September 16, 2021 · 4 min read
Devblog: iCloud Sync is available
Hello everyone. In today’s post, we’ll give an update on the progress we’ve made over the past few months since our last devblog post, explain how our plans for Flow have evolved, and take a look at some new and updated aspects of the app, including iCloud Sync.
First, we took a few weeks off in July and August. Aside from responding to support tickets, we’ve tried to relax and take our minds off our development plans as well as company- and app-related work obligations. For those who are interested: Lea and I travelled around Denmark and Sweden as well as Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia in our self-converted camper van. Not only was it great to meet new people and visit other countries and cultures but also to do nothing for a while, enjoy the warm sun and read a book every now and then. Our batteries are now recharged and we’re looking forward to the upcoming months with some great challenges, new updates and features for Flow. And we can’t emphasize enough how much it means to Lea, Stefan and me that you accompany us on our journey with Flow.
WWDC 2021
In June, the annual Apple WWDC took place and of course we participated digitally whenever we found the time. We’ve been eagerly watching to see what new changes are coming and how we can use some of these new features for Flow. We’ll keep you updated when we’ll include features that are exclusive to macOS Monterey or other system updates. Naturally, we’ll make sure that Flow works on macOS Monterey, iOS 15, and iPadOS 15 as soon as they’re released.
New updates on macOS and iOS/iPadOS
A few days ago, we released our latest update 2.7.0 for Flow on macOS, which adds the long requested iCloud sync and overhauled statistics overview. At the same time, we released a new update 1.2.0 for iOS and iPadOS adding iCloud sync to Flow on mobile devices. Provided the latest updates are installed on all platforms, your stats will now automatically sync with other devices connected to your iCloud account. If that’s not what you want, you can disable Flow in the iCloud options in your system settings.
The difficult part with iCloud Sync was setting up the sync to run reliably, and we continue to work on some issues with iCloud sync where certain sessions are not detected or saved properly. Nevertheless, it was an important step for us to release this feature now to get more feedback and find potential bugs that we couldn’t identify ourselves before. In the coming weeks and months, we’ll definitely have a lot of work to do to make iCloud sync work as smoothly as we would like it to. Rest assured, we are on it.
The new statistics on macOS are a good start, but will be updated further in the future based on your feedback. We’ll also bring the charts to iOS in an upcoming update. Moreover, we’re working on showing not only the number of sessions, but also the minutes in the statistics. So stay tuned for upcoming updates.
What’s next
We’ll certainly have more time to spend on new features once we’ve looked into the more urgent issues with iCloud sync. But when that’s out of the way, we’ll tackle various features and improvements that are on our list. After we returned from our vacation, we took the time to further structure our plans for the future, and as a result, we’ve revised the roadmap on our website to better reflect what we’re up to in the next months.
Rather than showing a list of features we plan to implement in the future, we decided to show a more streamlined overview of our upcoming updates. Each update will include new features, improvements, and bug fixes that are on our list. We’ll gradually provide you with further details or release dates, meaning the roadmap will be updated regularly.
As you can see from our updated roadmap, our next goal will be to release Flow Pro for mobile devices. This has been requested for quite some time and is an important step towards a better Flow experience across all devices. We haven’t set a release date yet. However, we’ll update the roadmap as soon as we know when the update will be available.
As always, if you enjoy using Flow and would like to support its development, we’d be grateful for a review on the App Store. Every review is important and helps our tiny developer studio tremendously.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read today’s devblog! Stay awesome everyone! We hope to see you again in our next post.
Lea and Leif
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Is it possible to sync *timer state* between Mac and iOS? I use Flow to alternate between working at my computer and taking breaks *away* from my computer — it’d be nice to be able to check how much time is left on my break timer from my phone while I’m sitting outside in my back yard instead of at my computer.
Hello Tim! 👋
It’s not yet possible to sync the timer across devices. But in the future we’ll add the option to sync the timer and current session progress across devices. I can’t say yet when exactly this feature will be added, but it’s on our roadmap and we do our best to integrate this feature as soon as possible. 🙂
Thanks Lea, I’m looking forward to this feature as well!
Just wanted to add a comment of support for the previous comment. I was searching to find if that feature existed and discovered that it’s already on your roadmap. I can’t wait! Flow Pro has already enormously improved my productivity during the day. Thank you for all you are doing and best wishes going forward!
Hi Stefan! Thank you so much for your kind words and for letting us know you’d be interested in such a feature. 😊
Hello,
Just purchased the premium version. Cool app. Is the new feature of syncing both timers on Mac and iphone ready yet ?
When do you think we can expect it ?
Hello Haithem 👋 thanks a lot for your support. The timer sync feature will still take some time. There are a few things that take priority at the moment like the watchOS version, but it’s on our list. We appreciate your patience.
I agree – Apple Watch support and ability for the timing counter to work and syn across devices, including the Apple Watch would be the most important improvement. The point of the break is to get away from the computer screen!
Hi Niclas 👋 Good news, we released Flow for the Apple Watch last week. I agree, a sync of the timer across multiple devices would be a great improvement to Flow. It’s on our list. We appreciate your feedback!
I’m unable to use iCloud on my work computer. Does Flow allow me to sync via a different method?
Hi William! 👋 Unfortunately not. The statistic sync is currently only possible with iCloud. But thank you for letting us know you’d be interested in a different sync option.
Hola Flow is an incredibly simple and powerful app. Thank you for what you have done. My question is if the synchronization between mac and iphone ipad and apple watch is ready, it would be what is missing now and it would be perfect.
Hey Esteban! Thank you so much for your kind words about Flow. 😊 It’s not ready yet and will still take some time. We’re working on Live Activities right now, among other things, but it’s high on our list! You can check out our latest devblog to get a little more insight. 🙂
Hi Guys, any update on the Sync between Devices feature? I’ve been waiting for this too long now. :'(
Hi Atul! 👋
We definitely want to add the ability to sync the timer and current session progress across devices as soon as possible. However, this requires some preparation that we’re already working on. Right now, there are mainly two major updates that are a priority for us: Bringing Flow Pro to the Apple Watch and rebuilding Flow on Mac with SwiftUI. Seamless cross-device syncing as we envision it won’t be possible without these two updates.
We’ve just released an update with support for Live Activities and Dynamic Island, where we integrated Firebase into the project for the first time. So the first step of integrating a suitable server solution is already done.
We’ve been releasing updates with new features and improvements to Flow for the past few years, and we’ll continue to do so. Rest assured that we are doing our best every day to bring new features to Flow as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience! 🙂