Fasting features are unusable/useless to me. (Would like others to add their own experiences here!)

LaralynEllsworth
LaralynEllsworth
edited November 2022 in Beta Testing

I have used all of the top fasting apps for Android pretty extensively, so please read this with the understanding that I am comparing Cronometer's fasting functionality to the functionality of a dedicating fasting app. I'd really like to use Cron for fasting, since I use it for everything else, but I don't enjoy it and also can't use it for the way I fast and here's why (not in order of priority):

1) Having a name for every fast is pointless. People that are into fasting do it all the time. I know that I can just leave it on the default name, but I want functionality to have a point, and I don't need my fasts to have a name. It's extra, unnecessary stuff on the screen. I would be okay with just notes/tags on the fasts so that I could say something like "3 day fast" or "Lent" or something like that. None of the other fasting apps require that you name your fast. I just find this feature distracting and I wish you'd remove it.

2) On mobile (in beta) when I select the start time then close the the clock pop-up, the time still shows as blank. I assume this is a bug but it's very frustrating because I am never sure if my selection has been saved.

3) I have to choose a length of fast instead of specifying an end time. There is a field for End Time but it seems to be uneditable. It is also blank and it doesn't change when I update the Duration. All of the fasting apps I've used (Life, Zero, Fastient, etc.) let you change the fast length by either the Duration OR the End Date/Time. It's too much work to sit here and calcualate how many minutes and hours I'm going to fast if I break my fast tomorrow or the next day at dinner when it started at breakfast today. This is the main reason I find Cron's fasting unusable. The fact that I can't edit End Date and End Time ruins it for me. They should be editable and synced up with the duration. I want to choose how I set the length of the fast. Sometimes I go for a specific duration like 20 hours. Sometimes I go until a milestone like a certain meal in the future and I don't want to calculate the hours.

3b) Sidenote: I'd like to be able to edit Duration in Days and Hours (and Minutes) ideally, not just Hours. I wish it was more friendly toward Extended Fasting.

4) The Repeat Fast feature is confusing and I don't know what to do with it. I don't like the idea of automatically logging fasts. Things come up. I don't want data being saved that is auto-generated and not real. I don't mind this idea, but I think it needs some work. It's not clear if it has associated reminders/alerts like "It's time to start fasting!". The UI doesn't make it easy to understand what turning on Repeating a fast actually does.

5) I liked that the Fasting summary was shown in the diary. I don't mind that it is also shown on the dashboard. Why not both? It would be helpful to have it in Diary since that is where I spend most of my time. I'd like to see my fasting status, current length of fast remaining, and maybe "It's been X Days and Y Hours since your last fast" or "Your last fast of X Hours was Y days ago/on Y date"

6) I would like a "Delete" button when I click "End Fast" as well as the ability to edit the other data points, (this is common in other apps) so that if I accidentally start and stop a fast at the wrong times I can just delete it right away instead of having to go elsewhere in the app to delete it, and if I forget to stop it at the right moment, I can edit the End Time right there. Instead it just offers me the name of the fast (pointless) and Notes.

7) I can't get to a list of my fasts from the Home dashboard widget for fasting. I just accidentally created and ended a fast while writing this and now I don't even know how to go delete it (I assume in Settings, but that's so very not intuitive! Settings isn't for editing data in any other world.) I also want to view my fasting data easily and this widget about fasting isn't helping me do that.

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