So,
Today, according to me, the biggest competition that Joplin or any notes taking applications face is Whatsapp. Whatsapp with its large user base, user familiarity,Chat with yourself and Self Group Feature is one of the most commonly used places for recording notes, storing resources including the ones sent in chat, noting ideas on the go, and remembering or maintaining logs in general.
According to the Forbes Magazine, "91% Of Us Hate Being Forced To Install Apps !"
These are the responses I got after floating out a form. A huge percentage of people use Whatsapp for Notes. (Floated recently)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1u_TCROWqFiiRR6Zk3JajA7PdVRBx8sP69TeL2Kr7K-M/edit#responses
However, Whatsapp in general has certain disadvantages like limited access, everything might be pretty cluttered consisting of different tasks, notes, resources all at one place. Also the interaction is limited to self, so the collaboration and group work factor is completely lost.
Proposal:
So why not take Joplin to the next level by combining it with Whatsapp?
Allowing Access to Joplin using Whatsapp and combining AI could revolutionize the note making process and allow for better interaction, convenience and user friendliness.
My proposal is to build a Whatsapp AI Bot for Joplin which integrates with Joplin seamlessly and provides user interaction along with easy access. The bot could act in 2 ways, one with self and other in groups for enhanced collaboration. I could expand more and explain with scenarios how this could work in detail and be soo much beneficial and interactive.
After exploring the project ideas, I realised there is no 90 hr project here. As I have some other commitments, I don't think I'll be able to devote 175/350 hours, however 90 hrs seems doable, as I have worked previously on this and I would really love to contribute to it.
I believe that it you ask actual Joplin users, you'd find that most won't be in favor of integrating with WhatsApp.
4 Likes
What you propose is WhatsApp specific. What about users of Telegram, Signal and other messengers?
You could simplify your project by using directly Joplin instead of another app. Like long pressing on the Joplin icon and choose the option to create a new note. Just tried it, it is already possible.
Do not hesitate to propose another idea!
I understand your perspectives. Thank you so much for reviewing and providing your feedbacks.
I actually came to propose this idea by talking to people who are not already using joplin and what they commonly use.
I just thought that this could be a really amazing strategy to make this app more accesible by extending to familiar chat apps like Whatsapp especially to the audience that do not already use joplin and elder audience my parents for example who aren't tech savvy at all and resist to use any new apps.
But yes, I understand what you feel. I will still think further and come up with an even better idea soon. Thank you once again for providing your feedbacks and helping me think in the right direction.
Is there an actual API to push Whatsapp messages? I know you say you could use a bot; but I get the feeling that Whatsapp accounts are supposed to be used by personal users unless under a commercial business agreement.
The EU has made it required that WhatsApp opens up its services in the EU itself; but the actual plans of this happening are still early days and I'd expect you'd already have to be a big established player in the communications sector to be able to approach WhatsApp and ask for access directly.
Ultimately while a bot does work around needing direct API access, you're fundamentally relying on WhatsApp allowing this to happen when I'd personally expect that if they knew it was happening, they'd respond by banning the bot account.
Ultimately on their end there's not much difference between a Joplin bot that pushes notes and a spam bot that pushes ads. It's end to end encrypted and all they'll see is suspicious heuristics not the actual innocent intentions of the account.
