[HN Gopher] Show HN: A journaling service that runs over WhatsApp
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Show HN: A journaling service that runs over WhatsApp
Hey Hacker News, I'm excited to share a tiny service that's very
close to my heart - Today Has Been. Here's how it works: We have a
phone number that has WhatsApp Business API enabled. Your messages
sent to this number (after you activate your free trial) are added
to your journal. It's a super light weight journaling service - no
app download or registration is required. We also send you a daily
nudge asking "How did your day go?" and after you have a few posts
we send you a random blast from the past. Why I built it: I was an
active user and fan of Ohlife - only journalling app that could
make me write 100s of entries. So, when it shut down it left a hole
in my life too (just like it did for Paul G -
https://x.com/paulg/status/1216714155731890176). :) "Today Has
Been" is Ohlife on WhatsApp. I'd love to hear your feedback and
ideas. Please visit http://todayhasbeen.com and tap on Get Started.
(Note: Works on WhatsApp only) Also, if you have questions on
using WhatsApp as a platform, I'm happy to chat. Thank you!
Author : rahulg
Score : 65 points
Date : 2024-09-23 12:37 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (todayhasbeen.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (todayhasbeen.com)
| usmanmehmood55 wrote:
| How is user privacy handled?
| loremm wrote:
| Just because I'm interested in personal bots, doesn't whatsapp
| business have a (nominal, maybe) cost? I've been using telegram
| and they're amazingly bot friendly + free but I use whatsapp so
| much more
|
| Does it feel like it works for small (and personal-use) players
| with buttons, callbacks, and the rest
| rahulg wrote:
| You're right. WhatsApp Business API has a cost (which varies
| depending on country and type of message the Business
| initiates). I'm hoping to recover the cost through monthly
| subscriptions.
| loremm wrote:
| Huh yeah that's good to hear. As a small note, on my personal
| bot I set up a simple journaling (and then just used google
| sheets as the backend!) includes a nominal 'rating' 1-10 so I
| can see how my mood fluctuates.
|
| Especially if they do it every day/most days, having the
| option to see what you wrote "on this day" 2-3 years back is
| great. Especially when I try to include people's names who I
| was interacting with (but who are easy to forget 3 years
| later). It can be a nice reminder to text them and say you
| were "just randomly", unprompted, thinking about them --
| 'How's it going?'
| rahulg wrote:
| I do agree that getting to read entries from your past is
| quite magical and has to be experienced to really
| understand it.
|
| Fantastic that you've set it up for yourself.
| loremm wrote:
| And I think you can do more about E2E encrypting it. Or at
| least trying to. At some point, people don't want plaintext
| journals floating around stored permanently. Although I know
| it starts as cleartext on whatsapp's servers
| meiraleal wrote:
| Easy to say, very difficult to implement it right (and
| implementing it not right is diffcult AND useless). Also,
| let's be clear here, whatsapp E2EE is a joke.
| ylk wrote:
| > whatsapp E2EE is a joke
|
| Could you please elaborate why (in detail)?
| grvdrm wrote:
| Yes - I would love that too. Please back that up?
| jusepal wrote:
| My guess is since its closed source, no one beside them
| can verify that the supposedly e2e is even true, or exist
| in current latest binary. Sort of telling everyone that
| I've got a mountain of gold inside my house but the door
| is locked, no one beside me could verify my claim.
| Security and/or privacy via obscurity is moot.
| meiraleal wrote:
| They also handle and store users backup unencrypted by
| default so they have access to all messages in plaintext
| in multiple opportunities.
| ylk wrote:
| Meta has access to the backups that are stored on each
| individual's Google Drive/iCloud? How does that work
| exactly? Please elaborate.
| ylk wrote:
| You can always go ahead and decompile the apps and then
| show everyone that they're in fact lying, that story
| would be huge. That alone doesn't make it true, but there
| have so far not been hints of them pulling weird stuff
| with their e2ee, unlike telegram, for example. They're
| even working on improving the default mode 99% of users
| use e2ee chat apps with - trust on first use (TOFU):
| https://engineering.fb.com/2023/04/13/security/whatsapp-
| key-...
