One of the best way to understand the true value of a product is to listen to the actual customers who use it. This post is dedicated to highlighting some of the Fan-atic fans of Pocket Informant who have commented in a recent Facebook Post, or in the App Store.
We recently asked the question on Facebook, “Tell us your story: Interested to hear stories about: “How did you get introduced to Informant?” How long ago was it? Do you remember who or what introduced you to informant? Why did you first try Informant? How long did it take you to fall in love?”
[Full disclosure]: We offered up some “free stuff” to those who participated. Everyone listed here will receive a minimum of 3 months free on their Informant Sync subscription. In 2 weeks, the person with the most “Likes” on their comment will receive a free year.
Antal Hendrix van Spronsen
Hi, I bought my first copy of pocket informant 10 years ago for my HTC Tytn. (Yeah, a Pocket informant lustrum) It was my first decent agenda software. It was more flexible than all others that I have tried back then. Custom colors, later custom views, emoticons.. a great way to organize a busy schedule!
I’ve been an addict since. The first app to install on every new phone!
The pocket pc community was quite active then, giving tips and tricks. Pocket informant had a great reputation then. (Still has now 
😁)
I use PI daily on my iPhone and iMac now.
Claudia Czapiewski I first purchased pocket informant when it was first released for the compaq ipac back in the day. Loved it for the color options back then. Now I have enjoyed it going with my family and its schedule. I keep track of six individuals and there schedules thanks to color and emojis I can keep everyone straight and on task.
David Reid I started using Informant on my Compaq pda. Switched to mac a few years ago and bought Informant 5 and was able to replace Omnifocus on iPhone and dektop. Love the tags and filters. I also have Informant for the MAC & OSX.
Peter Laustsen As a working music educator I have several employers (4 right now actually) and it takes A LOT of effort to stay updated. I also run a freelance guitar repair shop. I’m also a family man, father of two, which adds even more to selecting the right calendar.
5 years ago I contacted a good friend of mine who works full-time as a pro drummer. He always has the best apps for staying on the upside of the game and he put it down clearly: “Pocket Informant”, nothing else. So I went with his advice and never looked back.
PI syncs with Google and my wife’s calendars and she can always see where I am and what I’m working on, which is a big plus in terms of planning family life in an efficient way. It’s customizeable and I like it. I’m a no-BS kind of guy, I don’t want to see buttons that I don’t use.
PI ftw… 
👊🏻 strictly professional!
Gregory Pittman I have been using Pocket Informant since the early days of Cassiopeia Windows CE devices. Back then, PI and AgendaOne were the top competitors in the PIM app field. I had been using AgendaOne and they made a design shift that didn’t work well for me so I switched to PI and have been using it ever since. Sure, there have been brief dalliances with other apps, and Nozbe still resides on my phone. But PI has always been the one that matches the way my brain is wired over all others. It is my digital brain.
Kylie Stevenson I started with pocket informant only a year ago. I originally had been using 2do and wanted a better calendar view so synced 2do and PI. After a while I realised that informant had all the functionality of 2do and so committed everything to PI. I upgraded to informant sync as I found it the thr most reliable way of syncing between my iPhone and iPad. I do a lot of work on a windows computer and I am currently using the beta outlook sync. Ideally I would like to be able to choose which calendars/projects to sync to outlook but have not yet been able to do so. I just found it when browsing through the App Store. I downloaded a few calendars when I first got an iPhone and informant was the best out of the ones I tried.
Howell Selburn I was introduced to it at Macworld Expo SF and I’ve been hooked ever since. I got it for my iPod Touch 2nd Gen. My next device was an iPad 3. It’s one of the first apps I install!
Nick Catrow I started using Pocket Informant (PI) before I received my first IPhone, over 10 years ago when another person in the military told me about it. I first used it on a PDA I had at the time. I originally used it only for my calendar. I learned that I could identify different calendar items by color and that is when I quit using the calendar on my PC and PDA. Since that time I have fallen in love with PI. When I received my first IPhone, I found I could add PI to it and have added it to every IPhone I have owned. For a time, I could sync PI on my IPhone with Windows Calendar, but that was stopped a whole ago. I tied using the new sync program, but found it did not sync all my items, so I quit using it. I upgraded PI each time during the last 10+ years when it upgraded. I have never used another calendar program since I found out that I could identify calendar items by color. Over the last 10+ years, PI has added some very good upgrades (like the icons & pictures) and I have encouraged many of my IPhone friends to use PI.
