What’s New In TimeTune 4.0

TimeTune 4.0 contains a lot of changes. And some of them are especially important.

But before we take a look at the changes, keep in mind the following:

TimeTune 4.0 allows you to do the same things you did before, and more.

So don’t get scared if things look different. The new version is easier than it seems 😀

Let’s see what’s new:

‘ROUTINES’ ARE NOW ‘TEMPLATES’

If you go to the new ‘Templates’ section, you’ll find your old routines there:

And if you open any of the templates, you’ll see that the content is the same as before.

However, there’s an important difference: templates don’t have a switch to enable or disable them (or the Programmer icon that appeared if the ‘Programmer’ feature was enabled).

That happens because now we apply templates to the calendar instead of enabling or disabling routines.

💡 This is the most important change in TimeTune 4.0. If you understand this, everything else will fall into place.

Let’s see how that works:

APPLYING TEMPLATES

‘Applying’ a template to a date basically means ‘enabling’ that template on that date:

Applying templates is similar (but more powerful) to what the ‘Programmer’ feature did on prior versions. And it’s free for everyone! 🤩

That’s what makes the app more versatile now, because unlike routines, templates:

• Can be applied to any date in the calendar.
• Can follow any kind of repetition pattern.
• Are not tied to a unique repetition cycle.

You can click this link to see how templates solve most (if not all) of the shortcomings present in the old routines and Programmer.

Although you can apply templates from the template list, the best way to do it is on the template calendar:

TEMPLATE CALENDAR

The new ‘Template calendar’ section replaces the old ‘Programmer’ section:

They are basically the same feature, but the new template calendar:

• Is more powerful.
• Uses a more natural interface (a calendar view).
• Is free for everyone 😍

The template calendar shows all dates in the future. That means that you can apply templates days, weeks, months or years in advance 🙀

To apply a template to a date, just click on that date and select ‘Apply template’:

If you need to clear a date after applying a template, click on the date and select ‘Clear day’:

Additionally, you can clear the whole calendar for a fresh start:

TIME BLOCKS EVERYWHERE

The old routines were made up of what we called ‘activities’. But ‘activities’ was just a fancy name for what they actually were: blocks of time.

So in TimeTune 4.0 we use the ‘blocks’ denomination instead of activities:

That’s more intuitive, because now there’s just one basic building unit in the app: the ‘time block’. You can create single time blocks or you can use them to build templates.

TIME BLOCKING & TIME MANAGEMENT

Speaking of time blocks, if you check our new description in Google Play you’ll see that now we explicitly describe TimeTune as a time blocking and time management application, not as a routine application.

The thing is, TimeTune has always been a time management application.

It’s even in the name: ‘Fine-tune your time’ = ‘TimeTune‘

We originally chose the word ‘routine’ because routines in TimeTune repeated cyclically. But the idea never was to create a ‘routine application’. The goal always was to help you improve your distribution of time and your time management skills.

That being said, you can still use templates in TimeTune 4.0 to implement your routines. Nothing prevents you from doing that like before.

In fact, routines are just one of the many things you can do with TimeTune 4.0 (we’ll write more articles about what’s possible in version 4.0).

OVERLAPS IN THE SCHEDULE

When two blocks overlap in the schedule, you’ll see an ‘Overlap’ block:

As TimeTune is a time blocking application, the goal is to show you how your day is divided into time blocks. So when two blocks overlap, the schedule shows the conflict. You can click on the overlap to see the overlapping blocks and solve the conflict.

💡 If you don’t care about overlaps, you can disable the ‘Show overlaps’ option from the top menu.

EDITING THE SCHEDULE

TimeTune 4.0 allows you to finally make modifications to the schedule without affecting the original blocks or templates:

Note that when editing a schedule record, the ‘Edit record’ screen shows a button that allows you to edit the original template or block if you prefer it.

That was a highly requested feature for a long time, and it opens the door to another exciting feature: the schedule history.

SCHEDULE HISTORY & STATISTICS

Premium users can now keep their full history on the schedule and and see statistics about it 📊

So if you habitually make modifications to your schedule to reflect how your time was actually spent, you’ll have accurate and aggregated statistics about it:

AUTOMATIC BACKUPS ON GOOGLE DRIVE

Premium users can now enable automatic backups on Google Drive:

The automatic backup happens every 24 hours (approximately) and the app keeps the last 30 backups.

Enabling automatic backups is now more important than ever, because losing your data would mean losing not only your templates, but your full history too.

OTHER CHANGES

You’ll find other minor changes throughout the app, like:

• A new time picker from Google’s Material Components Library.
• A new setting to choose between the Material time picker and the system time picker.
• Bottom sheets instead of dialog windows for several actions.
• We’re not adding a default tag when creating blocks anymore.
• A custom-made ‘Go to current block’ icon.
• Colored icons on the ‘Buy Pro Version’ screen.
• New outlined icons for actions and settings.
• Filled icons on the bottom menu when selecting a section.
• Some new icons for tags.
• New welcome screen and onboarding hints.
• New date selector in the schedule section.
• New day selector in templates.
• New empty state screens.
• New option to hide ended blocks in ‘Blocks’ section.
• The schedule now shows 30 days in the future instead of 7.
• New option to create a template from a schedule day.
• New default splash screen with the app’s icon.

Additionally, we implemented Google’s in-app reviews into the app. The review pop-up will appear after you have been using the app for a while (and only if you haven’t reviewed the app yet).

So if you like TimeTune, remember to leave us a nice rating on the review pop-up! 🧡

CONCLUSION

TimeTune 4.0 is a big update. It changes some important features, but at the same time it enables new powers 💪

We know a modification like that may present some challenges at first. When we’re used to something, any kind of change can be confusing.

If you find yourself in that situation, contact us at timetuneapp@gmail.com and we’ll help you solve any doubts you might have.

Thank you very much for your support! 🧡

(Top illustration by @pch.vector, on Freepik)