Introduction​

Hi, I’m Ammar (or AA0000). I’m from Syria, and I’m 21. Back in 2017, I used to have way too much free time on my hands. I spent a lot of that time playing Minecraft, managing servers and creating plugins for them, texting with friends, playing Piano Tiles 2 and Dancing Line, learning HTML and CSS, and helping others with their servers on Discord, Slack, HelpDesk, and a forum, 11–13h a day, every day, all on my phone, Sony M2, for about two years.

I also used to play a game called Fast Type. It’s a typing test thing but for mobile, and I used to type relatively fast with just two fingers. The average typing speed on a PC with 10 fingers is about 40 words per minute (WPM). I used to type 78 WPM with just my thumbs, on mobile, and the world record for that was 93 WPM, I wanted to beat that record.

All of this was just too much for just two fingers. Especially when you don’t rest, in addition to me being quite underweight back then, I started to develop Tendonitis.

What Happened​

It started with my thumbs stiffening after typing and making a loud noise when I tried to move them afterward, then it developed into pain. With time the pain started becoming more severe relentlessly and it started to last a lot longer, even after not using my thumbs. I went to a pharmacy and they told me that I just needed to rest. After seeing 5 different doctors over 4 years, while the pain only got worse, I have only been prescribed pain killers. Not knowing that it was only painkillers, I continued using my hands. I started doing freelance translating, which only made things worse. I had to start monitoring my hands’ usage to reduce it.

Start Monitoring​

When looking for programs that could give me the right data, I came across WhatPulse around 2020. Ever since, I used to look at my PC usage every single day to see how much I used the keyboard and mouse, which programs I used the most, and then try to reduce my usage and time on those programs.

To make things easier, I started inputting the total keys into a sheet every day to compare my usage over time. But that was a lot of work, and I wanted an easier method. That’s where WhatPulse’s export wizard helped me out. It can export the usage grouped by different periods and can go as granular as per hour:

Export Wizard

It is a Premium feature, and due to super low salary rates in Syria (around $36 a month), I couldn’t afford it, so I made a deal with the developer to translate WhatPulse to Arabic in exchange for the membership. After debating at what granularity I wanted to monitor my usage, I decided on daily and then I made a Google Sheet containing all of the exported stats and created this chart off that data:

Note that I wanted to list all of my data history, and the WhatPulse dashboards don’t go back that far yet. If you want to try this yourself, you can find the Google Sheet here.

In Nov 2021, right after that giant blue spike, the pain started to get severely out of hand, and I saw a very expensive specialist. They told me I could be suffering from Myopathy and they gave me vitamins and supplements, not just pain killers. After starting these medications, I wanted to compare my usage over time to see if they helped me more than the painkillers.

And indeed they did; you can see my usage progressively spiking in the end! Of course, while keeping the pain under control.

Nowadays, I’m at 130 words per minute on PC using Dvorak, and I’m trying to reach a healthy weight and overcome myopathy. I’m also planning on buying an ergonomic keyboard in the future, like the ZSA Moonlander or Kinesis 360, and see if I can improve my productivity even further.

Regards, Ammar.

Conclusion​

Ammar’s story is one of the reasons WhatPulse exists; to monitor your productivity in different scenarios. I hope you found his story inspirational just like I did.

Do you have a similar story? I’d love to share it. Contact me at martijn@whatpulse.org.

Brand New Profiles​

The new profile design was launched a few weeks ago and your reactions have been awesome to see! It’s built with the same data you’re used to but redesigned from the ground up to be fast, intuitive, and responsive for mobile use. There are a couple of new features, like the “Last few weeks” charts where you can quickly see your weekly stats, and we've refactored all tables to be interactive (sorting, searching, filtering).

Here’s an example in dark and light mode:

New profile design, dark and light mode.

WhatPulse 3.6 Released​

Version 3.6 was released recently, sporting new languages. Currently, the client supports Dutch, English, French, German, Polish, Slovak, and Swedish. Version 4.0 adds Chinese and Arabic. Big thanks go to Richard, Finn, UBrain, Remlej9, Krzysztof, Y.Z. Chen, and Ammar for the translations! If you'd like to contribute and get the client in your language, check out the process here.

