Are "bring your own storage" apps a thing?<p>I'm being inspired by draw.io, a web app for creating diagrams. Notably, it's not crammed with useless information and the user remains in charge of their data. A diagram can be stored as a file to your local device, Dropbox, Google Drive, OwnCloud or any other similar service.<p>In contrast, let's look at MyFitnesPal. Upon opening the app I'm faced with news, cookie confirmation dialog and sometimes promotional pop-ups. All this to simply input my body weight.<p>If MyFitnesPal followed a draw.io model, it would be a simple app with a couple of .csv files as a backend.<p>Is there a market opportunity for new breed of apps that are:
- minimalistic in design and features
- user remains in charge of the data by using text files as storage and by giving them a choice on where to store them<p>Where do I find people who think alike?
Most people don't care about their data. They don't even <i>understand</i> what companies do and do not collect. They want convenience.<p>Nonetheless, there are apps that don't collect data or allow you to sync to your own backend (usually to WebDAV).<p>Some links to get you started:<p>- <a href="https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted</a><p>- <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26365835" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26365835</a>
I am working on securely opening personal storage across the internet with a point-to-point app that also lets you selectively open parts of your file system to other users.<p>I just proved out the application’s security model yesterday in my test automation. Once I finish the messaging subapp I will bump it to version 0.1 for public beta, but you can play with it now on your home network.<p><a href="https://github.com/prettydiff/share-file-systems" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/prettydiff/share-file-systems</a>
> If MyFitnesPal followed a draw.io model,<p>I don't see why a commercial company striving for revenue and growth would follow the free/open source model.<p>draw.io app by <a href="https://www.diagrams.net/about.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.diagrams.net/about.html</a> is free and open source (<a href="https://github.com/jgraph" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/jgraph</a>). Either the authors are volunteers or I can't figure out what their business model is.<p><a href="https://www.myfitnesspal.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.myfitnesspal.com/</a> received $18M in venture capital funding and has 18 open job position which I'd guess means over 100 employees. "UnderArmour sells MyFitnessPal for $345 million" <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/underarmour-sells-myfitnesspal-for-345-million-bets-on-mapmyrun-and-connected-running-shoes/" rel="nofollow">https://www.zdnet.com/article/underarmour-sells-myfitnesspal...</a>
A little surprised no one has mentioned OmniGroup's [0] applications.<p>Some of their applications (e.g. OmniFocus) support syncing online via an Omni account, but also offer support for syncing to a custom WebDAV server[1]. I run my own WebDAV server and point the macOS and iOS apps at it.<p>[0]: <a href="https://www.omnigroup.com" rel="nofollow">https://www.omnigroup.com</a><p>[1]: <a href="https://support.omnigroup.com/documentation/omnifocus/mac/3.0/en/getting-synced/#other-webdav-options" rel="nofollow">https://support.omnigroup.com/documentation/omnifocus/mac/3....</a>
<a href="https://meetmyna.com/" rel="nofollow">https://meetmyna.com/</a> is a minimalistic app that requires you to bring your own storage. Dropbox and OneDrive are supported.