’ve always wanted never arrive and that plenti of new features that I don’t need keep appearing. Currently the things which really annoys me most, though, is the new way to switch between views. While I will certainly ultimately get accustomed to other changes (like the new calendar picker) and even like them, I don’t think I will ever come to terms with this useless and annoying way to switch views. Put together with the extremely high subscription prices, I think Informan 5 is a loser for me 🙁
All things considered, I think after so many years of PI usage I will start looking for alternatives. I am an Informant Sync subscriber so for the moment I have full access without extra expenses.
I have to add that I’m not a big fan of the new Task View on iPad. Frankly, it was quite handy to have the bar always open on the left, rather than the microscopic ribbon on top, which is a good idea when space is at a premium, but certainly not on the iPad. On the contrary, the Task View looks extremely bare now. Also, if I scroll the ribbon, I don’t even know what I am looking at now. “All Active”? “Inbox”? “In Progress”? The only way to know is to scroll the ribbon until what’s active appears. I really miss the previous version in which the Task window had a title and made it immediately evident what I was looking at.
There’ s also a bug in the date picker: if I choose a calendar attached to a time zone, the Start and End times for the event I’m adding don’t change from “Local” to the time zone of the calendar. This make Informant 5 almost unusable for me, ’cause almost all the calendars I frequently use are attached to a time zone
is the option to purchase in-app stuff such as school holidays and football fixtures available in informant 5?
Hi!
Where can I enter my Email accounts and see my Mails?
settings, advanced
Go to the Tasks screen, click on Mail at the top of the screen and then on the plus sign at the bottom of the screen to which that takes you.
Stephen
sorry, that’s wrong
Am I able to change the sort order of my tasks in the focus view?. Mostly I want them to be grouped by context, but sometimes I want to be able to list them in a specific order.
P.S. Zac, i saw the mail option in the Tasks section. Click that bubble in the bottom right, then choose the check mark button.
Hi all,
Just bought the new version. I like it. If all goes well then definitieve worth it. What’s 25 euro’s a year…? Gladly pay it for a product this good.
However, I have bought the full version but don’t know how to configure email (exchange and icloud) also, the informant Sync is not working, saying I don’t have an account.
Is there a Manuel anywhere?
Thanks,
If all
thanks for the kind words. There is a support feature located inside the app. We can help you there with the tech support issue.
Sorry, manual (Not Manuel = autocorrect)
Support options are in the app in settings area. No formal manual created yet.
very sad that after all these years using informant 4 i know just want to change the colour of a calendar and have the weather i am being promted to pay £22 a year ! please rethink the subscription so that loyal , longstanding customers and users can still use you app and service as it would be sad to see us all move to another app.
Believe me… we are always thinking about the business model. There are pendulum swings… Sometime we hear from customers who paid $4 for the app 5 years ago and want free upgrades for ever… That is not realistic either. Not unless we started selling your data or showing you ads with everything. (Which we don’t do)…
Keep the feedback coming… It is all helpful. We want to make this work for everyone.
Downloaded this morning and up & running in no time! Has anyone else had issues seeing their iOS calendars in I5? My google accounts login and show up just fine, but for some reason the iOS calendars aren’t seen. I’m still fiddling around with it, but was curious if it was a bug anyone else had noticed or if it was just me?
I have no problem displaying content from my iOS calendar. The two places to look are in Settings > Calendars, Triggers and more… > iOS calendars to use and Settings > Calendars, Triggers and more… > Manage Calendars.
Sorry if you’ve already tried that and it doesn’t work!
Stephen
Can someone clarify how the smart filters are supposed to work? I created one using the keywords “call regarding”. Then I created a task with the title “call regarding copier”. All it did was create a generic task without any of my specific information that I though would auto-populate when I typed my keywords. I also asked Siri to remind me to “call regarding copier” and again, all I got was a generic task. Thanks
I don’t think you want a smart filter but, rather, a “trigger”. Go to Settings > Calendars, Triggers and more… > Manage Event/Task triggers and click on the plus sign and I suspect you’ll find there what you need.
Stephen
Sorry, yes Stephen, I do mean triggers. I had a number of templates in PI 4, those were converted to Triggers, but they didn’t have any key words to trigger the Triggers. I added keywords to one of them and tried to create a new task but like I said, all it did was create a task without any of my other info (like adding the correct tag, etc.).
The only further thought I can add from my own experimentation with triggers (having used them only for a couple of Events, and not yet for any Tasks) is that you need to have not only a name but also a keyword for the trigger in order for it to work properly. I suspect that’s obvious to everyone else but it initially tripped me up and created some rather peculiar event titles until I sussed it.
I suspect that’s not your problem from what you’ve said so I’m sorry not to be of more help.
Stephen
I appreciate the comments Stephen. I THINK I’m entering everything where I’m supposed to, but if you’ve got them working for you I’ll have to keep playing to see what I’m doing wrong, maybe I’ll try some Events and see if that helps me figure it out.
For me PI is much more about tasks than events and I used Templates everyday. I have a feeling I’m not going to be very productive today trying to figure out how to make these Triggers work for me!
I added my email in the settings u see add account.
However I do not see the email. Is there another option to turn this on?
Have you gone to Tasks view and clicked on Mail at the top of the screen and then on the plus sign at the bottom of the screen to which that takes you?
There is some general explanation about which the Mail interaction currently works in this blog post:
http://staging.pocketinformant.com/informant-5-from-pocket-informant-is-here/
(I should say I’m not currently integrating mail so this is all from exploration rather than from experience!)
Stephen
Sorry, I should have said “about HOW the mail interaction currently works…”.
Stephen
Well, I´m gonna give it a try as I´ve got some time left in my subscription. Not sure I´ll continue after that to this price..
Anyway I´ve a couple of “bugs” I think.
It always start up in calendar mode (one day) on my device no matter which mode
it was in when I quit the app (would like it to start up in Today as in PI 4).