Download 3.6 here.

WhatPulse 4.0 Beta​

At the beginning of the year, I released the beta version of the next WhatPulse client: version 4.0. There are some substantial changes in it, including a design overhaul that makes it easier to navigate through the client. Oh, and it also has dark mode now! I’ve got some more work to do before I’ll release it, but I wanted to give you all a preview. :-)

WhatPulse 4.0 beta in dark and light mode

New features include the modern design, a new installer & updater that’s the same across Windows and macOS, better support for faster network speeds, and a bunch of bug fixes. I’m not done yet, so stay tuned for more beta updates with more cool stuff. :-)

If you would like to join the beta and install 4.0, you can download it here:

• For Windows

• For macOS

• For Linux

Join our Discord Server​

We’ve created a Discord server! This is a place where we can chat about WhatPulse (or anything), hang out, and form a community! I’ll also be using Discord to post previews of the client and website to get your feedback.

Want to be in the loop on everything that’s happening? Join the Discord here: https://discord.gg/FtddS6Fwve

Premium — One-time Purchases​

By popular demand, one-time purchase for Premium is now available! Previously, it was only available for PayPal but now it’s available for all payment methods. Speaking of payment methods: Apple Pay and SEPA (European bank debit) are now also supported!

One-time Premium Purchase

Feedback & Reviews Wanted​

We’d like to know what you think about WhatPulse! While you’re always welcome to use the feedback form in the Dashboard to give feedback, we’ve got two projects running to gather specific feedback.

First, we’re looking for public reviews to help others find WhatPulse. The good people at Capterra are kind enough to offer a $20 USD gift card for the first 100 reviewers. If you can use $20 — get your review in! The details and terms can be found here: https://review.capterra.com/Feedback-WhatPulse-241519-3586761889

Second, this Google form is all about setting the course for the next year (and beyond). I ran this feedback form with a select group of people at the beginning of the year, now I’m opening it up to everyone. If you have 10 minutes to spare and have opinions on what we should do with WhatPulse, check out the form: https://forms.gle/31DtoCLXMB8DT1aWA

Coming Up: Maintenance Weekend​

Our website is moving! To another provider, that is. Don’t worry, nothing will change. We’ll just be migrating the website on the weekend of February 26th and 27th. The website will be down for a few hours on the 26th — between 10 am and 6 pm CET (Central European Time). It could be a little slow throughout the entire weekend.

Your WhatPulse client will continue to work, it just won’t be able to pulse during the downtime and will wait until the website is online again.

Keep an eye on our Twitter or Discord for updates.

That’s it from me for now! Thanks for sticking around. :-)

Translations (Client v3.5)​

This is by far the biggest thing. The client can now support multiple languages. Select the language in the General Settings:

I am starting with Dutch and adding more languages soon. Here’s also where I could use your help. If you would like to see the client in your native language for yourself and people that speak the same language — help us out!

I’ve open-sourced the language files and written documentation about how to contribute. You can find all information here: https://github.com/whatpulse/client-translations

Shout out to Richard Gráčik, who has already started on a Slovakian translation!

Support for Windows 11 and macOS 12 (Client v3.5)​

Minor change, but I wanted to highlight it. The client will now correctly recognize Windows 11 that came out a week ago. In anticipation of the release of macOS 12 (Monterey), the client also supports it when it comes out.

Dark & Light Mode Updates (Client v3.5)​

While the client does not have a dark mode yet, it handles dark and light themes a lot better now. Both on Windows and macOS:

Switching themes on Windows (left) and macOS (right)

The application icon has also had a few minor tweaks that will make sure it looks good on both light and dark mode:

Application icon on light (Windows, left) and dark (macOS, right) mode

Viewing & Exporting Data (Client v3.5)​

A few things around viewing and exporting data. On every page in the client where you have a time selection (heat maps, application history, etc.) — there’s now the option to select all your data using the all button:

If you have a lot of history, it could take a couple of seconds to load. The spinner will tell you whether it’s still loading or if it’s done. :-)

And on popular demand, the Export Wizard can now group by the hour for input and application uptime. The resulting CSV file has your data split by the hour. Want a CSV with the number of keys of last week between 8:00 and 8:59? Done.

