Trace — A time tracker that visualizes your app activity

Hello Product Hunt 👋! I'm excited to launch Trace today, a macOS time-tracker that shows you insights about your app usage. After using many time-tracking apps, I was frustrated that I couldn't see how my time was spent, so I built Trace to solve this. Here are a few things that make Trace so useful: -> It has built-in activity monitoring that tracks all your open apps -> You can visualize your app activity in a color-coded & easy-to-digest timeline - >You can see a daily/monthly overview of your sessions -> It is free & secure: everything is stored locally and doesn't leave your computer! Try it out and let me know if you have any questions/feedback!

I really love the minimal design of this, congrats on the launch! I'm gonna try this over the next few days to see if there are any surprising patterns 🤔

Awesome launch, @tk4! 🎉 Love how Trace focuses on visualizing app usage with that timeline feature—it's a game changer for productivity! The local storage for privacy really resonates too; so rare in the time-tracking space. Can't wait to see how this can improve my daily workflow. Upvoted!

Congrats on the launch! Trace sounds like an amazing tool for macOS users. I love how it tracks app usage and gives a clear view of time spent. Quick question - is there a way to customize the color-coded timeline, or is it predefined? Thanks!

What a brilliant concept, TK! The idea of visualizing app usage is so useful. Kudos to you and the team for putting this together.Can't wait to see how Trace evolves!

Also would be great to have settings where I can hide timer in the menu bar, I would like just leave the app working in the background without big number in the menu...

Hey TK, Does Trace have any features to let users exclude certain apps or time periods from tracking? Have you considered adding goal-setting functionality to help users improve their time management? Congrats on the launch!

Awesome launch, @tk4! 🎉 Time tracking can be such a bore, but it seems like Trace is adding a splash of color to the whole experience. Love the idea of a color-coded timeline—definitely makes analyzing app usage less of a chore! Also, the focus on privacy is huge nowadays. A local storage solution is definitely a selling point. I bet using this will boost my productivity (hopefully!). Can't wait to see how it performs in the wild! Have you considered any features like reminders or alerts for certain app usage? Just a thought! Excited to give it a spin and upvote this gem!

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How is it different from the in-built time tracking and management in our ios and android devices?

Congrats on the launch, @tk4! 🎉 I’m curious about the built-in activity monitoring—how does it differentiate between productive and non-productive app usage? Also, for the color-coded timeline, can users customize the colors or categories to better fit their workflow? I'm all for enhancing productivity with tools like Trace, but I'm wondering about any potential impacts on system performance while it's running. Thanks for sharing this, looking forward to your insights!

Hey, I really like the concept behind Trace! Does it track browser usage too?

I love the concept! Congratulations on launching something that helps people manage their time better.

Just for Mac? Would love something like this for windows

What a beautiful app!

I haven't tried so I can't give you too much insight, however, the simple home page is great.

Congrats on the launch of Trace, @tk4! 🎉 This looks like a really useful tool for anyone looking to optimize their time management. The color-coded timeline feature sounds especially valuable for visualizing app usage—such a game changer! Excited to see how you'll gather feedback and iterate on this. Wishing you all the success on PH! Upvoted!

Wow, Trace looks really impressive! I love the sleek design and how it visualizes app usage in an intuitive timeline. As someone who constantly wonders where my time goes, this could be a game-changer. A few thoughts: The local storage and privacy focus is great. Maybe highlight that even more prominently? It's a key differentiator from cloud-based alternatives. Have you considered adding a "productivity score" or some gamification elements? RescueTime does this well and it can be motivating. Any plans for a mobile companion app? Would be cool to see a holistic view across devices. Please tell me it has a "boss approaching" hotkey to quickly hide how much time I've spent on Reddit 😉 Overall, awesome work! This looks way more polished than my time tracker (a sundial and abacus). Excited to give it a try and reclaim my productivity. Or at least have concrete data on how unproductive I am.

Interesting. Will try it out to see if it helps me reduce some screen time :P

Congrats on the launch, @tk4 ! As someone with ADHD, I think I really need this to keep track of how much time I’m spending outside of work 😄 .