A Bug ? or any way to change this ?
And “Delete All Completed” doesn`t work whatever you do
And Pictures in Tasks doesn´t work. You can add it to a task, but as soon as you save the task, the picture is gone and there is only a black spot with a minus sign..
Which version are you using? The Free version , or a paid version?
As I understand it, from responses to the earliest comments here, I can keep both PI 4.x and PI 5 on my device, both accessing the same data (through Fanatic sync). Fine. I also understand that I can use both (plus my desktop and iPad versions) until my current Fanatic sync subscription runs out. Fine. The price of “Premium to Own” is high, certainly, but worth paying if it is a one-time fee for unlimited, permanent (life of app) synching. If, however, that $25 is the annual cost to retain the ability to sync, then the 66% increase (from the current $15) is very steep, indeed. Thus, my question is: what does $25 buy me?
There is a fairly detailed description of the pricing in this blog post:
http://staging.pocketinformant.com/informant-5-pricing-launch-date-announced/
In essence, the $24.99 payment is the annual cost to retain the ability to sync. If you cancel the subscription before the renewal date you retain use of the app but lose the connect bundle (sync and weather).
By the way, I’m only a user trying to help so please don’t shoot the messenger! 🙂
Stephen
I missed that blog post. Thank you, and «SIGH». I will not shoot the messenger, but $25 may prove too rich for my blood. All I want is the ability to sync my PI/DI account, nothing else. I have almost a year to decide, however, so I will wait and see.
Your feelings are validated by a MAJORITY of users. I did however see one post that indicates our $25 would help them develop software for Android users. Yeah for them! Doesn’t that give you a feel good?
I completely agree with Gennaro and Erick above. There is no change in basic features I used from the early days of the Informant. I do not use a lot of features that for me are just extra fluff – i.e. Weather, sync with WebIS site, dark view, etc. I use google calendar sync and Toodledo sync only. There are no new features that I find it is worth for me paying for in the new version. There are many free or low cost alternatives on the App Store for both calendar and Todo lists. I would be willing to pay another $12 max for this version (not per year), not because I think it is worth it, but rather as a gratitude for developers who are very approachable and with who I had very nice interactions during the beta phases of different versions in the past. However $25 yearly is definitely an overkill, and unless things will change, I’ll have to start looking for alternatives. Textexpander attempted similar subscription change and had to reverse it due to people being upset, however in the process, I’m certain, they lost a lot of loyal customers. Hope Fanatics will change their mind, as I love their app. Best of luck!
Apologies if I am missing something obvious … I’ve entered my Google creds in the app … is there a view to leverage the app as an email client? If not, what’s the purpose of the email sync section?
You may find helpful the section of this blog post that explains how email works in conjunction with Informant 5:
http://staging.pocketinformant.com/informant-5-from-pocket-informant-is-here/
Stephen
I’m assuming you entered your google creds in that mail section, right? Assuming you did, when you go into Tasks/Mail you should see all your gmail emails. If you see nothing try clicking on the little bubble on the bottom left (I think it’s filter) and then you should see them. At least that’s what worked for me. I’m not positive, but my guess is that’s a filter button to show you all, or show you flagged emails and if nothing’s flagged nothing shows up using that filter.
From there, you can turn an email into a task. When you click on an email, there is a trash can and a task icon.
Mehill – thank you. Yes, I had already entered the Google creds in the email sync section and it had successfully added the account.
In case this helps others …
I force-closed the app to see if it would do anything magical, like you described, but it didn’t. I saw my email account but no emails at all. I unstarred and restarred a few emails to test. No help.
I saw there was a spot to add an email account in the task view also, so I re-entered the same email account there and it immediately synced and I saw one email from my inbox.
I’ll play with this feature. I use Toodledo’s email-in feature, so unsure if this’ll add more value or not, but I like options! 🙂
Thanks again for confirming I “should” see something 🙂
So one of the first things I have found I don’t like is that you can no longer turn off views. For example, I never use Notes so why do I need to have the icon clutter up my choices, you used to be able to turn off certain views in PI4.x, hopefully that will come back.
Completely agree – I use only a few views and having so many extra-buttons in addition to requirement to use two clicks to get there is cumbersome.
Also would appreciate if moderators would allow my previous comment appear (unless only positive ones are allowed)
🙂
I’ve been waiting for today with excitement.
Now, I’m sad:-(
I’m sad because I have to start looking for a new Calendar/Task app.
PI5 is disappointing to look at!
PI5 is awkward to use!
PI5 makes things harder – 2 or 3 presses instead of 1.
PI5 removed all my carefully color-coded iOS Reminder categories I had.
PI5 Is not good enough for me to pay $25 a year.
I’ve been using Informant since the Pocket PC days. It used to get better with each version. and except for the odd bug here and there, v4 was excellent.
To me, Informant 5 is a huge step backwards, so this is an extremely sad day for me.
Just curious how much User input you got for the new version? It just seems so much less user-friendly and complicated.
This is a sad day for me:-(
I think Gennaro really hit the nail on the head with all his feedback above.
What is the obsession with the weather being part of the app, anyway?
Informal poll here…. Who likes weather? Who sees no added value in it?
I’m still trying things out….but I too am underwhelmed by the update.
I do think it works faster than version 4 on both my iphone and ipad, but there are several issues that are a step back in my opinion.
I agree the multiple taps to do a job that used to take 1 is backwards.
The tabs/buttons are fixed and can’t be moved. I hold the phone in my left hand and need to overextend my thumb to use it one handed. The tabs/buttons would work better on the left side for me.
Some tabs/buttons should be able to be hid and/or moved in another order. This could be done in version 4.
I miss the old colorful icon, this one is “blah” and I think very uninspired.
Weather is nice to have, after all an “all in one” app is what I like about PI. That said, if it is really driving up costs, then I don’t need it that much….
