Support

Nag for iOS and the Nag web app · Help is at me@danielericmullins.com

Most of what goes wrong with Nag has a fix you can do yourself, and it is on this page. If yours is not, email and say what you expected to happen and what happened instead.

• Getting started
• Adding tasks
• How nags work
• Nags that do not arrive
• Snooze and out of spoons
• Routines
• Notes and files
• Siri
• Sign-in and sync
• The web app
• The Friction tab
• Your data
• Ads
• Contact

Getting started

Nag works without an account. Type a task into the box at the top of the Tasks tab, give it a time, and tap Add. The first time you save a task with a time, iOS asks whether Nag may send notifications; say yes, or nothing will nag you. Signing in is only for syncing with other devices, the web app and Siri.

To see what Nag looks like after a few weeks, tap Load example data in Settings. It adds three weeks of example history that you can erase again from the same screen.

Adding tasks

Type the task the way you would say it. Nag reads the time, the type, the spoon estimate and the repeat rule out of the sentence, and everything can also be set on the full form by tapping the task afterwards.

"Morning", "midday", "afternoon", "evening" and "night" are the parts of the day. Their times are yours to set under Settings → Parts of the day; the defaults are 9:00, 12:00, 15:00, 18:30 and 21:00. "Every weekday", "every monday", "weekly", "monthly" and "fortnightly" all work.

How nags work

When a task's time arrives, Nag shows a full-screen question, Is this complete?, and sends a notification with three buttons: Done, Snooze and Out of spoons. You can answer from the lock screen without opening the app.

Ignore it and it comes back. Inside the app an unanswered alert repeats every 30 seconds; as notifications it repeats every 10 minutes, up to 6 times. All three numbers are under Settings → Notifications, as are the sound and vibration switches.

Each snooze moves the task up a tier: calm, then firm, then loud, then hostile. Every tier has its own colour and wording, and from the third alert on, the sound is harsher. The wording of the later tiers is blunt on purpose.

Nags that do not arrive

Work through these in order.

1. Notifications are allowed. Open Settings → Notifications in Nag. If it offers Enable notifications, tap it. If it says notifications are denied, tap Open system settings and turn on Allow Notifications for Nag, with Lock Screen, Banners and Sounds all on.
2. Time Sensitive is on. In iOS Settings → Nag → Notifications, keep Time Sensitive Notifications on. That is what lets a nag through a Focus mode. If you use Focus, also check that the Focus itself allows time-sensitive notifications.
3. The phone is not muted. Nags respect the ring/silent switch and the volume, like every other app. On silent, the nag still appears and vibrates, but it does not sound.
4. The task really has a time. A task with no time is scheduled for the next part of the day, which may be tomorrow morning. Open the task to see when its first nag is due.
5. If you are signed in: the server can reach this phone. Tasks added by Siri, on the web or on another device reach a closed phone only through the server. Under Settings → Notifications the status should say "the server can reach it too". If it only says alarms are scheduled on this device, sign out and sign in again, then allow notifications when asked.
6. Send a test nag. Signed in with notifications on, Settings → Send a test nag pushes a test to every device signed in as you and reports what happened to each. If the test arrives but real nags do not, email the result.

Nags on the web app depend on the browser; see The web app.

Snooze and out of spoons

How long is a snooze?

It depends on the task's spoons. A 1-spoon task starts with 5-minute windows and a 5-spoon task with 90-minute windows; the options offered are half, once and twice that. Every snooze halves the windows, down to a minimum of one minute, so a task cannot be pushed away indefinitely.

What does Out of spoons do?

It is the honest exit. The task is parked until tomorrow, next week or next month, and comes back calm, with fresh snooze windows, at the time set under Settings → Out of spoons (9:00 by default). Nag records it as a deferral, not a failure, and the Friction tab uses it to show you which tasks you keep running out of spoons for.

What is the spoon check after I finish?

One question: was the estimate about right, too low or too high? Answer it or tap Skip. The answers are how Nag learns which kinds of task you misjudge.

Routines

Set Repeat on the task form to Daily, Weekdays, Weekly or Monthly, and change the "every" number for every second day, every three weeks and so on. Or type it: "every day", "every weekday", "every 2 weeks", "every monday".

• The next occurrence appears when the current one is done or skipped. Only one occurrence of a routine is open at a time. Its notes and any files marked to carry forward come with it.
• Skip one without ending the routine with the Skip button on the task, "Skip this one" on the alert, or "Skip this occurrence" on the form. Skips are counted on the Friction tab.
• End a routine by opening the task and setting Repeat to Once, or by deleting the current occurrence. Past occurrences stay in your history.
• Changing the time or the text on an occurrence carries into the ones that follow.

