Attachment Bot

Project Status

Attachment Bot has been retired. While the project served as a valuable learning experience as our first macOS app shipped to production, we made the decision to sunset the MVP due to limited user adoption and conversion rates.

Sometimes products even created with best practice and a solid process just don't work out. As a business its important to act on that, learn from it and move on. Here is the story of Attachment Bot.

Key Outcomes

• Successfully shipped our first macOS application to the App Store
• Gained valuable experience in desktop application development
• Learned important lessons about market validation and user conversion
• Built expertise with Electron and React for desktop applications

About the Project

Attachment Bot was a productivity tool that streamlined the management of email attachments. Users could authenticate their IMAP email account (Gmail, Yahoo, Fastmail, iCloud, etc.), set up custom rules to match specific emails, and automatically save the attachments to a designated location on their device.

The app ensured data privacy by processing all information locally without any analytics or tracking. Attachments were exported and organized by year, month, and day for easy integration with existing workflows.

The Problem We Aimed to Solve

Managing email attachments like invoices and receipts can be a tedious and time-consuming task for businesses. Without consistent naming conventions or an easy way to match documents with transactions, locating specific attachments for bookkeeping or tax purposes becomes challenging.

Attachment Bot tackled this issue by automating the process of finding, saving, and organizing email attachments based on user-defined rules. The app offered features including:

• IMAP compatibility for universal email provider support
• Custom rules to match emails based on criteria like sender or subject
• Automatic saving of attachments from matched emails
• Privacy-first local data processing
• Activity log for tracking app actions
• Organized export of attachments by date

Technical Implementation

Attachment Bot began as a SwiftUI prototype for macOS but transitioned to an Electron app using React. This strategic shift was made to allow for easier porting to Windows and potentially Linux in the future.

The app leveraged the IMAP protocol to securely authenticate with email providers and access messages. When a new email arrived, Attachment Bot checked the user's defined rules to determine if there was a match based on criteria like sender, recipient, subject, or body text.

Lessons Learned

While the project didn't achieve the market traction we hoped for, it provided invaluable experience in:

• Desktop application development and distribution
• App Store submission and review processes
• Building with Electron and React for desktop
• Understanding user needs and market validation
• Product lifecycle management from conception to retirement

The technical and product development insights gained from Attachment Bot continue to inform Add Jam's approach to building innovative software products.