I need assistance with task retrieval, time management, and working memory. I do not need an app that makes me feel guilty, and quantifies it with pretty charts. We are not lacking in knowledge, and track data isn't particularly useful. Especially if you're ability to consistently engage with an app is not there. No amount of notifications and prodding will work to solve overwhelm and and distraction.

What we need is assistive technologies that complement our deficits. I won't use an app to just log I did something, but I will use an app if it's crucial to do that activity, and it makes it easier for me to do so.

As an ADHD person, this app looks like a repackaging (with nice design) of all the stuff I’ve built up over years - habit tracking, daily/weekly/yearly reflection, detailed task management, etc.

This isn’t for me (because I’ve already built a system that works), but this looks like something that would be very useful. For the target user who does feel stuck and hasn’t successfully built their system, this looks like a phenomenal product.

I appreciate the emphasis on self-reflection and perhaps the implied focus on continuous improvement.

Over the last few years I implemented a weekly self-review + planning practice (think solo agile retrospective), and my life has been on a steady trajectory of improvement since.

Edit: commenting on the product concept, not the company, pricing, or concerning tracking practices.

I’m an adult with combined type ADHD. I feel very strongly that any device which has other apps is a terrible tool for ADHD management and organization. No matter how well intentioned, and I know that you are.

One needs to spend less time on devices. Go analogue. Pen and paper. The best tool that I have found is the Bullet Journal Method. It takes time, effort, and there is a learning curve. The ROI is higher than from any app. No other tool has impacted my life and productivity more.

That said, I have found some tertiary apps to be helpful, though my BuJo is my compass. Endel for time boxing/Pomodoro, and sleep. Headspace for guided meditation.

No, it doesn’t have to be aesthetic, with pretty lettering and doodles (as seen in social media).

(1) The App and the description seem just as relevant for a non-ADHD population.

(2) Relying on, and committing to, an app like this has high requirements of diligence for efficacy; in an age of extractive apps, users might doubt even promising apps, and be less prone to adopt or maintain. So there's a yawning participation gap.

Relying on AI for the interactivity/liveness to maintain participation could work, but actually then puts a lot of quality pressure on the AI. The first off tone could prompt escape. How do you scale QA for that?

So, I'd think this needs to be coupled with social factors: testimonials and community building.

Efficacy testimonials would distinguish this from other self-management apps. Allowing users to gift others the app would spread the word. Providing users an in-app way to share feedback could help with QA, particularly if it was validated by others' responses. e.g., "I don't like this phrasing. It sounds like x." reply: "yeah, others agree so we're working on that" or "we'll look into it" Maybe only people who participate diligently get the ability to gift the app to others (but I would steer clear of obvious incentives/kickbacks).

I think the killer feature would be dedication to reporting actual feedback. Admit that it won't work for everyone, require feedback on whether it's working, and post that feedback to all users. Then work on improving it, either by fixing the app or selecting users better. That would given people confidence and mitigate the loneliness. Users should feel that they're not only helping themselves, but helping others like them. To me that commitment to others often gets me over a momentary lack of commitment to my larger self.

As a privacy concious ADHDer, it is a sad reality that OP's product is never going to be something I can trust enough to use. Anyone has any experience of similar/alternative local-first FOSS alternatives / replacements, or resources on how you figured out how to build workflows that worked with you with non-ADHD focused tools? I have come to the point where I am going to be losing my job very soon because I have 0 executive functioning, silver-lining of this is that I can maybe take some time to figure out how better processes than I have and enough non-work related things I want to get done to have an incentive for this

As an ADHD person, the landing page is absolutely anti-ADHD - a lot of stuff with basically no info about what it really does. It should have been all concise and tangible information, simple example, demo. Instead just a lot of marketing fluff. I spent all the focus budget there and I have no idea what it does.

I personally already was hesitant downloading an app that is health/disability related from the Google play store, but you triggered me. Actually my brain lacking impulse control, however, the deinstalled the app again after getting towards the account creation dialog ( the question answer thing was good to grab my attention). I moved on, because I was already thinking about pricing and whatever: quickest thing was running away and continue procrastinating on hacker news...

Nice to see a fully free app without ads. Curious, do you plan to keep it that way and make no money from Indy?

The only thing that reliably works is co-working with another human.

This is hard to find and not always possible. The reason it works is that it triggers the "empathy brain," which transfers the importance of the person to the importance of the task. Having an invested person always at your command is impossible, and an AI robot simply doesn't trigger that same empathy. It costs three cents per interaction. It is a robot. It isn't important, no matter how advanced it is.