No instruction manual. How the heck do triggers work exactly? Hitting Help/Tips does exactly nothing. We are flying in the dark here……
Price point and clarity of costs. Current informant sync subscribers get what exactly? Does it activate the permanent buy? What happens next year when we need to subscribe? How does that compare to the current subscription models and why are there two sets now? It’s very confusing.
I’m still on the fence right now….I don’t see anything compelling enough for me to swallow 25 a year. In fact, things are gone(tab movement, watch app) and take more work (2 presses instead of ). In addition, there is little documentation available to help me see the bonuses and how to properly use the capabilities of the app.
Just my two cents.
Thanks for the feedback!
The left handed phone holder is a good point on the menu. It is something we discussed, but haven’t made a left handed mode…(probably should).
If you have informant sync currently, you can get the Informant 5 for the duration of your existing subscription with no extra costs. It is trickier than you might think to create the purchase options that we might want to support.
Keith, seems I’m the only one who likes the weather feature. But that’s the only feature of the sync-package I’m using constantly (sometimes I’m using Evernote Sync too, but that’s not important for me) – and the weather feature is not (at least for me) worth EUR 26,5 a year. I prefered the modular pricing system which you had in PI4. And I don’t mind buying a new version of PI, let’s say every two years, as long as it’s features and it’s price is nearly similar to other calendaring apps in the app store…
I think the weather is an ok feature, but not at all necessary; it’s more of a novelty and for the cost, I vote to get rid of it.
So what does happen when my informant sync subscription expires.? Can I renew it or are we all switching over to the in app purchased subscriptions??
no value to weather. i get that info elsewhere and I don’t need it taking valuable real estate in PI
I just downloaded informant 5 on my iPhone and iPad and sprung for the subscription. I set it up to synch with my Google Calendar and all is well, as it synchs up with both devices. I can add events on Google calendar and they show up on Informant 5. However, when I try to input a new event in Informant on either device, Informant 5 crashes. Does anyone else have this problem?
Another question is if I have it synching with Google, is there any reason to synch with Informant’s synch? It seems if I put icons on my iPhone, when I synch with my iPad, the icons show up there as well. What I wouldn’t want to do is to somehow create a situation where all eh events duplicate which I have done when updating PI in the past.
Informant Sync is the only way to sync the “informant Only” attributes. Google sync can sync the google attributes only.
Keith, so Informant Sync an additional charge over the “sync services” because it appears to be in addition, but yet I thought that was part of the sync services? I am not going to get into whether the pricing is fair or not, but I must say the explanation of what you get could be made a bit clearer. Thanks.
Mine is crashing on my phone when I try to enter a new event as well 😞
Where are you at when trying to create the new event? Have you created a support ticket? If not, please do.
Yes I have submitted a ticket.
Well, the event add works today on both my iPhone and iPad. Maybe something was done on their end. Now I need to go back and withdraw my support request. I hope everyone else’s event add works as well.
All these fancy updates are ok. I believe you over looked one…the (+/-) year picker… That thing was old 10 years ago ):
This new pricing structure is horrible and I love paying to help them develop the Android version. I think I’ll be sticking with v4.x until my PI Online account expires and then I guess I’m done with PI altogether.
I’m also not clear if it allows you to use the subscription on multiple devices or not. My wife and I both use it on our iPhone and I also use it occasionally on my iPad. We are not made of money and can’t afford this insane price structure. I felt it would stay about $15/year or so, but they’re making us pay for a new copy of the app every year plus the syncing ability. I was glad to pay for PI Online, but I’m not going to pay $25+/year for multiple devices.
Does anyone know how you get a subscription to work on multiple devices? I have yet to download I5 and don’t want to muck up anything with PI v4.x until I know things will work out okay and the cost isn’t going to be per seat instead of per iTunes account My wife is also on her own iTunes account that is a family member. Will it give her the subscription, as well, or do I have to buy it for her iPhone also? That would be an absolute dealbreaker.
It also seems to me that the PI Online Sync is not leaving so if you want to keep your PI 4.x going, you might be able to keep using just PI Online Sync and PI 4.x. I’m happy with where it’s at. I am not paying at possibly $75/year for this app for three devices! No way! No how! My days with PI or I5 or whatever it’s called now may just be numbered.
I’ve been a user for quite a while and this is horrible!!!
tx,
The app will work across multiple devices. And the subscription price of $25/yr INCLUDES Informant sync so that brings you back down to $25/yr instead of $75…
Keith,
I love the movie, but I hate to say it, making fun of customer concerns is not a great approach when someone is truly concerned about a program that is used daily to manage their life by an entire family. That’s why this is so important and why the changes made are so critical when you don’t have money to burn. My wife and I are both on disability and having iPhones is a very precious luxury we’ve allowed ourselves to have when we don’t have much money. So, every dollar counts. Obviously, the IAP money is already going to your head. I can take sarcasm as much as anyone else, but there is a time and place for it and if you remember, in the end, Chicken Little was RIGHT about the sky falling! So, please don’t make me sound like I’m making a big deal about nothing.
I’ve been informed by support that it does not support Family Share accounts on iTunes so it will cost me $50/year to keep support for both my wife and myself! I don’t like IAPs and this is one reason. Apple got people to start using those accounts back a few iOS versions ago and now it’s going to bite me and cost me with Informant 5 (or my wife has to go back to using my iTunes account like we did before Family Sharing accounts were created by Apple). Apple pushed them as a way of making things better, but they don’t support sharing of licenses across multiple IDs in the same family. That’s a real concern that may have been overlooked in the decisions about how this platform was going to be repriced.
Support answered quickly, but it created more questions than answers and unfortunately, and then they blamed me for not understanding the facts. The problem is that the facts are not clear on here. They don’t answer questions about how sharing is handled, whether Informant Sync will still be offered as a separate product, and various other things. I was very insulted when they blamed me for not understanding was wasn’t even explained. Explanations need to be created for different scenarios of how things will work with Informant Sync accounts. It would have been nice if current IS users would have gotten an e-mail. You do have our e-mail addresses after all, don’t you?