Notes and files

Every task has a notes field of up to 2,000 characters and room for up to 20 files of up to 10 MB each: photos from your library, photos you take, or any file. Both show on the task and on the alert itself, so the account number or the photo of where the thing is are there when the nag arrives.

• Signed out, files stay on the device. Signed in, they upload to your account in the background and open on every device; a file that has not uploaded yet shows on the device that added it.
• On a routine, each file has a carry switch. Carried files follow the task into its next occurrence; the others stay with the occurrence they were added to.
• Deleting a task deletes its files, unless another occurrence still uses them.

Siri

1. Sign in. Siri adds tasks through your account, so it needs one.
2. In Settings → Siri, tap Turn on Siri.
3. Say "Hey Siri, add a task in Nag". Siri asks what to nag you about; answer in the same words you would type: "call the dentist tomorrow morning".

Siri confirms with the task and its first nag time. If you are offline, the task is kept on the phone and added when Nag next opens.

Siri does not recognise the phrase

Say it exactly: "add a task in Nag". iOS can take a few minutes after installing or updating the app to learn its phrases, and Siri must be allowed for Nag under iOS Settings → Apps → Nag → Siri & Search. The same phrase also appears in the Shortcuts app, where it can be chained with other actions.

Turn off Siri in Settings revokes the phone's access; turn it on again to issue a new one.

Sign-in and sync

How do I sign in?

Enter your email address and Nag sends a six-digit code; there is no password. The code is valid for ten minutes. If it does not arrive, check spam, and make sure the address is typed correctly, since the code goes only to the address on the screen.

What does signing in change?

Your tasks, files and settings sync between your iPhone and the web app at app.nagme.online, nags reach every signed-in device, and Siri works. Anything on the device before you signed in is uploaded into the account. Signing out sends your last changes up first, then clears the device; the account keeps everything.

What does the icon next to "Tasks" mean?

It is the sync status. A spinner means a sync is running; a cloud with a line through it means the device is offline and will sync when it is back; an alert mark means the last sync failed, and tapping it shows why. A sign-in icon means you are signed out; tap it to sign in.

A task shows twice, or a change did not sync

Nag syncs whenever it opens or comes back to the foreground, so switch away and back. If the problem stays, sign out and back in on the affected device, which reloads the account from the server. Email if a task is still duplicated after that, with its title.

The web app

The web app at app.nagme.online is the same Nag, for a laptop or a phone without the app. Signed out, its tasks and files live in the browser and are erased if you clear the site's data.

Alerts in the browser need notification permission, asked for from Settings → Notifications. Nags while the tab is closed depend on the browser's push support: current Chrome, Edge and Firefox on a computer support it, and Safari on iPhone supports it only when the site has been added to the Home Screen. For nags you can rely on, use the iOS app.

The Friction tab

Friction is built from your own history: every snooze, deferral, skip and spoon check. It needs a few weeks of real use, or the example data, before the patterns mean anything; until then it says so. It shows which types of task, which spoon sizes and which parts of the day you push away most, how often you finish on the first alert, and whether your estimates run low or high, with routines compared against one-off tasks. It is computed on your device and shown only to you.

Your data

• Export: Settings → Export JSON saves a file with your tasks, history and settings.
• Erase everything: Settings → Erase everything deletes every task and all history. Signed out, that is this device; signed in, it is every device on the account, and the account itself stays.
• Delete the account: Settings → Delete account removes your account and everything in it from the server, and clears the device. It happens immediately and cannot be undone.

What Nag stores and who else is involved is set out in the privacy policy.

Ads

Nag shows one banner ad on the Tasks tab, under the first open task, and none anywhere else. It is requested as non-personalised, it never sees your tasks, and Nag does not ask for tracking permission. If no ad is available the space closes up; that is normal, not a fault. There is no paid version without ads at the moment.

Contact

Signed in, the quickest route is Settings → Feedback in the app: choose Problem or Idea, write, and tap Send. Your app version and device model go with it, so there is less to type. Otherwise email me@danielericmullins.com. For a problem, include:

• your iPhone model and iOS version, or the browser if it is the web app;
• the app version shown at the bottom of Settings;
• whether you are signed in;
• the task's text and when it should have nagged you, if it is about a nag;
• a screenshot, if there is something to see.

Feature requests are welcome the same way: Settings → Feedback → Idea, or the same address. Nag is built for people who need it, and most of what is in it was asked for.