FAQ — How Hindsight works
Plain-language answers about syncing, offline use, and what to expect across devices. Grouped by plan so you can see what each tier unlocks.
Available on all plans
Can I use the app without internet?
The Android app works offline — you can create, edit, and finish tasks with no connection. Your changes sync the next time you're online. The web app needs a connection to load.
Why doesn't my change show up on my other device immediately?
Hindsight is not real-time. Android syncs after each edit and when you reopen the app; the web reflects changes on the next page action or refresh. Expect a few seconds of lag between devices.
If I edit the same task on web and on my phone at the same time, who wins?
The most recent save wins. If your edit was based on an outdated version of the task, the server rejects it — reload the task to see the latest version, then try again.
Will I get a daily reminder if my phone is off, or if I'm signed out?
No. Daily reminders, overdue alerts, and per-task notifications are scheduled by the Android app on your device — they need the app installed and the device on. The one server-driven push Hindsight does send is the twice-weekly Suggestions ping (Premium AI only — see the Suggestions FAQ); everything else is on-device.
When exactly does the overdue notification arrive?
The overdue notification normally arrives within seconds of the task's due time. On some phones Android may ask permission to schedule exact reminders the first time — if you decline, the alert can come up to 15 minutes late. As a safety net for phones that put apps to sleep aggressively, Hindsight also sends a backup reminder from the server — see the next question on battery settings.
Why might overdue notifications arrive late on some phones?
Some Android phones aggressively close background apps to save battery, which can delay notifications. The fix is to add Hindsight to your phone's battery whitelist (sometimes called 'unrestricted', 'no restrictions', or 'autostart allowed' depending on your phone). See dontkillmyapp.com for step-by-step instructions for your specific phone model. We also send a backup reminder from the server as a safety net.
Can I turn off the daily summary, or change what time it arrives?
Yes — both controls live in the Android Settings screen. The Daily summary switch turns the morning notification on or off; below it, a time row opens a clock picker so you can choose any hour and minute. The default is 8:00 AM. Changing the time while the toggle is on updates the next reminder right away; turning the toggle off cancels any pending notification without dropping the time you picked, so flipping it back on later restores the same schedule. The web has no daily reminder — notifications are an Android-only feature.
Where is my data stored?
On secure managed cloud servers, encrypted at rest. Each user only sees their own tasks; nobody else has access to yours.
How do I change the language?
Open Settings → Language on either web or Android. The first time you sign in, the app guesses from your browser or phone. Your timezone is set automatically from your device — no need to pick one.
I was offline for several days — will I lose anything?
No. Your offline changes are queued on the device and applied the next time you're online. Even after several days offline, normal usage is well within what we can sync.
What does Snooze do, and why don't recurring tasks have it?
Snooze (💤) hides a task from Today, Overdue, and Upcoming until the snooze timer expires — useful when you can't deal with it right now but the deadline itself hasn't changed. Tap 💤 and pick how long: a day, a week, or a month; the task wakes up at its original due-time on that future date. Both web and Android show the same picker. The task moves to the Snoozed section at the bottom of the page; tap ↩ there to bring it back early. When the snooze ends on Android, you'll get a notification (same look as a normal overdue ping) so the task doesn't slip — the web doesn't show per-task notifications. Recurring tasks deliberately have no Snooze button: completing a recurring task already advances it to the next occurrence, and finalizing ends the recurrence — both already express "deal with this later" without the confusion of hiding the next instance.
Can I finish or snooze a task right from the notification?
Yes — on Android, when an overdue task notification appears, tap Finish or Snooze right on the notification card to act without opening the app. The notification disappears as soon as you tap. Snooze hides the task for a day (use the in-app 💤 button if you want a longer choice). Recurring tasks show only Finish, which advances the task to its next occurrence — mirroring the in-app rule that hides Snooze on recurring tasks. Notifications are an Android-only feature; the web doesn't display per-task reminders.
Why are Suggestions and Insights notifications now at the top of my shade?
Hindsight groups notifications so weekly Insights and AI Suggestions don't get buried under a stack of overdue task alerts. AI notifications stay pinned at the top of the shade; overdue tasks collapse into a single "X overdue tasks" summary you can expand to see each task individually — Finish and Snooze still work on each task inside. The change is invisible until you have several overdue tasks at once (for example, after the phone has been offline a while). Android-only — the web has no equivalent notification surface.
Can I finish or snooze a task directly from search results?
Yes — every search result is the same task row as on the Today screen, so the Finish (☐) and Snooze (💤) buttons work right there without opening the task detail. Click ☐ to complete the task; click 💤 to open the duration picker (a day, a week, or a month) — same options on web and Android. Recurring tasks show only Finish — the same rule as the rest of the app: completing a recurring task already advances it to the next occurrence, so a separate Snooze button would be redundant.