I don’t think I am much longer going to be around the Informant world. It’s a shame because I love the program and have used it for at least 4 iPhones now (so about 8 years or so)! I’ll tell anyone now not to use the program and never recommend it again. You need to get answers to common questions about account sharing issues on the website now and not later.
I’m just really frustrated right now and not happy that I may have to switch organizers because you chose a model that doesn’t support Family Sharing accounts in iTunes. I didn’t come up with that idea. Apple did. They pushed it and so my wife wanted to use it. I am now going to have to pay for it because she picked to start her own account with her as a family member under me and your model doesn’t support sharing the license to her iPhone. So, that’s an extra $25 a year for us and we simply won’t pay $50/year for my wife and I to have access to a feature that is available in other programs for a fixed price — you know, like you used to do it!
Like I said, my days with Informant are numbered unless support can answer my questions and keep me going for $25/year or less for the three iOS devices in my house that should all be covered but one isn’t because of the Family Sharing issue. That was a big oops on your part when making this switch to a subscription-based model. Enjoy less iOS users because you’re going to lose people like me who don’t want to pay for you to develop Mac and Android versions that I will never use. I don’t own either platform and don’t care to support your development efforts there. If a Mac user wants a version of Informant for their computer, let THEM pay for it. I hope the money is worth it to your company.
txsulley,
do you have an informant sync account already? If you do, you can use that information to activate the sync bundle in PI5 without purchasing the package through apple. then you can use multiple devices without worry about the license getting hung by the IAP. I’ve not had any problem and haven’t had to use the apple purchase button. Now what happens after my informant sync subscription comes up for renewal is a whole different issue, that has not been clarified from where I sit.
Everyone will have their own “must have” feature. The reason I stick with PI is it is the only app I have found with a decent Month view.
However, to keep me with the subscription after the first year (rather than me just using PI as a UI to display Apple Calendar and Reminder entries) there must be a Watch complication that shows the next appointment due — just like the one available for Apple Calendar. I rarely open the calendar on the watch but rely heavily on the complication. Without such a complication for PI there will be insufficient incentive to migrate to the native PI database, so I will not need the sync service and there will not be enough reason to continue the subscription.
I’m reasonably happy to pay a subscription to support your ongoing development, so add my vote to “develop Watch complication”.
Mark,
Thanks for the good feedback. This is actionable feedback and very much appreciated. You can rest assured we will be working on the watch complication.
my version: Informant 4 Premium
do I need to pay AGAIN for the Informant 5 Premium?
I know Version 5 can be downloaded for free (basic functions), right?
If you have purchased informant sync then you do not need to pay. If you purchased Informant 4 you may choose to pay again for Informant 5.
I have taken the plung and installed PI5 and I am struggling with the new interface. I have stated before that I can support the new subscription method, even though I do not agree the with the $25. But I must say, if you are going to drastically change the application and charge $25 for it, you could at least provide a support button that works, some basic getting started instructions or anything that makes learning the new features a little easier. I don’t understand triggers at all and they don’t seem to work with my existing templates. For me, the learning curve is a little steep and there should be more online help available if you are going to charge an annual fee of $25.
I have used Settings > Support > Show Support Conversation to log a support call and received a prompt response (allowing for the time difference, as I’m in the UK).
Support > Help/Tips does nothing at the moment and I strongly concur with a previous request here for a manual. I can’t say how long I’ve spent poring through settings trying to find a particular one as I (very) slowly become accustomed to where everything is in settings. I also found that initially getting to grips with triggers involved rather a lot of trial and error—so some detailed guidance there would be appreciated.
Stephen
I also had trouble figuring out Triggers. After an hour or so I opened a chat session through the app’s support section and got an answer in about an hour which I thought was fast.
In case it helps you, my problem was that I didn’t have the SmartTitle Autocomplete turned on in General Settings. Once I did, the triggers started working for me, however, I also misunderstood HOW they worked. I thought once I typed my keywords the fields would auto-populate. Instead, once you type your keywords you should get a drop down menu where you can select your Trigger.
Hope that helps.
mehill thanks so much for that post: it was indeed most helpful. Although I do have Smart AutoComplete enabled this sentence in your post was really helpful to me:
“Instead, once you type your keywords you should get a drop down menu where you can select your Trigger.”
I’d not appreciated that, so thanks for the post!
Stephen
Stephen, thanks for the suggestion and the explanation. Triggers keeps crashing on my iPhone6 Plus and my iPad Pro, when ever I try to do almost anything. So I am waiting for support to reply.
After I’ve read the comments, it seems my feelings are similar to those of a lot of long time users. PI is something I use everyday so there is certainly an incentive to support further development. But I also believe the advanced calendar-task-notes feautures should be a separate bundle from the sync options. I do not use sync and would pay $10-$12 yearly for the advanced features alone. I believe the $25/annually is a serious gamble on user loyaulty. Hope you did the math on how much users you can afford to loose compared to a price point of $10-$15. Not that $25/annually is a huge amount per se (about a decent meal in a decent restaurant), but it’s way higher than your competition. So switching will likely become more attractive for users that do not need all the features (but e.g. do need sync).
That said, I did purchase the app (although I immediately cancelled the subscription, let’s see where this is headed first). I like the new interface and the triggers for me finally work as I always wanted templates to work (change only what hasn’t been set by the user). ‘3D’ pressing the menu button switches to the last view (very convenient but found that out by accident). And that is what is currently sorely lacking: end user documentation. I know iOS interfaces are supposed to be intuitive, but still. At at this price point, to me user documentation is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it should be an integral part of the app (help/tips section is clearly not implemented yet). Because of all the years you’ve provided an excellent app, you have some credit with me. So please provide some decent end user documentation.
