14 DAY TRIAL // How would you manage an app used by over two million people around the world? We're not talking about just any app, but one of the most appreciated Task and Project Manager – Todoist. We've covered the way the app was born and how the team works in an interview with its creator, Amir and now we are taking the discussion to a new level.
Enric Enrich, the lead developer of Todoist for OS X (Mac App Store Link) followed up on our interview request. The most interesting detail about Enric is that he works both for the iOS team and the OS X version of the App and he is just 20 years old.
Introduce yourself to the Softpedia readers
I'm Enric Enrich, iOS Developer at Doist. I'm 20 years old and I'm from Spain. I started programming when I was a young teenager on my free time after school. After finish school I studied graphic design. And after finish the degree of graphic design I started studying a post-grade of expert on mobile development at the university Alfonso X El Sabio. I started creating my first public iOS app called Veern after finish the post-grade, on April. I joined Doist the 9 of June of 2014. My hobbies are basketball and music.
What inspires you when you set on to create the next big feature of Todoist?
Principally, that this new feature will improve the productivity of millions of people that use Todoist. And that a new feature, is a new challenge for me.
You said you are a team that’s scattered around the world. How is that working for you? What apps and workflows do you use in order to feel closer to your team and work faster and better?
Yes, we are team scattered around the world. If I'm not wrong, we have people in 4 different continents. The country list includes: Denmark, Portugal, Russia, Germany, Chile, Canada, Brazil, Philippines, Poland, Greece, Spain, Peru, United States, China, Slovakia, Taiwan, Italy, Japan, Korea, France. We are around 30 people on the team right now.
It's really good being able to work from where you feel more comfortable, I think that it improves our productivity a lot. We use our own software to work, Todoist and Wedoist. Sometimes we also use Skype to do video calls.
The interface of your app is not OS specific. You mainly keep the same interface on other Operating Systems and in the browser. Is that something that’s keeping you from adding awesome features on the Mac?
Exactly, that's why the app is based on the web app. And no, that's not keeping us from adding awesome features to the Mac app. The opposite. This way we can focus on adding new features and improve the app.
How was work on the new stuff in OS X Yosemite? How did you make the most of it with Notifications Center, Continuity, transparencies and other new features?
It was something completely new and an amazing experience. The new features that OS X Yosemite brings are amazing, and being able to implement them on your favorite app is even more amazing. We finally added native interactive notifications and reminders to the Mac app, it was a very requested feature. Also, we added a Today Widget for the Today View, and a Share Extension to make it even more easy to add tasks to Todoist.
Apart of the OS X Yosemite specific features, we added new features like the Quick Add to add tasks to Todoist from everywhere without opening the app every time. With the feedback of our users we improved a lot the Quick Add and we are very happy of how it works. Also, we added a new feature that basically, you select any text, right click, and "Add to Todoist". That fast!
Probably one of the most challenging features to implement was the Today Widget. Actually my friend Jaime (iOS Developer at Doist) helped me to add this new feature to the Mac app because he was already working on the Today Widget for iOS.
But also we had to think of how the completion of tasks should work. If we wanted to complete a task right after you click the complete button, or wait until the Today View is closed. Finally, after talking with Ana (Designer at Doist) we decided to do it when the Today View is closed because if you click to complete the wrong task then you'll have to un-complete it, and it doesn't improve the productivity.
If you didn’t use some of the above: what kept you not to, or what are you going to use in the future?
We don't use transparencies, because like I said, the Mac app is based on our web app. About Continuity, it's something that maybe we can implement in the future, but not in the short future I think.
Let our readers know how a typical day in the life of a Mac Developer unfolds for you.
Hmm, that's a difficult question because everyday is different! But normally I start with taking a look to the tasks that I have for today and start setting priorities. Then I usually take a look to the Support page to see what's going on, and to see if there are new bugs or feature requests.
After that, I start working on the tasks that I have for today. I do little breaks of 5 - 10 minutes every 40 - 60 minutes to let my brain rest a little bit. That's very important! When I was in school I learned that after 40 - 60 minutes of being doing something you need to disconnect a few minutes, because if you don't do it then your productivity will not be at 100%.
