The highest-scoring post in r/ADHD on this subject (2,411 points
The highest-scoring post in r/ADHD on this subject (2,411 points, 205 comments) is not asking for a better reminder app — it says every reminder app already failed for the same reason, that the push notification gets ignored, and asks for something that phones you like a personal assistant would. The Chinese side says the same thing from the other direction: a Tiimo review at 7,327 likes whose commenters point out the tool needs exactly the executive function they do not have.
What is the idea?
Nothing yet. What is being asked for, in both languages, is a change of channel rather than a better list: something that reaches out at a fixed time and speaks, the way a human assistant would, instead of adding one more silent badge to a home screen.
Who would use it, and what do they get?
Non-developer user: an adult with ADHD who has already bought and abandoned several planners. Finished thing: the two or three things that actually had to happen today, actually happened.
Why would anyone bother?
The person describing this has tried, in their own words, a billion apps. That is not someone looking for features; that is someone who has already paid for the category and been failed by all of it.
What is missing today?
It hits a real pain and solves it imperfectly, in the same way, everywhere. The whole category — Todoist, Tiimo, Structured, 滴答清单 — ends at a push notification, and the notification is the exact step these users report ignoring. Nobody has moved the last mile to a different channel. On the Chinese side there is a second, separate gap: the reviewer with 7,327 likes says the best tool in this category has mediocre Chinese support.
What makes this one different?
Do not build a planner — the planner is the part that already exists and already lost. Build only the delivery: one outbound voice call a day at a time the user picks, reading back at most three things and taking the answer by voice, with the list assembled from whatever they said in passing rather than from a form they have to maintain. Ship the Chinese version first, where the leading tool is openly described as poorly localised. No diagnosis, no treatment claims, no coaching — a different channel for a reminder, and a line pointing to a professional when someone is clearly struggling. Cold start (Chinese): the comment section of the Tiimo review (7,327 likes) and the 成人adhd / adhd工具 tags on Xiaohongshu, where people name the tools they abandoned; Cold start (English): the r/ADHD thread itself and its 205 comments, plus r/adhdwomen.
What is the sharpest thing about it?
Every product in this category competes on how well you can enter and organise tasks. The complaint on the table is that entering and organising is not where it breaks — delivery is.
What could kill it?
'Call me' is what people say they want and very often not what they tolerate: an unsolicited daily phone call is among the most churn-prone interactions a product can have, and the same person who ignores notifications may decline the call by week three. Apple and Google can add a spoken reminder in one OS release. And this is a clinical population — anything that drifts from 'a different way to be reminded' into managing a condition is both a liability and outside what a solo builder should touch. Worth stating plainly: the operator marked this family ❌ in July; this card exists because the evidence is different, not because the judgement was wrong.
Who pays, and for what?
Someone who has already spent money on three planners this year. Monthly subscription, priced against one missed appointment.
What is the main risk?
The single thing that makes it interesting — that it calls you — is also the thing most likely to be switched off in week three.
What did real people actually say?
Verbatim from the public sources linked above, not paraphrased: “I've tried a billion reminder and task management apps and literally ignore every push notification. Rich people don't even have to remember everything, they have personal assistants on staff who help them every day all year with remembering. If only there was app that would call me like a personal assistant would and take the mental load of having to remember everything…. When are they gonna build that??” — reddit “主要是整理逻辑 完全不按plan行动但是需要有plan。没有计划我能躺尸一整天” — xiaohongshu “但是整体上对中文的支持，以及国内优化做的一般” — xiaohongshu
How much work is it?
about two months of work
Where does the evidence come from?
https://old.reddit.com/r/ADHD/search?q=%22wish+there+was+an+app%22 https://www.xiaohongshu.com/explore/6a4cf22a000000001603e42b
← petdex has 3,686 stars and a live submission queue of hand-drawn… · Both language sides asked for the same missing thing this year →