Does the search bar look inside a task's subtasks?
Yes — search matches against the task's title, description, AND every subtask in its checklist. When the term you typed is found inside a subtask, the matching subtask is shown as an italic line under the result with the matched word highlighted, so you can immediately see why the task surfaced. If more than four subtasks of the same task match, the first four are shown and a “… and N more” line summarises the rest. The same behavior is available on web and Android.
Is there a faster way to set a due date than the date picker?
Yes — when you create or edit a task, four shortcut chips sit above the date field: Today 6 PM, Tomorrow 9 AM, Next Mon 9 AM, and Next Sat 9 AM. Tap one to set the due date in a single tap; the date field below stays available if you want a different date or time. The Today chip hides itself once the local clock is past 5 PM — a chip that would set the due time to a moment already in the past is just noise. The weekday chips always mean the next strictly-future occurrence: tapping 'Next Mon' on a Monday picks the following week's Monday, not today.
Can I type the date inside the task title and have the app pick it up?
Yes — on Android, type natural-language date phrases like "tomorrow 5pm", "amanhã 14h", "próxima sexta", or "in 3 hours" inside the task title and Hindsight extracts them as the due date. A small chip appears below the title showing what was detected (e.g., 09/05/2026, 14:00 · "amanhã 14h"); tap × to ignore the parse and keep the title as you typed it. The visible title in the input is never mutated while you're still typing — the parse is applied only when you tap Create. The parser covers English, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish with deliberately conservative rules: vague time-of-day phrases ("in the morning", "pela manhã", "por la mañana") and numeric dates (5/15, 15/05) are intentionally ignored to avoid eating parts of your title by mistake. Picking a date manually — a preset chip or the date picker — always overrides the parsed guess. This is an Android-only feature; the web keeps the date-preset chips and the manual picker.
What can I do from the Android home-screen widget?
The Today widget shows your next four open tasks at a glance (overdue first, then today, then upcoming) plus a '+ N more' footer when the list is longer. Three taps per row act without opening the app: ☐ on the left finishes the task and silences any matching overdue notification; the title in the middle opens the task in the app; and 💤 on the right snoozes the task by one day. The 💤 button is intentionally fixed at one day with no picker — the widget surface is too small to host one; use the in-app 💤 button on Today / search results when you want a week or a month instead. The + button in the widget header opens the new-task dialog directly. The widget is Android-only — the web has no equivalent surface.
Can I see my Hindsight tasks in Google Calendar / Apple Calendar?
Yes — Android Settings → "External calendar (iCal)" → "Generate calendar link" gives you a subscription URL you paste into your calendar app: in Google Calendar (web) it's Other calendars → + → From URL; in Apple Calendar it's File → New Calendar Subscription; in Outlook it's Add → Subscribe from web. The calendar app polls the URL on its own schedule (Google ~12-24h, Apple ~15min) — you cannot trigger an instant refresh from Hindsight. Every task with a due date shows up as a 30-minute event with the task title; recurring tasks become a single repeating event, not hundreds of individual ones. Tasks without due dates, completed tasks, and deleted tasks never appear in the feed. The integration is one-way: events you add or edit in the calendar app do NOT come back into Hindsight (the calendar treats subscribed URLs as read-only). To turn it off tap "Revoke link" in the same Settings section — the link becomes a 404 and your calendar app removes the events on its next poll. If you want a fresh URL (e.g., the old one leaked) tap "Generate calendar link" again — the previous token is revoked automatically. Android-only feature; the web Settings page does not show this.
Can I tick a subtask without opening the task detail screen?
Yes. On any task card with subtasks, tap the badge that shows ☑ N/M — it now has a chevron in front (▸ ☑ 0/4). The card expands inline and shows every subtask with its checkbox; tap each one to mark it done. When the last subtask is checked, the task auto-completes — for non-recurring tasks a snackbar appears for a few seconds with two actions, Undo (reopen the task and unflip the last item) and Done (dismiss and keep the completion). For recurring tasks, the standard reschedule / finalize dialog opens automatically, exactly as if you had tapped the card's checkbox yourself.
Do I have to manually break big tasks into subtasks?
No. Hindsight does not require you to plan subtasks up front. When you want to add one yourself, open any task — at the bottom of the detail page there's a Subtasks section with an inline "Add subtask…" input: type the text and press Enter (or tap "+") and it is saved straight away. Each subtask gets an "×" to remove it, the checkbox on the left toggles done/undone, and tapping its text turns the row into a small input so you can rename it — press Enter (or simply tap elsewhere) to save, or leave the text blank to cancel. The AI side is on top of that: it watches your task patterns over the weeks and, when it finds a task that has clearly grown into several smaller steps, suggests breaking it into subtasks for you. The same AI also suggests grouping several small related tasks into one (with the originals folded in as subtasks) when that makes more sense. Both kinds of suggestions show up in the Suggestions tab; if you accept, the regrouping happens automatically and the resulting checklist is ready to tick off in place. Subtask suggestions and the regrouping that follows are part of the Premium AI plan; manual subtask add/delete/rename is available on every plan.