Jeff Gorton I was another iPaq user from 13 years ago. I stumbled across PI in a “more like this” list while I was busy installing every app even remotely resembling a scheduler. I was busy attempting to justify having bought my new “toy”. Initially I was using 3 different apps to keep track of my weeks activities and appointments. Yep, I was addicted to my iPaq. Friends and colleagues thought it was a waste of time as these gadgets were just a passing phase. I don’t even remember what the other 2 apps were now but after initially struggling with PI I found it could be as simple or as complex as I made it. It became my go to app. Friends and colleagues started checking with me if there were scheduling clashes with events( Ha!) because I ‘had a knack’ for knowing when things were happening. PI has followed me to Android tablets and now to my iPhone. I even resurrected my iPaq at one point when work issues me with a Blackberry. A bit of tinkering and I Bluetooth linked the 2 units so alerts and reminders sounded on the Blackberry and I could dial contacts from the iPaq with a touch. I was initially disappointed with PI on the iPhone as it didn’t seem as rich as the WM version but you have developed it into another winner. Thanks.
Jeff Bergman I have been an informant user since the palm pilot days. Always have loved how it combines everything that I need to have a productive day
Tom Travers I started using PI on my first iPhone 3GS, I wanted something to replace the very basic iOS calendar and did a search for replacements on the App Store, PI stood out from the crowd due to look and functionality, it quickly became one of the “show off” apps that I used to impress my friends. I don’t think I could use any other system now.
Steve Tennant I first used Pocket Informant when it came bundled with an HP HX4700 in about 2005. Been using it ever since and followed it from Pocket PC or was it Windows CE? To iOS and MacOS. http://www.businesswire.com/…/Web-Information-Solutions…
Armin Eberlein I cannot recall how long ago it was. It must be about 15 years ago, when I switched from Palm (and the DateBK app) to HP Ipaq. It took me a while to adjust to PI but now it has become a non-replaceable app. I like the syncing through InformantSync, the ability to have all my different calendars all in one app, the tasks, the night-mode, the usability, the customizability… and last but not least, the amazing responsiveness of the support team. Tabetha is amazing. I am so excited about it, that I joined the Beta team as we all benefit from providing early feedback. I am happy to pay an annual subscription fee as Alex and team need to have a more predictable income.
Ron Buss My goodness, I think it was well over ten years ago when I purchased a HP handheld running Windows Mobile, so long ago I cannot remember the model number. Really liked the task and appointment features it offered and was hooked. Now, too many devices to count later, I have always made certain that I had a copy of the software on the device. Learning curve from OS to OS on the various devices was always easy and productivity remain consistant.
The following reviews are pulled directly from the Apple App Store and are in reference to Informant 5 for iOS.
This self-promotion marketing babble is really sickening. Anyway I read the first two “stories” praise PI for the color options, something that you happily got rid of in PI5 and everybody is missing.
Gennaro,
Thank you for taking the time to communicate with us (even though you are not feeling well). YES, in a sense you are right, we did remove themes in IOS5. (However there are still MANY color options.) The reason we did this was for stability and quality. As it was in the past, we were seeing too many bugs reported to support that had their roots in the different themes, and all the different device sizes, etc. Chris made the determination that we needed to pair back the functionality (in this case of themes) in order to get a better handle on the overall quality of the app. I realize that it might seem like we just arbitrarily pull cool features that people love for no apparent reason, but I promise you, there is always a reason.
Now the good news… Informant development has been, and will continue to be, driven by user feedback. If you want to “vote” for bringing back the different color themes you can vote for it here. As it becomes the top issue, it will get more attention.
http://feedback.webis.net/forums/562453-pocket-informant-5-for-ios/suggestions/17307763-please-bring-back-the-different-color-themes
Those were the days.
PI5 in new codes, new structure and new look, need to earn its credibility from the ground up. Its Keith’s era, a new business model and clear objectives of making money to benefit all of us.
