Hi everyone!

It’s been some time since I gave you an update on the progress on my app, Caffeine Clock (the best caffeine tracker in the world, of course). There has been quite a lot of progress over the past three months, and I spent a lot of time developing the new version up to the level of quality I want out of it.

Beta announcement

Caffeine Clock 2.0 is officially in open beta! You can try everything I am talking about in this article for yourself, right now.

If you’re on an Android device, you can sign up on Google Play - make sure to scroll down to see the “Join beta” prompt. Join the beta and the new version should update soon.

Get it on Google Play

If you’re on an iPhone device, follow this link to join the open beta. You will be prompted to download TestFlight, which will then guide you to install the app. The app then should update automatically, as new beta features are out.

Join Beta on TestFlight

What’s new in version 2.0

Version 2.0 is a complete revamp of the application, built anew, almost from the ground up. It features a new dashboard with a beautiful caffeine graph, a new algorithm for calculating caffeine, a comprehensive onboarding to calculate your estimated caffeine profile, brand-new analytics section with much more information, and more. Let’s go through it one by one:

New onboarding experience

When you open the app for the first time, you will be greeted by a prompt to calculate your caffeine profile.

Onboarding - introductory step

Onboarding - lifestyle information step

Onboarding - final step

Onboarding - introductory step

Onboarding - lifestyle information step

Onboarding - final step

You will then be guided through a questionnaire, which will ask you for information such as your sex, weight, height, alcohol-drinking habits, illnesses, and any other things that might impact your caffeine metabolism. This information is not stored anywhere, not even on your device - it is only used to calculate your caffeine profile numbers at the end of the questionnaire.

You can always change the values later in settings to suit your needs - or run the onboarding questionnaire again.

As I care that the app is as accurate as possible, I’ve spent quite some time researching the topic of how caffeine works and what are the factors influencing how caffeine deteriorates in the body. I am aiming to provide a source for how each of the questions and answers influences the final number. There is even a summary on the final step of the onboarding, where the app lays out precisely how the number was achieved.

New dashboard and caffeine graph

The Dashboard has also undergone a significant change, reflecting people’s feedback that a graph of caffeine consumption would be better suited for providing the info about their caffeine level.

So that’s what I’ve created, and I spent a lot of time to make sure your caffeine consumption is displayed in the most interesting manner possible. See the new design here:

Dashboard - caffeine graph and consumption list

Dashboard - caffeine graph with a single consumption selected

Dashboard - caffeine graph and consumption list

Dashboard - caffeine graph with a single consumption selected

You can pan left and right on the list to go back or forward in time, and long-pressing on the graph brings out the scrubber - which shows you the caffeine amount at an exact time. You can also see your bedtime - the blue line shows exactly when you go to sleep so you can see exactly how much caffeine you’ll have.

Long-press and drag to scrub through the caffeine graph

Long-press and drag to scrub through the caffeine graph

The graph is also connected to the list of consumptions beneath - clicking on an item preview will scroll to the list item in the graph, and vice versa.

Opening the consumption (by pressing on it) will also show the consumption graph only for that consumption, with the consumption peak time highlighted:

Consumption detail - first example

Consumption detail - second example

Consumption detail - first example

Consumption detail - second example

Caffeine calculation

As part of the new release I totally revamped the caffeine calculation algorithm. The new algorithm is similarly accurate to the previous one after the drink reached its peak, but the difference is that it now correctly calculates absorption time of the drink, while actually taking into consideration that you can consume an item over a period of time. When creating a drink, you can now set how long you’ve been consuming it, and this is now correctly reflected in the calculation.

These changes should make the app much more accurate at predicting caffeine levels, as previously, the app just didn’t account for absorption or drink time at all.

Analytics section

The app now features brand-new analytics. The analytics are meant to provide even more context for your caffeine consumption. Currently, we have four analytics sections, though this might change in the future. I’ll describe each section shortly:

Average caffeine consumption by day (or week or month)

This graph is a bar chart, where each bar is showing the total amount of caffeine you consumed in a given day, and a number under the bar graph is showing your average consumption over the time period. You can see it broken down by week, month, or year.

Average caffeine consumption by day

Average caffeine consumption by day

Caffeine consumption by category

This analytics page shows the breakdown of which categories of items you consume the most in a given time frame. You have two views available:

• Category: The Category view breaks down which categories of items you usually consume (Coffee, Energy Drinks, etc.). The items are summed up and divided by category into percentages, which are then displayed on the pie chart.

• Items: The Items view does the same thing, only for individual items. Interested in how much Cappuccinos add to your caffeine consumption in a given time frame? Well, this view is for you. It breaks down your consumption by the exact items and presents the information in a beautiful donut chart.

Caffeine consumption by category - category view

Caffeine consumption by category - items view

Caffeine consumption by category - category view

Caffeine consumption by category - items view

Bedtime caffeine level

This page shows a grid of the current month or week, and shows how much caffeine you’ve had at bedtime each day. Also, it shows you the current streak - the amount of consecutive days where your caffeine was lower than your caffeine threshold at bedtime.

This feature is meant to help you to stay consistent in not drinking too much caffeine before bedtime, which can help you sleep better.

Bedtime caffeine level

Bedtime caffeine level

Daytime caffeine amount breakdown

This page shows a vertical bar chart, signifying how much caffeine you’ve consumed on average at a given time of day - morning, afternoon, evening, and night. You can again choose between different timeframes to show the data.

This page is good to compare, for example, how much caffeine you usually drink in the morning vs the afternoon - and that can prompt you to make better choices.

Daytime caffeine amount breakdown

Daytime caffeine amount breakdown

Language support

Caffeine Clock is now also translated into 5 languages! The current languages are English (the default), Czech (my native language), German, Spanish, and French. Now, especially for French and Spanish, these are translated by AI and may not be correct or sound weird. If you’re a native Spanish or French speaker and you enjoy Caffeine Clock, and want to help, please reach out to me at info@caffeineclock.app if you’re inclined to do so.

The app selects your phone’s language by default if available - otherwise, it defaults to English. Select another language at any time in Settings -> Localization.

Road to release

As the app is now released into beta, I am planning to give it some time to gather feedback and fix bugs. There is a lot of polishing to be done - namely performance and general UX improvements.

I am planning to release the app out of beta at the end of September, so in about a month. During this time, I also want to gather some hype around the app - post dev diaries about certain features, create a marketing landing page and post about it online.

So, as I’ve alluded to earlier, you can now test the app yourself via the links above - you can post feedback in the app or to the feedback@caffeineclock.app email - if you write in your email, I’ll be sure to respond to you.

Thank you for your support! Let’s make this app the best caffeine tracker in the world together.