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Requested design updates to the Upwork Desktop App

lenaellis
Community Member

We’ve made several improvements to the Upwork Desktop app to help you stay organized and provide more insight into the Time Tracker’s processes by displaying more notifications about what the app is doing on the backend. Let us know if you have any questions on the updates below.

 

Time Tracker Layout and Settings-

 

  • “Time today” - shows billable time tracked in your local time zone, not in UTC. However, “Time this week” still shows the weekly billable time in UTC because our weekly billing is calculated in the UTC time zone.
  • There is a connection status above the ON/OFF toggle informing you if the Time Tracker is online or offline.
  • We removed the elapsed timer which increased each minute, and replaced it with a timer which increases in 10 minute intervals after a screen capture is taken and the time is registered as billable.

TImetracker2.png

  • At top of the time tracker, we are now showing the contract name, contact person and client company.
  • Because your time tracked is now showing in your local time on the main page, when a new billing week is approaching (in UTC) and after a new billing week has started, we are showing a notification to avoid confusion.

TImetracker3.png

 

Improvements in offline tracking:

 

  • If the app loses connection with the server, the app will now display a notification on the screen until you dismiss it or until the connection is back.

Timetracker4.png

Timetracker5.png

  • When you’re approaching the caching limit, you will see a notification.

Timetracker7.png

  • And once the app is back online, we show a notification and start uploading the cached screen captures.

Timetracker8.png



111 Comments
caseyab
Community Member
 
I am contacting you in reference to my request (#21841566)
My Team App's version is 5.1.0.562 and my Machine Operating system version is Windows 7 Ultimate. It seems to be a problem with the app working on my system since a maintenance update with Upwork on September 1st,  I received a message that my memory was full on September 1st, and from then until now I have not been able to use the time tracker, every time I uninstall and reinstall the app and try opening it I am constantly getting a blank screen as image attached below.
 
 
AveryO
Community Manager

Hi Casey-Ann, 

I'd like to check if you're running the Upwork Desktop App on a virtual machine? 

mrnolan
Community Member

Hi Pavla,

 

I have a different perspective of the timing of the completion of the activity bars than you do, so I made a screen recording of the app adjacent to the system clock while working for an hour and checking the activity after each snapshot.  

 

The 10 minute clock is updated at the randomly selected time chosen for the snapshot.  This makes it completely useless for the contractor to use as a gauge of time spent working because a) only 5 minutes may have passed and b) the contractor would have to be watching the app exactly at the time the 10 minute clock is updated to catch the change.

 

Shortly after the 10 minute clock is updated, three bars (the same each time in the hour of my test) are added to the new 10 minute segment in the diary and the three bars in the previous 10 minute segment of the diary are updated to 10 bars (demonstrating my work ethic).  This also means it is impossible to use checking of progress in the diary to determine if 10 minutes of work has been completed (I believe you already pointed this out) and that you are certain to charge your client a full 10 minutes of work for the last last segment when you are likely to have only worked a few minutes at most.  It is also impossible for the contractor to correct for the last segment timing error without docking their own time.

 

My conclusion is that the recent update to the app was a huge step backwards and must be fixed.

 

 

 

brevon
Community Member

Hi Martin,

 

I agree that the way the 10-bar segment (or 10-minute clock) gets updated is terribly confusing.  I believe we are agreed on the fact that it only gets updated once the next screenshot is made, so until then, the WD diary does not show data properly and indeed contractors cannot use WD to see whether they successfully completed the last segment or not.

 

What we are forced to do is that we have to start working at hh:00 or close. Instead of having an app which would simply track our time and be helpful for us, we have an app which limits us and dictates how we should manage our time because it is so limited itself.

 

Contributors' lives would be much easier if the time tracker just tracked our time in any given time frame and reflected our activity not within hh:00-hh: 09-minute slots but any 10-minute slots (e.g. if I started working at 10:26 then all slots would mark my time accordingly). Currently, if I started at 10:26 and finished at 11:26, my WD would look bad and it would not reflect the reality - i.e. that I indeed worked for a full hour. The app dictates when I should be ready to start working.