As an aside, it makes me curious that Alex Kac is nowhere present in the discussions on this blog or on twitter since launch, while being almost omnipresent in the months and days leading up to the launch. All communication seems to be haven taken over by ‘Keith’ (who’s not mentioned in the ‘Who we are’ section of the company website). This is very different from previous launches. Just curious.
Well, you can probably imagine – I’m extremely busy after the launch. Keith is helping out with things because he’s the face of Fanatic going forward marketing-wise and so on. Its a good thing to bring new people in and have them take over certain areas. My love is product management and engineering. So this allows me to do that more. We’ll talk much more about that soon, but our focus right now is the Informant 5 release.
Yes I can imagine, so much obliged in taking time to answer. I have been using PI5 since launch now and I already feel more at home than in PI4 (especially triggers being much more flexible than templates although as anounced they are still a bit rough around the edges). So for me the UI is definitely a step forward. I do hope some tips and tricks are coming soon as I discover things now by accident, so there’s probably a lot I haven’t figured out. A good ‘how to’ section would be very timesaving.
I have been a loyal (Pocket)Informant user since the early days of the App, but it looks like your subscription strategy will force me to make a switch. While the bells & whistles that you are offering may appeal to “Power Users”, the majority are unlikely to continue to pay $25 annually. Even if I buy the App outright, at the end of a year, I will have a hobbled version, unless I continue the subscription.
I hope the you will respond to the feedback you have received and revert to offering In-App purchases that can be individualized to suit the user’s needs.
Thank you.
We are very interested in your feedback about our new pricing model. Tell us what you think here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/655XRKY
Keith, I completed the survey, hope the feedback helps, of course I will ask the obvious question, if you guys really this was botched, what happens to the loyal faithfuls that just shelled out their $25?
Bruce, Is our undying love & devotion enough? Maybe an invitation to the company Christmas party? (not sure if we’ll be having hot dogs or steaks quite yet)…
But seriously, I don’t expect that we will be making huge changes to the pricing model. We WILL be adding value to the app (fixing things ,watch, etc). We might try to come up with a way to break up the app more but Apples subscription & pricing controls can quickly make it more complicated than practical. that is primarily why we went with a Free & a Full as the 2 main options, but who knows. We might also consider some Coupon-ing or discounts etc…. I mean really for many people $25 is less than 1-2 hours of work. So if someone was willing to “work for Informant” by promoting it, giving reviews, etc… That might be worth something to us also… We just haven’t figured out a way to monitor or scale that. I mean, if people had an option of sharing informant with 3 friends or paying $25… some might choose to share & some might just want to pay, but if 1M people shared w/ 3Million people and they shared…$9M, then we could probably sell it for $1… but unfortunately marketing costs money and it is as hard as its ever been to get an app noticed and in front of people. we do look forward to reading your survey responses. Thank you.
Keith, thanks for the reply. Like many here, I have been around since the palm pilot and Windows CE days so Christmas party sounds good to me 🙂 honestly I understand the challenges, I am a director of marketing for a large global company, so at the risk of being flamed by others, to me is not actually about the $25, although I use this for my personal not professional life. Like everyone, I want to pay for something based on how valuable it is to me, and with some of the UI changes and requiring two steps for actions etc the value is challenged where it is. I know you are building this code base for the long haul, so maybe it is just that the current subscription value based on the current offering isn’t in line with the perceived customer value, but perhaps the value grows into the fee or the fee needs to be reduced and then grows with the future value enhancements. I think in today’s social media and viral world the idea of referrals etc has some definite merit, but again, the referrals will only work if the people being pitched to think the cost matches the value. Like someone else said, this is not lost, every good team can respond to challenges and adversity.
First sorry about my english, i’m german and it’s not the best i know.
@Keith i see you answer only the positive posts…..hmmmm
I’m PI use since Palm and it was always my most used app and placed at main homescreen. I use PI to plan dates and tasks daily. I love the interface of Informant 4, very clean, smooth and fast to handle. You told us you spend a lot of time in Informant 5 to gibe us the best experience……ok.
I installed PI5 and the first thing i see are steps backwards. Why i have to click 2 times to change what i want to see. Daily view to tasks….2 clicks, going back 2 clicks again…… CAN’T AND DONT WANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS. And the best is the setting button, first i’ve to click down right, than upper left……???? I really ask me: Doyou work with your own app??? Do you hear what your clients want??? Ask them, give us the possibility to change between PI4 and PI5 Interface……other apps are doing this, so WE can do what is useful for us. Another point is the optic: very clear, smooth and costumable SmartBar in PI4, ugly points in PI5.
Next point: PI5 works slower on my devices (iPhone 6s, iPad Mini4 and iPad Pro) than PI4 in this moment……i hear the words, best for Apple’s newest iOS……
Last point is the pricing model. It’s up to you to change, but you read many words of your clients. I’m business man and i’m proud to know my clients a long time…..many of them over 25 years. Why? Products/pricing is correct over all the years. Is it worth to loose many clients you have so many years, which love and use your product? The best marketing is mouth to mouth…….
Regards
Albert
Albert, First off.. thank you for taking the time to tell us what you think. We are listening.
We are taking survey feedback on the pricing here: Please participate:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/655XRKY
This has been a big change for us. We had to re-build Informant5 from the ground up to make sure that it was a great app long term. We might have been able to make a few “quick fixes” to Informant 4 and get a bit better short term value, and maybe even kept our business model the same but the truth is that the ITunes economy is changing. It is no longer enough for app developers to sell an app for $0.99 and support it for ever. (Yes, some people expect us to literally support a free or $0.99 purchase they made over 5 years ago.) So for us, we have only created 2 “Paid” upgrades in over 9 years on i0S… That model was not sustainable. So we took a leap and tried something new on pricing. We may not be perfectly priced, but there has been a lot of thought going into it and there are reasons for everything… We sincerely hope that you will stick with us, and give us a chance to get this new product launched and polished up a bit (yep, there are a few things we want to make better)… But we are here, we will continue to be here and the app will continue to get better. I DO expect that you will see fewer and fewer competitors in the app space in the future because the old models are just not sustainable. If you want to put your data and invest your time in learning an app… We assume that you want your app to be around for years to come…. The changes we are making with Informant 5 will ensure that we are here for years to come. We do hope you will be with us.