|
| They probably do all kinds of horrible stuff with the
| metadata. I'm honestly too lazy to read the privacy
| policy. But I have yet to see critique of their e2ee
| that's actually backed up by substance instead of
| people's imaginations.
| compootr wrote:
| > people don't want plaintext journals floating around
| stored permanently
|
| this is facebook. they're data-mining pictures of your dog
| for money. I don't think privacy/safety is expectable with
| meta
| meiraleal wrote:
| Yes it is paid but there are good unofficial APIs (better than
| the official actually). The problem as you would expect is that
| they aren't highly reliable and losing messages is common.
| lambdadelirium wrote:
| What a great idea to share even all the personal private life you
| had with a random company AND Meta /s
| maipen wrote:
| It's such nonsense lmao.
|
| I usualy don't like to hate on people's work, but damn I hate
| this thing.
|
| I prefer trustless rather than believing in other entities good
| will.
|
| I rather use a pen and paper.
|
| Also, when people already know it's a bot, there is no
| illusion.
| heythere22 wrote:
| The page says "14-day Free trial. No Credit Card Required." but
| there is no mention of any pricing page. What happens once the
| trial is over? Does the boy just stop sending messages?
| playingalong wrote:
| "boy" is obviously a typo. But can be seen as a reference to
| Amazon Mturk kind of automation by delegating to a human.
| rahulg wrote:
| ha!
| rahulg wrote:
| It's mentioned right below "14-day Free Trial" but I need to
| make it more obvious.
|
| "You can try THB out for 14 days for absolutely free. At the
| end of the trial period, you can choose between our monthly ($5
| per month) or annual ($48 per year) subscription plans."
|
| I have also added it in the bot before you subscribe to the
| free trial. Thanks for the feedback.
| kstrauser wrote:
| Pricing feedback: That's $13/yr more than the full-blown Day
| One premium service.
| gagik_co wrote:
| This is cool! I fully get the appeal of texting for journaling as
| I did that a lot with Signal. For a while now I have been working
| on a different way to capture this text yourself-powered
| journaling with my app tetr. It acts as a standalone app but
| employs a similar texting-based journaling system where you can
| set regular messages to be sent to you (even with stuff like
| checkboxes for routine tasks). It's also offline-first so data
| stays on your devices (and will employ e2ee sync once that's
| out).
|
| https://tetr.app/
| rahulg wrote:
| Hey! Looks great. Will give it try for sure.
| blackbear_ wrote:
| Congrats for the launch!
|
| Apologies for the self-promotion, but I've done something similar
| for Telegram, and I believe some people here might be also'
| interested in that.
|
| I also wanted to record more of my life, so I created a Telegram
| bot that saves all messages you send it into a Google
| Spreadsheet.
|
| Hashtags can be used to split the text into sheets and columns,
| if so desired. Besides jotting down quick thoughts, this is very
| handy for short-form journaling such as tracking expenses,
| workouts, mood, period, weight, diet, etc., with the added bonus
| of easy charting and summarization from within the spreadsheet.
| It also supports pictures and other attachments that are uploaded
| automatically to Google Drive and linked into the spreadsheet.
|
| Feel free to check it out, it's free of charge and does not
| require any registration: https://t.me/gsheet_notes_bot
| rahulg wrote:
| Thanks. Telegram bot sounds perfect too. Let me give it a try.
| egeozcan wrote:
| This is amazing. Is there a way to attach files/photos as well?
| blackbear_ wrote:
| Thank you! Yes, if you share a file or picture with the bot
| it will be uploaded on a Google drive folder (in your
| account) and linked into the spreadsheet.
| Yenrabbit wrote:
| Lovely idea! I have a 'Note To Self' chat that gets used for all
| sorts, it's really hard to beat the convenience of Whatsapp for
| sharing things. Do you support voice notes?
