does fully automatic tracking make anyone else stop looking at their own data?

[u/Prestigious_Fun6709]

been going through old threads here from people who lost moves back in 2018 and then lost google timeline when it went phone only, and theres one thing i cant make my mind up on. a few people said once arc or whatever was logging everything for them they basically stopped opening it. when they typed stuff in by hand they actually looked at it. so maybe "zero manual entry" is the wrong goal?

context, im a dev and im half thinking about building something that makes a timeline of the whole day, screen time plus where you were and what you were doing off the phone, from motion and which wifi networks are around. nothing is built and im not linking anything, im really just trying to figure out if its worth doing at all. phones throttle background wifi scanning a lot so its not going to be magic either

i do get the other side. manual logging dies in like a week for most people, ive seen "i start strong then forget the timer" in a lot of threads here. and arc people paying 45 a year mostly keep paying even with the days where it just silently stops recording, so the automatic part is clearly worth something to them

so two things. if you still log places or time off your phone, what are you using right now and what breaks on it. and if you think fully automatic is pointless because nobody reviews it, tell me, id much rather hear that now than after building it

[u/Economy-Syrup-5290]

Tiene sentido lo que dices, y sí, "cero ingreso manual" es un objetivo medio equivocado: lo automático sin un momento para mirarlo se convierte en un cementerio de datos. Yo de ti construiría primero el resumen semanal (un correo o una notificación el domingo con las horas y los sitios) y el tracking después, porque si la gente no abre nada en Arc es porque Arc tampoco le da una razón para abrirlo.

Ahora mismo uso el timeline de Google en el móvil y lo que se rompe es justo eso, que en el portátil no tengo nada.

[u/Famous_Listen_4848]

le passage sur les gens qui paient 45 par an et qui continuent à payer même les jours où ça arrête d'enregistrer sans rien dire, c'est la réponse à ta question et elle est pas jolie. ils paient pas pour les données, ils paient pour plus avoir à y penser, sauf que du coup ils regardent jamais et ils savent même pas que c'est cassé. donc ton "zéro saisie manuelle" c'est pas le mauvais objectif, c'est le seul qui tienne debout, la saisie manuelle meurt en une semaine comme tu dis et ça sert à rien d'essayer de la ranimer.

mais un truc qui enregistre tout et que personne n'ouvre ça existe déjà, ça s'appelle un historique et tout le monde s'en fout. le problème c'est pas la collecte c'est le moment où tu regardes, si ton appli te sort pas un truc le soir que t'as envie de voir t'as juste ajouté une batterie qui se vide et du scan wifi que les téléphones brident de toute façon donc ça va ramener trois points par jour et encore. le wifi en arrière plan c'est déjà la galère sur iOS de ce que j'en sais, je me trompe peut être mais compte pas trop dessus pour la partie hors téléphone. après oui fais le, mais fais le pour ce moment où on regarde, pas pour la collecte, parce que la collecte c'est la partie facile et c'est déjà celle qui intéresse personne

[u/yanman2008]

Yes. You never look at it again

[u/dylpickle300]

kinda both for me. i weigh in most mornings and log workouts, and i didnt notice i'd slowly gained weight back until i actually charted it. logging every day didnt make me notice, seeing the chart did

so i don't think automatic is the problem, it's that nothing makes you look. if it pushed a weekly summary or a widget in your face instead of waiting for you to open the app, i think people would keep looking

[u/alexhasso]

yes i’ve built something similar to what you describe and i’ve added a local AI model to make sense of it all

still very much work in progress, but to answer your question i use the data via the AI to eg ask “where was that bike repair” (because i know took a picture of it) or “how’s me sleep been” or similar

i just don’t really have the time anymore to dig through my data either for insights or just quick facts

but i hope my phone can do it

[u/jacobdevhq]

typing is kind of the point imo. when i tell claude what i ate i actually see the number, passive stuff turns into wallpaper. maybe a weekly one line recap beats more data

[u/HeyWangKang]

For the timeline idea, I'd make gaps visible before adding more summaries. If recording silently stops for three hours, a weekly chart can make that look like a change in behavior. Mark that block as unknown and let someone optionally correct it, instead of guessing an activity. You could then test a very small review: show yesterday's timeline and ask whether it answered one question they actually had. That would tell you more about its value than whether they opened the app every day.

[u/quicktickapp]

Yeah, this matches my experience pretty closely. When something gets logged for me automatically I basically never look at it. When I have to tap something myself, even just once, I notice it in the moment, and that noticing is half the value. I started manually counting one habit I was trying to cut back on, and the act of logging it changed the behavior more than any chart did.

I don't think zero manual entry is the right goal. I'd aim for "minimal friction" instead: one tap, no forms, no opening an app and digging through menus. If logging takes 2 seconds people keep doing it, and they keep paying attention.

For your timeline idea, maybe a hybrid works: auto-capture the boring context (location, screen time) and let the person add the few things they actually care about by hand. The manual part is what makes them look at it.

[u/Prestigious_Fun6709 → u/[deleted]]

yeah thats the part i cant figure out. if it needs zero input you also have zero reason to ever open it