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Funnel Makes Logging Things Easier
Something I’m trying to get better at in 2024 is taking the time to be more observant and document things. Whether it is something our…
Something I’m trying to get better at in 2024 is taking the time to be more observant and document things. Whether it is something our son does, a creative thought I had, or generally just what’s been going on around me. Not full-on journaling, but trying to be better about inputting stuff into the many apps I already have. Funnel is a new app that looks to do just that.
A hurdle to capturing information, memories, or moments can all be tied to that capture process. But what if you had only one app to capture it all and then could view it later? That’s kind of the elevator pitch of Funnel. It captures it all and then uses APIs to sync that data to its corresponding apps.
For notes, you can send those directly to Bear, Apple Notes, Obsidian, and others. You can write reminders — using natural language, mind you — and shoot them over to Apple Reminders, OmniFocus, or Things 3. There’s even Shazam integration to send it to other apps besides Apple Music. Some of the other touted integrations for launch include iA Writer, Roam Research, Reflect, NotePlan, Drafts, and Agenda. Hopefully more will be added soon to make this even more useful.
The app’s interface is clean and well laid out with a dark slate background. An orange accent color pops well against this darker background to highlight buttons throughout the app. There’s isn’t a ton of custom iconography here which does help for consistency across other native applications using Apple’s SF Symbols package.
Finally, privacy is a paramount feature of Funnel. The developer says absolutely no data is collected or ever leaves your phone. The only exception is when syncing to other apps or using the native iCloud sync. When you sync with iCloud, your data and third-party integrations will also sync across your various devices. This definitely helps as you move between iPad and iPhone.
One piece of low-hanging fruit I’d love to see added to Funnel is support for Apple’s Journal app. Journal is brand new and developers are still figuring out how to work with it, but I could see that being extra useful. The app I use to save reminders, photos, documents, and more could also save quick reflections to the Journal app. It could even do audio and photos too. It seems a natural addition and I hope it happens.
Til then, I’ll continue to explore Funnel. Copenhagen-based developer Dharam Kapila says this is their first app released on the App Store, and I think it does an excellent job to solve a problem while creating an iOS app with all the right privacy and design guidelines in place.
But enough about other people's apps.
