How the Twos app could be better

There is a fundamental way Twos could improve my accessibility to the app. This is not an isolated situation with Twos itself, but something I am dealing with amongst other applications I use. I believe Twos needs a dedicated Apple Watch app. I work in an educational environment where smartphones are completely prohibited and rightly so. It is a safeguarding concern and the staff needs to set an example to the students if they have told the students not to use their phones in school.

Apple Watch First

Reflecting on my phone use, I noticed I don’t get much time to use it. I travel for seventy minutes to work in the morning and the same back home. During my working day, I am not allowed to use my phone. I simply don’t get time in the early evening because I am preparing tea, sorting out jobs for work and organising things with my son for his school. It is only after 8:30 pm that I can sit down and reflect. My friends and family know too well how bad I am at returning calls and messages. It’s all batched and planned, honest.

So, my main way to communicate during the day is through my Apple Watch. About eighty percent of all digital interaction goes through my watch. To be honest, if I could ditch my phone completely and stick with my Apple Watch and a desktop/laptop, I would. The first thing I do when an app gets suggested to me is to check whether the app has an Apple Watch app available. It’s not a dealbreaker but it has stopped me from

I’ve noticed I am using paper-based bullet journaling more in the past two months or so because I don’t have a quick way to capture digitally. When I get time to sit down, I will record what I need in Twos and work out what can be completed in Twos and what needs to go to another tool like Upnote, xTiles, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 (work only).

Siri woes

At the moment, Twos has a feature through Apple Shortcuts to allow voice capture. Summoning Siri, you can say ‘remember something‘ for things (notes), ‘remember something to do‘ for tasks, and so on. It works really well from my iPhone. I use it occasionally on my car journey to work (hands-free, of course). Using voice commands on my Apple Watch is not as smooth though. Here is an example of what I am doing right now for Twos on my Apple Watch:

• Activate Siri
• Say ‘Remember something’
• Roughly wait 4 seconds
• tap the record icon to use voice dictation
• Record your *thing*
• Hit done
• Tap add to confirm
• And wait for the thing to be added to Twos (which is usually quick)

The problem I am having is my phone is locked away in the staff room. As my iPhone is out of range, my attempts to capture through my Apple Watch do not synchronise the note I had made. Also, the process on my watch adds more friction than I want at the moment. The aim is for quick capture from my watch, so I can quickly get on with my jobs.

My interim solution

I am having to use the Drafts app in the interim until something more feasible is available through the Twos app. I move my notes captured in Drafts to Twos. It’s working well and I have created a routine to reliably remember it as a daily task. However, it would be nice to use the Twos App directly and independently from my iPhone.

Final thoughts

My wish is to see calendar entries and tasks through a Twos watch app. The team behind the Twos App works hard and updates come out more frequently than any other app I have seen out there. The community is super helpful and I am confident there will be improvements to the software in the year ahead. I have no intention of switching to anything else, nor am I even tempted by anything else.

I think it is important to share my drawbacks and be honest with those who read my tweets and blog posts because I am aware others listen to how I boast about the Twos app. I have had a total of 39 referrals since I started using Twos in January 2023. Thank you so much to those who used my code – https://www.TwosApp.com?code=minimlr (hint hint).