Having dismissed Informant 5 yesterday, I decided to give it another go this morning. I was secretly hoping that a tired mind at the end of a long day yesterday, had fooled me into dismissing Informant too prematurely.
This morning I spent a good 2 hours with Informant 5 on both an iPad and iPhone. It turns out that my mind wasn’t playing tricks. Informant 5 was just as difficult to navigate and somewhat less intuitive than v4.
I managed to crash it several times which is not a good sign. I also got several Evernote sync errors and had a horrible time getting everything synced properly.
The Email section in the Tasks area is awkward and inconvenient to get to. It just felt clunky.
Overall, v5 was not a good experience for me, so I have uninstalled it from all my devices and reverted back to using the awesome v4.
I’m sorry guys, I really wanted v5 to work for me. I know you’ve put many hours of work into the new version, but it’s made it harder to use and without any new stellar features (email as tasks has some potential) I can’t move away from v4.
I will continue to use v4 as long as it still works and syncs. I renewed last month, so hopefully it will still work until Nov 17.
Out of curiosity, when do you intend to shut v4 down?
I’ve been using Informant 5 for 2 days now, and for me, this upgrade hasn’t added any new features that will help me. The dark mode, while a good idea, is hard for me to look at. The email integration is also good idea, but it takes too many clicks to get to it when you consider that I can achieve the same thing by forwarding the email to my app already. I do appreciate that you’ve started over with the app and I’m sure there are good things behind the scenes that will help in the future. I’m a big fan of your product and I won’t abandon it simply because I don’t like this upgrade, but I would like to give you my wish list for future upgrades. Hopefully some of them can be implemented.
1. I badly want to be able to sort the tasks in my calendar view. I’m a heavy tasks person and it’s annoying to scroll up and down through the day. I feel like this is something I used to be able to do in the android version before I switched to iPhone.
2. Single clicks! Again, on the android version I used to be able to edit a task with a long press, on iPhone if I want to edit a task I have to select it, then select it again when the bubble opens (or slide then select, either way it’s two clicks). This also goes for navigation (as others have mentioned). In Informant 4 I could switch from Tasks to Calendar to settings all with one click. Each now takes two clicks.
3. Triggers that auto-populate. I like the idea of triggers, but the way they work I still have to select what I want. I could (and still can) do that when I press the plus sign by simply choosing my template/trigger instead of choosing a generic new task and then selecting the trigger after I start typing. As of now this isn’t a time saver but if it auto-populated it would be a great feature.
4. Bring back the old date picker! Yesterday I had to move a number of items to different dates. Since it was the last day of the month, I had to change the month to December, then scroll the date back from the 30th to the 1st, 3rd, etc.. This took much longer than it would have if the calendar page was there and I could simply click on the date I wanted.
The last two are smaller gripes. When I have a parent task with children, I always want them collapsed unless I’m actively working on that task in which case I will open it. The way it is now each time I finish a task, the parents all expand and I have to close them all again. Lastly, a manual please, or even a cheat sheet! At least for the new features.
And as far as cost goes, the $25 isn’t my concern as much as WHY it costs $25.00. I said this in a previous post when the price was announced, but I’m happy to pay Fanatic for their work because I love the product and if all $25 was going to you I’d be happier about it. But I feel like too much money has to be spent for weather and support for other apps (Toodledo, Evernote, Google, etc.). I feel like there should be one price for people who want Fanatic use only (the app itself and Informant Sync) and another for users who want the program to interface with other apps.
Thanks for reading.
Just tried to add event using triggers (1st time) and it seems the electronic translator machinery scrambled my templates from I4, I looked back at I4… They still make since in I4…headers/nomenclatures/meanings… Wow this is going to take some serious time to redo
Is this actionable? Or shall I get blistered in front of the class?
I’m still in the early stages of getting used to PI 5, however my summary is very similar to Gennaro’s and Mehill’s. Without meaning to be too negative given the massive amount of work that I know must have gone into it….
1) It delivers a whole bunch of things such as email integration and template triggers that are nice but that people weren’t necessarily asking for in high demand
2) Messes with things such as date picker that people were OK with and had become attached to
3) Removes things such as Apple Watch that people rely on
4) Doesn’t deliver incremental enhancements that the community was actually wants such as Smart Filters for calendar which is supposedly one of the highest priorities.
Just an observation, but when such large changes are made, the team is then consumed by fallout from 1, 2 and 3 while the community is left waiting for the things that they really need in category 4 (while paying $25 pr yr)
Personally, I’d be much happier in paying $25/yr if PI 5 had really delivered on what the community has been requesting over the years vs what has been delivered in 1,2 and 3.
@Paul
Bravo!!! Thank you!!! If I may, ditto!!!
Keith, I have completed the survey. I wish you had sought this feedback from your loyal users before setting your pricing structure. It would have averted some of the negative App Store reviews.
It is not too late to activate damage control. Think of it as an example where less (price) is more (users).
I can’t add an event for any time other than default without CRASH
Apple has a feature called Test Flight so loyal users may beta test. I’ve been an invited user of this option. It’s invaluable to app development . Too bad that wasn’t brought forward to loyal users.
With the exorbitant amount charged for this life changing calendar, that option should have been number one.
My opinion in other posts (other threads) was dismissed by the dev… So glad to hear so many others with the same opinions and issues.
It bares repeating, we are (were) loyal, committed users. And our concerns have fallen on deaf ears. Mg58 recommended damage control… THAT IS ACTIONABLE! Act now.
Call this a beta, make necessary changes, develop a great app, offer extra value to those of us that came on board at $25, release 6.0 and roll on.