Can I create a task already with subtasks?
Yes. The create-task dialog now has a Subtasks section right below the title. Type each subtask and press Enter (or the + button) to add it; tap × to remove. They're saved together with the task in a single submit.
On Android, how does the keyboard and the list picker behave in the create-task dialog?
Two polish details worth knowing. (1) Tapping the keyboard's ✓ after the title closes the keyboard instead of jumping focus into the Subtasks field — most tasks don't have subtasks, so the common path is title → Create. If you do want to add a subtask, tap the Subtasks field directly. (2) The list selector at the bottom is a row of chips — short list names pack two or three per line so you can see all your lists without scrolling. Tap a chip to select that list.
Where did the Notes field go?
It was retired. Subtasks now cover the "break the task into steps" use case. If you need to attach context (a link, for example), add it as a subtask. Anything you already had in Notes is preserved and still surfaces in search — only the dedicated field was removed.
Why can't I delete the Default list?
The Default list is the safety net where tasks land when other lists are deleted — that's why removing it is not allowed. You can rename it (it starts as "Default" in English or "Padrão" in Portuguese) and change its color freely; a small "Default" badge next to the name marks which list is acting as the safety net regardless of what you renamed it to.
How do I change which list is my default?
Open Lists, tap the three-dot menu on any list, and choose "Make default". New tasks land in your default list, and it is the one tasks fall back to when you delete another list. Your default always sits at the top of the list. Works on web and Android.
What happens to my tasks when I delete a list?
Your tasks are not lost. When you delete a list, every task still in it is automatically moved to your Default list, and a confirmation banner shows you how many tasks were moved and where they ended up. The list itself is removed; only its tasks travel.
Why can't I have two lists with the same name?
List names must be unique per user so the new-task picker, the Suggestions screen, and the history log stay unambiguous. Capital letters don't count, and extra spaces around the name don't either — "Work", " work ", and "WORK" all count as the same name. Renaming a list to a name that already exists is rejected with an inline error so you can pick a different name without losing your edits.
How do I delete my account?
On the web, open Settings → Privacy and data → Delete my account. On Android, open Settings → Privacy and data → Delete my account. You'll be asked to type your email to confirm and then a popup asks one more time before anything happens. We mark the account for deletion immediately and remove every task, list, history entry, and login record 30 days later. Sign in with the same Google account within those 30 days to cancel and keep your data. Account deletion is available on every plan, including Free.
I changed my mind after deleting my account. What can I do?
Sign in with the same Google account within 30 days of deleting. A recovery dialog appears automatically — tap Recover and your account is restored exactly as it was, tasks and history included. Tap Keep deletion and the scheduled deletion proceeds. After 30 days the data is removed permanently and signing in starts a brand-new empty account.
How do I view the available plans at any time?
Tap the diamond icon in the top-right of the Today screen on Android, or click 'Plans' in the header of the web app. You see all three plans — Free, Premium, and Premium AI — with your current plan badged at the top of its card. Purchase is still marked 'Coming soon' while we finish the payment flow.
What's the homepage at hindsight-todo.link for?
It's the public landing page — a quick overview of the app and the pricing tiers. If you're signed in, it sends you straight to your tasks; if not, you can sign in with Google from there. The page is available in English, Portuguese (pt-BR), and Spanish — switch via the links in the footer.
On Android, why do I see the 💡 and ✨ icons in the top bar but tapping them opens the Plans screen?
Those icons are gateways to the AI features (weekly Insights and AI Suggestions), which are part of Premium AI. We keep the icons visible on every tier so the features are discoverable — tapping them on Free or Premium takes you to the Plans screen with Premium AI highlighted, so you can see exactly what you'd get and whether it's worth upgrading. On Premium AI, the same tap opens the feature directly. The web app doesn't carry these icons because we brought the AI features to Android first.
On Android, what is the small spinning circle next to “Today” at the top?
It means the app is quietly pulling fresh tasks from the server in the background — when you open the app, after you finish or edit a task, and roughly every half-minute the Today screen stays open. You can keep using the app while it spins; nothing is blocked. To force a refresh right now, pull the list down — that gesture shows a larger indicator on purpose. Android-only — the web app refreshes on every page load instead.
Do completed subtasks move out of the way automatically?
Yes. Pending subtasks always render first in any task's checklist; completed subtasks sink to the bottom. The moment you check a subtask it slides down to the done group, so the still-actionable items stay at the top where you're looking. Unchecking one moves it back up. Within each group (pending / done) items keep the order they were added.