| rahulg wrote:
| Thank you! Voice notes - not yet. But definitely on the radar.
| Would you prefer voice notes as it is or transcribed?
| ignacioaal wrote:
| @rahulg Could you tell me about your experience getting approved
| for production on the meta business account? I've been trying to
| get approval for months now. it's always denied. Building on
| Whatsapp has been impossible for this reason. Any tips?
| rahulg wrote:
| Hi. WhatsApp keeps changing its policies but if you have a
| business entity it should be possible to get it. If the
| business is verified by Meta then it should straight forward.
| Would you like to email me - I'm happy to get on a call and
| help. I'm on rahulg at bakbak dot me.
| vzaliva wrote:
| Trusting something as private as my personal diary to 3rd party
| sounds like a scary idea from a privacy point of view. Imagine
| someone hacking this site, exposing your very private
| information.
|
| I wish there was something like that end-to-end encrypted. You
| are already using E2E encryption for the communication channel
| (WhatsApp). I wish there was a hookup to store the same data
| without breaking down the chain of encryption. WhatApp should
| look into that. Something like ProtonDrive connected to WhatsApp
| and APIs.
| rahulg wrote:
| I'd love to figure out a way where entries are encrypted but
| also the features/user-friendliness is not sacrificed.
| smashah wrote:
| You can easily develop and self host such a thing without
| whatsapp business api
| loloquwowndueo wrote:
| Yeah I wouldn't anyone to mess with my milk either.
|
| (You typoed diary and I couldn't resist ;) )
| create-username wrote:
| My thoughts exactly when all mighty Tim Cook granted us iPhone
| addicts a Journaling app
| ethangk wrote:
| I think Day One probably fits the bill for you there. E2E
| encrypted. I've been using it for about a decade
| sutra_on wrote:
| I am not sure if this fits your usecase - but why not just to
| use encrypted Notes on a Mac or iPhone (if you have an Apple
| device), and set a daily reminder? What does WhatsApp have that
| Notes doesn't?
| dewey wrote:
| > amazing private collection of your life stories
|
| I guess it's technically not "public" but then again it's
| shipping your most private thoughts to WhatsApp and an unknown
| person and "privacy" isn't mentioned on the landing page once.
|
| Personally I can recommend DayOne which is built by a trusted
| entity Automattic (Wordpress etc.) and they do have a big focus
| on privacy: https://dayoneapp.com/privacy-pledge/
| bschmidt1 wrote:
| Out of curiosity why WhatsApp vs regular SMS (via Twilio)?
| BoppreH wrote:
| Did you get Meta or a lawyer to clear your usage, especially
| after you introduce monthly subscriptions, against the WhatsApp
| Business Policy?
|
| I looked into it previously, and it seemed to imply software
| services were not welcome. From the WhatsApp Business Policy[1]
| (emphasis mine):
|
| > 4. Prohibited Organizations and Restrictions on Use
|
| > ...
|
| > If you use Catalogs, or _provide any other commerce experiences
| to sell or otherwise facilitate the exchange of goods or
| services_ prohibited by the Meta Commerce Policy, then we may
| prohibit you from using some or all of the WhatsApp Business
| Services.
|
| And the Meta Commerce Policy[2] says
|
| > Prohibited Content
|
| > 16. No item for Sale: Listings may not promote news, humor, or
| other content that _does not offer any product for sale_.
|
| > 19. Services: Services may not be listed.
|
| > 22. Subscriptions and Digital Products: Listings may not
| promote the buying or selling of downloadable digital content,
| digital subscriptions, and digital accounts.
|
| It was unclear to me whether this applies only to marketplace-
| like platforms, or any service or product that you provide
| yourself. A tenuous ground to build a company on.
|
| [1] https://business.whatsapp.com/policy
|
| [2] https://www.facebook.com/policies_center/commerce
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(page generated 2024-09-23 23:01 UTC)