We need something more than a run of the mill app that is a train wreck. We’re still here, for now.
I’ll repeat once again what are my issues and desires, in spite of being ignored..
WHAT I WANT
I want the best calendar/task app. I sync with Toodledo and Google Calendat, so I’m happy to pay a subscription for these services. In my opinion developers spend way too much time in adding new features which are at most half baked and way too little time in making their app perfect. TravelAssist is a good example of a new and original calendar oriented feature. I want more original ideas like that, not weather! I’ve been desiring forever better filtering (AND/OR tag filters) and to have a chance to attach notes to tasks and events. Informant 5 went through a redesign of the user interface (making it worse at times), has new features but DID NOTHING TO IMPROVE THE CORE FUNCTIONALITIES OF THE APP, WHICH ARE CALENDAR AND TASKS!!!!!
WHAT I DON’T WANT
(1) Weather: I like a good weather app. I have WeatherPro which I check regularly and is very good and complete. Apple too, they show me info from their weather app whenever they can. Why on earth would I need tiny icons in calendar view to tell me that tomorrow might be raining? Or to know that now it’s mostly cloudy when I go through the new “transition screen” when I could just look out of the windows? The functionalities or your weather implementation are much worse and much more basic than those I have in WeatherPro, and also worse than the Apple App. I don’t need to see weather from within your app, and I feel like I’m being imposed a feature I don’t want so that I can be charged more. I’m not happy at all. By the way, I am very happy to pay 3.99 GBP/year for the premium features of Weather Pro, but I don’t want to be bothered by weather in Informant!
(2) Notes: This would be useful if we could attach notes to tasks (and events), as we do with contacts and pictures. In this case Evernote sync becomes especially valuable. As it is now, it is completely useless. Once again a half baked pretty basic note taking functionality made useless by tons of other apps out there which are zillion of times better.
(3) Mail integration: pretty basic and currently useless for me. Might get better in the future, but once again will be taking precious time away from development and improvement of core functionalities
(4) Contact integration: pretty basic and of little value to me
WHAT I LOATHE IN INFORMANT 5
(1) Double taps slowing my workflow. I can’t believe I must tap twice and go to an animation and a transition screen to swap from calendar to task view. AND I DON’T WANT INFO ABOUT THE WEATHER AND ETA TO NEXT APPOINTMENT EVERY TIME I SWAP FROM MONTH TO WEEK VIEW. What an ill-advised design choice! I see you went through major user interface changes and I don’t think you’ll ever backtrack, so if I want to keep using informant I’ll need to live with this nonsense, but at the very least get rid of the bloody animation. As page turning animations in eBook reader apps, might be fun the first one or two times I see it, then it’s just annoying
(2) Task View: while the ribbon on top is a good idea, gettin rid of the header to tell me which page I’m on is just stupid. On iPad, getting rid of the permanent left bar (and of the header) to have an empty looking task view is once again stupid. Lots of choices in the Task View are made to make more space available, and this space is not used.
WHAT I EXPECT
For an app that has an annual subscription at such an hefty price, I would exepct much more professionality, such as:
(1) Let users of PI4 know what will happen to their informant sync subscription
(2) Full documentation
(3) Much faster resultion of bugs, and much better attempts to respond to users’ wishes.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While there are e few things I like in Informant 5 (curiously I seem to like the new date picker), I think Informant 5 is a huge step backwards, and while I’m happy even to pay a huge subscription, I need to feel the value for my money, and I don’t want to spend money for features I don’t want. I don’t ask for a very granular price fragmentation, but at least for two or three pricing options. The choice between monthly/quarterly/yearly subscriptions makes no sense to me. Who wants to use a PIM app fully functional for only one or three months???? This is something people use long term after going through a learning curve.
My greatest problem, though, is the continuous addition of new functionalities which are basic and half baked and (unsurprisingly) do their job worse or much worse than dedicated apps!!! Doing this takes significant amount of time out of development of new core (calendar/task) features, to the improvement of existing core features and to bug solving. HOW MUCH LONGER WILL I HAVE TO WAIT BEFORE IN THE EVENT FILTER I CAN CHOOSE “SHOW THIS TAG ONLY” FOR TAGS WITH NO COLOUR”? I’ve been waiting for more than one year, and I’m sure I will wait for many more years before this is solved, while instead you work on weather implementation!
cheers
Gennaro – let me comment a few things:
1. Weather is something that a LOT of people do want. It may not be important to you, but I can attest to how much feedback I’ve gotten on it that its something that a lot of people do use.
2. Notes – for a long time, Notes was the selling point of Informant. And I’ve done quite a few surveys showing that for many people its the #2 or #3 feature people use from tens of thousands of respondents. Again, I understand its not your focus and not something you personally need, but for a substantial number of users it is.
3. Mail integration is huge for me. Again…I get you have no interest in it, but for me and a great number of people – Mail is where all your tasks are. I cannot stress how important Mail is to me for Informant.
4. Again, I get that you don’t like my changes, my focus, or pretty much anything I do with Informant 🙂 OK, maybe not far – but I do get the impression to some degree. However, Informant is far more than just a calendar/task app. To me, Informant Home is a huge huge improvement.
5. Tasks View – for me, yes, the ability to focus on tasks and not have all the interface junk sitting around was very important. I understand not everyone will agree, but I do believe it was the right decision. Its about focus – not about cramming more info onto the screen. I’ve never – even in Windows Mobile days – agreed with that mind-set.
OK – so those are my comments on that 🙂 Now onto your “What do you expect”:
1. I’m confused by the question. Why would anything happen? Nothing happens – Informant Sync works just like it always has.
2. Documentation is a sore point. I don’t like documentation because a) We are a small company and to ask one of my guys to spend the next 3 months writing documentation means he’s not available to handle support, customer communication, or engineering. b) By the time its written, its out of date. c) It’ll be English only…
That said, we are working on forms of documentation – but not one big written manual.