Between 2:30PM and 3:30PM I have lunch. After that, I go back to finish all the tasks that I have for today. And once I finish all the tasks that I have for today I start organizing what I will do tomorrow and take another look to the Support page. After that, I go to the gym to do some exercise! Do exercise is very important too!
Tell us your story with Todoist. How did you join the team? What keeps you motivated?
I saw that they where searching an iOS developer and I applied for the position. After a while, they contacted me to do an interview with Amir (founder of Doist) and one - two weeks after that I started working with all this amazing team on Monday 9 of June of this year. Almost six months ago. How fast the time passes!
I have a lot of motivations inside Doist! One of the main motivations is the people that I work with, they all are amazing. We are really great friends, and we help each other when we need it. We are a family.
Also, back in September I visited some of them in the office that we have in Porto, and it was one of the best experiences that I've ever had in my life.
Are you working on side/personal projects?
Yes, I work on two side projects. One it's a personal project called Veern (iTunes Link), but it's been a while since I've updated it! And the other one is called Short, that I do it with a friend called Alex Münch, designer from Germany. Short isn't still available on the App Store, but we have a public beta. We plan to release it between December and January hopefully!
You must be an avid Todoist user. How has that improved your life as a developer and as a person?
Yes! Todoist is the only to-do app that fits with me. I tried a lot of apps before start using Todoist, but finally stayed with Todoist. It's amazing how simple and powerful Todoist is. It doesn't have elements that distracts you to what is important, your tasks and improve your productivity. And the premium features are amazing, it's worth pay 23€ every year for those features!
With Todoist I can organize my developer and my personal life in a way that I always know what to do and never miss anything. Also, I can share projects with other people so we can collaborate and make it even more easy to organize something!
Just want to clarify: you, as a developer, have to pay for it?
I started using Premium before starting working at Doist, so I payed. And yes, next year I'll pay again for Todoist Premium. And now maybe you'll think, why? Well, it's something that I've learned when I started programming. Basically, if you don't pay for what you develop, who will pay for it? The same is, if you don't use what you develop, who will use it?
What are some of the tips or little known tricks in Todoist for Mac that will help other users? Did you ever find yourself hiding precious nuggets or features inside the app just to see if users will find them and use them?
Great questions! To improve the usage of Todoist for Mac, I always use the new Quick Add, the "Select text to add to Todoist" and add all the new tasks to the inbox. And at the end of the day, or when I have some free time, I open Todoist and move every task that it's on the inbox to the projects that I want them to be.
I also use a lot the interactive notifications to reply comments or complete tasks without opening the app.
About the second question, I have to say that yes, the Mac app now has a little feature that's hidden since the version 6.0.0 (now we are on the version 6.0.3), but we will make this feature public soon! Actually there's a 3rd party developer that uses this hidden feature to integrate Todoist with his app.
This "hidden" feature was implemented on iOS this summer too. It's called "URL Schemes". We didn't have URL Schemes before the version 6.0.0, so I decided to implement it too on the Mac app. It's very powerful have URL Schemes on an app because it makes easier for other developers to integrate apps. We will continue improving the URL Schemes of the Mac app in future versions.
For example, Lars from Mailplane (the 3rd party developer) already integrated Mailplane to add emails directly to Todoist with one of the URL Schemes that we offer.
About integrate apps with Todoist, we actually have an amazing public API for the developers to integrate and create apps based on Todoist! But if there's a developer that wants to integrate an app with our Mac app, the easiest way is to contact our support team or me via Twitter.
Reading Enric's answers you've probably asked yourself what the app looks and works like. Take a look at the photo gallery and the videos provided and don't forget to take Todoist for a spin. It is the only productivity app that works on 13 different platforms, browsers and operating systems.
We will soon publish another interview with the lead developer for the iOS Team at Todoist so you can get some more insight on the mobile version of this app, that was recently updated for iOS 8.