True respect is that which is earned with no strings attached.
Tough crowd! Very few options on the App Store, feature rich as PI5. I also have been along for the ride since palm pilot days. Bumps in the road along the way for sure, but a solid history here and in my opinion still an awesome product! I have tried most of them and am well versed in multiple productivity systems. My personal blend of them all comes together nicely with PI5 and Informant for Mac OS. Thanks everyone!
That is interesting. As a user successive generations of DateBook for the Palm OS and Pocket Informant since it was introduced to the iOS platform, I was not aware that Web IS had ever released a version of PI for the Palm Pilot.
Same. I’m surprised when some ppl mention PI once being on Palm. I used DateBk5&6, but never aware of PI existing on that platform.
Raises questions regarding the authenticity of such reviews.
m_g58,
I kinda like the conspiracy theory…What do you think happened there?
Maybe if there is enough interest in the truth, I’ll write a blog post on what we really did to make it happen.
As much as the conspiracy theory sounds intriguing, in a geeky way I’m interested in Informant’s history dating back to PalmOS
I think Keith is trying to be sarcastic, but it comes across more as feeding the fantasies of some of those posting. Enough fantasy–here are some facts:
1. Pocket Informant ran on Windows Mobile, and was quite powerful (for pre-iOS). I used it for a number of years on a variety of devices, mostly HP or Dell. I believe there was also a Blackberry version, but NO Palm OS version.
2. At least one Palm series, the Treo, was available in two flavors: Palm OS or Windows Mobile. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Treo)
The conclusion is obvious.
Keith’s conspiracy theory humour wasn’t lost on me. Just wondering whether there was an outside chance of a valid history of PI (under a different name perhaps) on the PalmOS platform, given more then one person has mentioned “Palm Pilot” (Palm’s very first PDAs), not “Treo” (their 2000-2010(?) era smart phones, which on some models ran Windows Mobile). Palm Pilot obviously not used literally then. Not uncommon.
Happy to generate some debate, but do apologize for the incorrect info. It has been a while. It was, as stated, windows mobile when I started with PI, but as previously stated I have bounced back and forth throughout the years. I even still have my handspring visor!!
My point was throughtout the history of web is and now informant I have always come back to this product. It was not my intention to create any conspiracy. I try and focus on the positive and see what the functionally was compared to today. Productivity tends to be a personal thing, one system in its purity cannot fit all needs. Having a flexible app is key to allow people to fit individual needs. There are many features of informant I leave aside but it’s multiple options allow me to organize the way I prefer, better than anything else I see out there.
My Story: I have informant 4 and informant 5 installed on an iphone with iOS 11 Beta. Informant 4 everything working perfect. Informant 5: Toodledo only syncing first time and then never again. Payed 26 Euro for nothing.
And the best is: Support telling me that they had to program a new app because not everything ist working in informant 4 with the new iOS versions !!
I’m a 16 year user of PI and a 5 star reviewer of the latest release.
In December, when PI5 was introduced, I was pretty disgusted and like others, I stayed with 4.9. Based on my disappointment with the new PI5, I suspected the recent merger may be the demise of PI. I also submitted a rating of 2 stars at the time because it was a inferior user experience compared to 4.9. I also had my doubts about this Keith fellow. Many PI users have been around a long time and had a long time active forum, getting and giving plenty of feedback from Alex. So now we’re introduced to Keith about the same time we get the underwhelming PI5 and I associated the two and began looking for a new PIM because I thought I saw where this company was headed…and it wasn’t looking good.
Clearly I WAS WRONG. It’s obvious that Keith was paying close attention and I’m impressed and very pleased with the improvements to PI over the past 8 months. Not that it’s everything I want (although I’ve removed PI4 in favor of PI5 now), but the Fanatic team has responded and and continues to communicate. As the improved updates continue to come, I sense a lot of passion from Keith and the developers of PI to continue making it the greatest task/calendar program and I’m staying here for the ride. Good job on your progress…that’s why I recently gave it 5 stars.
Jerry,
Thank you for the direct feedback and also the kind words. I am super happy that we are keeping you happy.
The team here is awesome & I am very proud to be a part of it.
-Keith