Daybridge beta hands-on: A reimagined calendar app with lots of potential
In true start-up fashion, Daybridge is attempting to solve a problem that wasn’t there, to begin with. “There’s more to life than meetings,” it claims, a statement that settles nicely along with others like “plates are useful” and “I wish I could be paid more.” This declaration thatmost calendar appsare designed around work foremost and social life second is how Daybridge gets to promise a solution to that problem (if it even is one) by building a calendar you’ll use for your social life just as much as work.
After nearly two years in development, Daybdrige hit open beta on August 2nd. For most of us, it’s our first look at the calendar app for the people, not companies (their words, not mine).
The current state of Daybridge
Before we get into the meat of the app, it’s worth clarifying again that this is still very much a beta. Because otherwise, you may think that the only thing Daybridge is revolutionizing is how few features you could put in an app.
When you open the Daybdrige app, you’re prompted to create an event. This is a remarkably smooth process, far ahead of the clunky steps involved when adding an event to Google Calendar. Autofill kicks in as soon as you start typing; tap an event, and Daybridge will not only add the name but also change the color and icon of your event. Nifty, right?
Once you’ve added a few events, you can sync your Google Calendar (Currently no support for other calendars, although these are in the pipeline). It’s a seamless process, but I would have liked to see it attempt to categorize my events. Instead, it lumped everything into the “General” category and added a fetching gray tone to my events. This even happened when I added generic events to Google Calendar like “Shopping” or “Coffee,” which I thought Daybridge would easily handle.
That’s about it. Once you create an event, you can share it, which let’s non-Daybridge users view a nifty event screen that offers the ability to RSVP. You can also check out the web app. It offers some extra features, including different viewing options that filter out work events with a key tap.
The possibilities for Daybridge
One of Daybridge’s earliest mockups shows social events and work living in harmony.
Daybridge currently doesn’t contain enough features to replace otherestablished calendar apps. However, it’s not shy about this. The Daybridge team makes it clear that this is the foundation of things to come. In theirOpen beta announcement blog post, they listed these upcoming features:
It’s all a bit vague but shows the company has a straightforward plan for the future (also, who sends out a survey to friends to plan a social event?) You can also check theirroadmap, but this also offers little in the way of concrete details.
Daybdrige’s goal is to integrate a calendar with your social life. You’ll schedule work meetings, plan trips, and arrange family meetings within the same calendar. If Daybdrige can fulfill all its promises, it could be a genuinely appealing way to manage your life. It’s quick and easy to use, but I can’t help feeling it’s an unnecessary angle.
Daybridge has ambitious goals (“we want Daybridge to be the way the internet makes plans together” is an audacious phrase). But after fiddling with the Android app for a while, I can’t help feeling there’s a lot of talk about something unlikely to change how we work. Daybdrige’s claims to “plan our personal time” also seems at odds with their criticism of modern calendars; “[Calendars] are designed to help us squeeze more into each day,” they claim, but isn’t Daybdrige about addingmoreevents into your calendar, not less?
Final thoughts on Daybridge
I’m unconvinced by Daybridge, and I don’t understand what it’s truly trying to achieve. Using the beta app isn’t a bad experience; in fact, I could see myself switching away fromGoogle Calendar’s easy schedulingonce Daybridge has seen a few content updates. However, I’m skeptical of the claims that I’ll manage my entire social life through the app. Creating reminders of social events in Google Calendar isn’t particularly inconvenient, and not one of my friends has ever objected to organizing drinks over text.
But it’s early days, so we’ll see how Daybridge grows on its road to a full release. For now, you can download the open beta from the Play Store if you fancy giving it a whirl. Just don’t expect much before you start.
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