 

One good news is that you do not need to wait for the next screenshot when you are about to finish, which is what I had the chance to check yesterday.  Example: Last screenshot was taken in the 3rd minute of the 10-minute segment - at 8:22:12 pm, so the slot showed only 3 green bars. WD still showed only 3 green bars even when I moved over to another 10-minute segment (8:30–8:39 pm). However, I did not wait until the next screenshot,  I stopped the clock at 8:30 pm. Once I stopped tracking the time, the WD updated and my last 10-minute segment (8:20–8:29) filled up with another 7 green bars, making the total of 10.

 

So, technically, all is fine and we do not need to wait till next screenshot is taken to stop tracking time once we finish working on the last not-updated-in-WD-yet 10-minute segment. From the personal perspective, the way the time is tracked is very limiting and it simply sucks.

 

I understand that for some people it is inconvenient not to be able to see their progress in real time within those last ten minutes. As for me, if I know I was working properly and that I was writing or clicking away, I know my slots are going to reflect that and do not use WD to see my progress - I try to guess that from the last version of the app, which only kind of helps (it was much easier when we could see the elapsed time in current session). Indeed, I do check my WD at the end of the day and if I noticed (and it did happen) that there are unusual gaps in my WD where I am sure I was working properly, I go and investigate and if need be, file a ticket.

mrnolan
Community Member
Thanks for the update. I will try your workaround!


kochubei_valeria
Community Member

After the last design update to the Upwork desktop app, we heard from users in our community that some of the changes we made were not as intuitive as we’d like them to be.

 

Our desktop app team has been working hard to incorporate the feedback we’ve received in the upcoming update, which will be rolled out to users in the next few days.

 

In the latest update, we’re re-introducing Current Session time as the main timer, as well as giving you the option to view time billed for the day in UTC again – not just in your local timezone. As a reminder, Current Session time is a stopwatch that increases by the minute, whereas time billed for the day and for the week will display in 10-minute increments.

 

Here’s a screenshot of what the updated desktop app looks like:

 3213123.PNG

 

Your desktop app will automatically update once the update is available. By default, your view of time billed today is defaulted to displaying in your local timezone, but you can toggle the display to UTC by visiting Timezones in your desktop app’s Settings.

 

Thank you for using the desktop app. We take your feedback very seriously, and hope these changes address the themes you’ve been sending our way. And as always, please send any additional questions or comments you may have to our team by filling out the Support and Feedback form through the app.

lenaellis
Community Member

Hi everyone,

 

After updating the Upwork Desktop App in late July, announced here, you shared your feedback about the redesign. Notably, you expressed that having “time today” display billable time tracked in your local time zone, instead of in UTC, was not helpful. You also stated you preferred having the Current Session timer increase each minute, and not in 10-minute segments. We heard you. Your feedback really helped us understand how you utilize the Desktop App and the importance of these features to make it intuitive for you.

 

We’ve now released a new update for the Desktop App, based off the feedback we received here in the Community.  

 

  • We’ve brought back the elapsed timer, which increases every minute. This is now the main timer on the App, displaying under Current Session time. This time will now track like a stopwatch that increases by the minute, whereas time billed for the day and for the week will continue to display in the 10-minute billing increments, as they have in the past.

 

  • The timezone to view your hours billed each day is your choice. You now have the option to choose to display this time in either UTC or your local timezone.

Here’s a screenshot of what the updated desktop app looks like:

 

new desktop app.png


You can find more information about this update in our blog post here. Thanks again for sharing your feedback in the Community. Let us know if you have any questions.  

wlyonsatl
Community Member

Those are excellent changes, Lena.

 

Will the desktop app automatically update, or do we need to do that manually in some way.

kochubei_valeria
Community Member

Hi Will,

 

You don't need to take any actions. The update will be applied the next time you restart your Upwork App.

wlyonsatl
Community Member

Hi, Valeria.

 

I have re-started my PC a few times since your post and still see a window that includes only a portion of my Upwork message board (?) when I double-click the Time Tracker icon on my desktop. I then close that window and double-click the desktop icon again, when the old Time Tracker window pops up. This is how Time Tracker has “worked” for me for the past couple of months.

 

Should I delete this version of Time Tracker and download the latest version from the Upwork site in order to get the new app Lena said is now available?

 

Thanks.