There were also a few Export menu’s missing the Export Wizard option: that’s been remedied.

Download all Data (Website)​

Adding on the data export features, there is now a button called Download All Your Data inside your Account Settings. When you click this button, all the data in your account is gathered and put into a zip file. Once that process is done, you will get an email with a link to the zip file.

Download all your data from the website

It can take a few minutes to process and send the email — contact us if it doesn’t arrive in an hour.

Social Apps Update (Website)​

Since the launch of the Social Apps, there have been 100s of application profile submissions. It’s been incredible to see applications get more information on the website and how people have been using it to find alternative apps or simply get more info about their apps.

One barrier for submitting was the requirement for a logo. I initially added the logo as a requirement at first to get the application profile complete at the first submission. But a lot of you have asked to remove it — so here we go! You can now submit application profile improvements without having to look for a logo.

By the way — the free sticker promotion is still active. :-)

Other Stuff​

• Client v3.4 fixed the sharing of keyboard and mouse heat maps

• Client v3.5 automatically starts online back-ups within 5 seconds, instead of waiting for a manual start

• Client v3.5 fixed opening the browser for the login process. This only happened for a handful of people.

A couple of weeks ago, WhatPulse 3.3 was released onto the update feed. I didn’t have time to write about it until now, so here’s the update post!

Online Database Backups​

You get a new computer and you want to migrate, or your computer has crashed and you need to reinstall it. Things happen. One of the annoying things that come along with that, is that your local WhatPulse database is gone (unless you made backups of your Data Directory).

Starting WhatPulse 3.3, the client has a built-in online backup feature. This will allow the client to make backups of your local database and put it somewhere safe. That somewhere safe is in the cloud, encrypted by default, and only accessible by your account. It’s a Premium feature, mostly because it’s not free for us to host these backups.

Backup​

There’s a new setting in the client that controls it (enabled by default), where the client will ask you through a popup when you start the client, or through a message on the Overview tab, to create a backup every week.

Restore​

When you log into the client, it will check whether there are any backups for your account and offer to restore it. After downloading the database, the client will restart and have all your history back.

Management​

The backups can be managed through your Dashboard. Download them manually, or delete them from here.

Dashboard — Online Database Backups

More Info​

Find more info about the feature (description, walkthroughs, and videos) in the Help Center.

Windows & Command Keys​

The online database backup isn’t the only new thing in 3.3. You’ve asked for it, and now the keyboard heat map will show you the usage of the Windows key and macOS command keys:

That goes both for the heat map view and the table view. Previously, the keys were categorized as “Unknown”.

Other Things​

There was a ton of code maintenance in 3.3 also, meaning certain things respond quicker, there was a condition where opening the Geek Window on startup would crash the client, and a ton of micro bugs were fixed.

Full release notes here: https://whatpulse.org/releasenotes/3.3/

Get version 3.3 using the Check for Updates button, or download it from https://whatpulse.org/downloads/

Input History — Table View​

First up is a new table view on the Input History page. The chart on the same page is an easy way to see how you’ve done comparatively with other days, weeks, or months — but you’ve been asking for a more detailed view.

This view allows you to look at your input history grouped by hour, day, week, month, and even by year. While this data was already available when you export the input history, this is an easier to way too at it.

Lost your Geek Window?​

It can happen. Too many screens, maybe you’ve not pinned it to be on top. Now, there’s an easy way to find it again:

Release Notes​

• NEW Add a table view on the Input History tab. Here you can list key and click counts grouped by hour, day, week, month, or year. Input history is a Premium feature.

• NEW Add a geek window setting to call it to center and reset its coordinates.

• NEW Add a shortcut to the account tab in the tray menu.

• IMPROVED Bring client into focus when authorization is done on the website.

• IMPROVED Make it easier to switch between an analytics widget and table view by using icons, instead of a dropdown.

• FIXED Fix sporadic empty account or login window.

https://whatpulse.org/releasenotes/3.2/