3. I’m afraid I don’t get this one. We respond pretty stinkin fast. Yes, we don’t respond on weekends much, and we may not respond to every little comment we get, but in general we respond where a response is warranted and where it promotes the discussion.
As for respond to user’s wishes – which one? Yours? Another persons? What about the other 100,000 users – each one with different wishes? We hope that we can build a sustainable business building software that we believe people want, and we listen to all feedback, but for every positive response to one person’s wish is by definition a negative response to another’s response. We have to prioritize, pick and choose and sometimes that makes some people happy, and other people not happy.
We will continue to take the feedback and roll them into our process internally to continue improving Informant. I can’t promise any specific feedback will make it – but as a company, we listen to all feedback: from support, twitter, facebook, direct email, beta group, email lists, and this blog post comments. We do our best to get the balance right. We haven’t always gotten it right, but we’ll definitely keep refining until we do.
Thank you for your replies, Alex. There are things I like (as the date picker moved into the editor), but I obviously focused on what I don’t.
The new Informant Home might be nice, but it is an annoyance if you switch frequently between calendar views, or between calendar and task view.
I’m surprised Notes where your selling point! I will repeat once again that they would be valuable to me (and I suspect to others) if they could be attached to Tasks. Is that so hard to implement?
I understand many people like weather, but I’m sure I’m not the only one who, on the contrary, doesn’t want it. I’m complaining about the fact that now you’re forcing me to have it, and to pay for it whereas with PI4 I was offered a choice.
As for responsiveness, the “filter by tag bug” (see my comment above) has been there for very long. For what I’m supposed to pay, I would expect much better dealing with bugs. On the other hand I’ve always appreciated how easy it is to communicate with you all.
As for documentation, I perfeclty understand your point Alex, but once you ask for a high subscription price this is one of the things that I would expect to have, especially related to functionalities that are not so intuitive, as “triggers”, or to others which one would only find accidentally while fiddling with the app
I really like Fanatic Software and Pocket Informant (as a “product group”, including for macOS). But it took me less than five minutes to understand that I would stick with Pocket Informant 4, there is no contest at all. The new PI5 UI slows down users immensely.
Really guys, you should’ve gotten much more feedback on the UI before going down this road. Fanatic’s strong side is clearly not design/UX, as is visible when you compare it to the more ‘Silicon Valley’-ish alternatives. So you need to be more insecure about your abilities on that department, and more willing to learn.
That said, I will continue to support your company by using Informant Sync for PI4. I still believe, that in the long haul, your software is the absolute best for powerful task & calendar management.
Just do me a favour, and add FORCE TOUCH to edit tasks in PI4 (going directly to EDIT without the Circle thing) and I will happily provide cashflow _for PI4_ for the coming years.
Having looked through all the comments here, am I right in thinking that if I have an active informant sync account, no action after downloading is necessary (at least until next annual payment) to have full functionality on informant 5? I must say that this has not been clear to me, although sync seems to work after just signing in on pi5. (PI user since the days before it was called PI)
Peter, that is correct. And YES. We need to make that more clear. Which we will…Its been a bit crazy over past few days..
I saw this link on Facebook, not sure why it wasn’t mentioned here, but for all of you with ideas for future releases you can post and vote here
http://feedback.webis.net/forums/562453-pocket-informant-5-for-ios
I have decided to return to PI4, after using PI5 for 5 days. I made this decision, not because of the new pricing policy, although I do feel that a $25 annual feel is too high. I came to this decision because I feel that the implementation was poorly handled and the new user interface was very unproductive for me. I was spending too much time trying to figure out how to handle the new features, to find the features that I use frequently and dealing with features that frequently crashed the app on my iPhone6 Plus and my iPad Pro. The final straw was that I submitted a ticket to support on the crashes and got no response back, other than the auto-response that was generated. The other reasons for going back to version 4 are:
1 – You implemented a completely new user interface and provided no on-line support on the new features and how to use them. I am a heavy user of templates and have number of them that were converted to the new format. There was no documentation on how make them useable as triggers and the trigger interface was very buggy on my devices and frequently crashed both devices.
2 – I am not a fan of the new Date Picker. It seems to very cumbersome and requires more clicks to setup a simple date.
3 – The settings and search buttons need to be directly accessible from the tool bar and not through another button. It does not make sense to see all of that space at the of the screen on an iPad and have tap another button to get to those features.
4 – I am also not a fan of the Black/White interface and that being the only choice. Since PI is suppose to be a highly customizable application, why not keep choosing color one of the choices for the UI?
5 – I have already mentioned this, but templates are really important to me. For me, Triggers were very poorly implemented. When I use them, they crash my system, to the point that I could not create a new event in my calendar. I have no idea how they are suppose to work and PI5 has become unstable on my devices. So I am back to PI4.
Like many, Pocket Informant is the most used app on my iPhone and iPad and I sync it with Outlook on my laptop. But most of the activity is done on my Apple devices. Because of the PI5 implementation, I had a very unproductive week and was forced to use my laptop to manage my affairs while I work through issues with PI.
One last comment on pricing: If you are going to charge an annual fee of $25, then you not only need to provide stable bug-free software, but also robust support and proper documentation (user guides, FAQs, YouTube videos, etc) to justify the cost. You drastically changed the application and left a lot of your users high and dry without a net. If these things were in place before the implementation, then maybe folks can see the value and much this storming could have been avoided.
Sorry guys… app crashes on startup.
I have been loyal to PI since the early iOS days but after installing PI 5 iOS I have to look for an alternative.
I don’t like the subscription model nor do I like the user interface. Sorry, for me it is not intuitive. It feels awkward and has a terrible app icon too…
I understand you guys have to earn money, but this model just does not feel goes. Really wish you all luck with your business but I decided to leave.
Especially feeling sad because I funded PI macOS which is still in beta
(bought in april 2015).