There is something fascinating yet defeating about how the ADHD brain craves human connection. Just as loneliness can’t be solved by an app, ADHD cannot be "app-ed" out. I have found that these systems can lighten the cognitive load, but that is their limit.

I have a vibed chief-of-staff personal system. It knows everything and it neatly mapped out my state and day. I even know the first simple task I need to do because a prompt organized it for me on another page. Yet, I would still rather write this comment here. You already know this at some level, too.

Thanks! Why would a user prefer this service instead of a conventional AI subscription service with memory (and possibly read access to their desktop data)? The latter can automatically capture key interactions during the day and set reminders for regular checkins. Is there a secret sauce that makes this better so it is worth the extra effort?

For awhile now I've had in mind a locally ran AI ADHD assistant. Using always on ASR for interactions (removing friction) it would keep track of todos, help refocus from distractions, and work as a personal knowledge base to aid with memory.

The key to this would be everything running locally, privacy preserving. The LLM would observe everything that is happening on screen, notice when someone is distracted by reddit (or HN!) and help refocus people.

Perfectly doable on even a moderately spec'd MacBook now days.

i made an account on shimmer when you launched and even tried it out. i have made multiple requests to your nonexistent support to delete it and it all goes into a dustbin apparently. very subpar experience that makes me not trust at all how you'd handle my data.

I'm AuDHD and I think the marked for products to help with ADHD that do not actually work for anyone except for the person who came up with them is absolutely saturated. I think what I've come to realize is that the process of building a system is at least as important as the system itself. This means nothing designed by someone who is not me will really work for me, and that's that. I suppose a lot of money can be made off of people who have not yet realized this.

I also have to say something about the "for those who feel stuck... indy will be your compass" reads incredibly fucking dystopian to me.

I don't see what's different from any other journal app?

Good stuff, I appreciate your work.

I suspect that the ADHD audience on HN would skew towards people who have already developed coping mechanisms and systems (and some people seem to have very high intellectual horsepower), so you might not find the best market fit or feedback here. I think I am past the point where this may have been a fit for me, but earlier in my life it may have been very useful.

Edit: Can you explain what "clear boundaries around non-medical use" means?

>“knowing what to do” is rarely the problem for people with ADHD. The harder problem is actually doing it consistently over time, especially when attention, motivation, and emotional state fluctuate.

I don't have a diagnosis, but I can say that choosing what to do very often seems like the stumbling block for me.

How much does this cost? The cost is rather difficult to find and isn't listed in the FAQ.

This new product might be better, but Shimmer was publicly criticized exploitative when it launched. I saw those criticisms at the time, gave the product a fair chance anyway, and unfortunately found them to be accurate.

I used Shimmer in 2022. The app had poor UX and frequent bugs, and the core offering (weekly Google Meet sessions with a “coach”) felt like generic self-help and not personalized coaching. The promised between-session support mostly consisted of DM'd article links, even after I raised that concern directly.

The sessions themselves often felt unprofessional, with background noise, unstable connections, and poor audio quality. The coach WFM'd on their couch during call. Given the price (hundreds of dollars per month at the time), the gap between what was marketed and what was delivered was significant.

Hopefully the new product addresses these issues, but I’d encourage people evaluating it to look at Shimmer’s prior execution and customer feedback, not just the announcement.

Some ADHD folks have something called "justice sensitivity"[0]. Put plainly, we get more bothered than neurotypical folks by actions and events we view as morally wrong.

I can't say for certain that this is caused by my ADHD or not, but I have a "sensitivity" to dark patterns. That is to say, dark patterns bug me more than they probably should.

Hiding the pricing until after signup is a dark pattern. It's a clear case of the company optimizing for their interests over mine and they are therefore unworthy of my trust (or so my brain tells me). After all, what other user-hostile design decisions are they going to make?

What ends up happening is that my brain puts its guard up, and keeps it up. It's constantly on the lookout for more subtle tricks and corner cutting.

Furthermore, I'm offended that they think I'm that stupid (but that's probably the developer in me and not my ADHD).

The landing page piqued my interest but then let me down. Hard. Not because $40 a month (as reported by another user here) is too much, but because I find dark patterns to be morally repugnant.

[0] https://edgefoundation.org/the-fairness-imperative-adhd-and-...

P.S. I struggled to write this as its first thing in the morning and I haven't even had coffee.

My son (12 year old) has ADHD ... I wonder if they did any testing of this with kids.

The app-store handling (QR code on desktop, app to right app store on phone) is probably supposed to be clever, but browsing on desktop it just felt annoying. QR codes are fine, but at least give me a small direct link below the code. I don't want to take out my phone to figure out if it's supported, I want to click on a link that takes me to the app store so I can have a look at the page, the reviews, and if I'm logged in click install to trigger my phone to do its thing (not sure if the last part also works on apple or is only a google thing)

I’ll give this app a try later.

I applaud the effort put into this product, and the willingness to help others in our situation. As someone with ADHD et al, I'll give my feedback.

I think Indy has a lot of good intentions, but I am highly suspicious of its efficacy. Personally, I have always been somewhat opposed of using applications on distracting and addicting devices in order to help with executive function issues. It's all too easy to open my phone to use one application and then seemingly end up on a completely different application mere minutes later.

Do you all have any analytics to share? I am curious how many people download Indy vs. how many people actually use it on a consistent basis. I can absolutely seem myself downloading such an application, attempting to set it up, and either stopping halfway through or never opening the app again.

> what other AI tools you’ve tried for ADHD

None. I do not believe LLMs in their current state can meaningfully help any neurodevelopmental nor mental health disorders. Until LLMs acquire the ability to force me to do a particular task or provide enough consequences for not doing a particular task, then I see them as no different than overcomplicated Todo lists for ADHD. Though, I do believe LLMs remove a lot of friction in getting started on certain types of work. Most importantly, I already have to be motivated in the first place in order to use LLMs to remove friction on whatever task I am attempting to complete.

I personally believe a lot of productivity apps, especially for ADHD, are just distraction traps that provide the user with an illusory sense of productivity, when in reality, the user is actually just procrastinating further.

Perhaps this is merely a projection on my part, but I think a lot of people have convinced themselves that various apps will yield better organization and that better organization will yield better habits. But why do people want better habits? My first inclination is that people believe if something becomes a habit, then it will become effortless and one will not have to rely on motivation or willpower anymore.

However, the irony is that it takes consistent and direct effort to even build a habit. Once a habit is built, the consistent effort never stops, but rather, one just adapts to the amount of effort required. The older I become, the more I convinced that there really are no shortcuts in life.

thanks for making this. it can take a lot of time and effort to create systems like this for yourself. i hope you help the people you're trying to reach.

I appreciate the effort. I'll give you my honest two cents. If you don't have thick skin, stop reading here. I'm going to be critical, and I'm going to be blunt. You can take it or leave it.

The landing page sucks. In my first impression my eyes immediately darted to the animated graphics/webms. The text reads like it was written by AI with the sentences in triplets everywhere. Immediately my trust for this site (which was finicky at first) has already gone down. If you can't sustain my attention in the banner, what makes me think you can sustain my attention for the app? Be direct - show me what your app does at a glance. My attention is very scarce and very expensive, don't waste it on vague niceties or depend on me to trust you on what you say other people are saying about your app. I feel like you're trying to cheat me out of own autonomy when you're selling me something (even if it's free, my time = money) that I have no idea what it does until I get to the FAQ. My 2c - put the FAQ in the very top, with the questions "Is this just another AI chatbot?" and "How does Indy fit with ADHD coaching or other support?" in order with minimized distractions. This tells me what your product is and what it isn't at face value.

Saving you sometime, after you put your email and answering a few questions It's a paid app with monthly payment of ~$40 .

Basic collection your data.

i was wondering where the ai came in lol

I click on the link and see that ublock origin blocks a total of 15 tracking scripts on your health-related website. At the bottom there is a "cookie management" popup and I wonder what went wrong that your website includes Google, Intercom, Stripe, and several others BEFORE the user has clicked through the "cookie" dialog.

Is this yet another US-based startup that totally misunderstands that GDPR is not about blocking "cookies" but instead that it is about not telling Google that someone just visited an ADHD-related website?

I'm dumbfounded by the ignorance every single time. Why do people spend effort on cookie banners and stuff when they simply include every tracking script on first load of the website?

I'm not advocating that you need to be GDPR compliant if you are US-based and dgaf about EU customers. But if you do these shenanigans with cookie banner then at least do them correctly. And even for non-EU customers it is extremely rude to share visits to a health related website with so many third party companies that clearly build tracking profiles and utilize them to extract as much money from you as possible.