Excellent changes
So glad to see pulse back
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Okay, feedback time!
Firstly, the tl;dr:
It’s excellent, the team has really taken the time to make it work properly and it really integrates well with existing Trends. But it’s not really that useful to me just yet. But it lays the foundation to be absolutely transformational - with a few tweaks (and extra features).
Right, the detail:
- I just love the evolved Monzo design language. As you scrub along the pulse graph you get some lovely haptic feedback. A+ very good.
- I don’t keep my savings in Monzo (sorry folk 1.5pc just ain’t cutting it) so I can’t really use NuPulse
to see my savings accrue. And my savings accounts don’t have open banking connections. This just makes me want/desire/need manual accounts even more - NuPulse would really pop and I’d be able to see my savings grow 
- Similarly, I would love to be able to scrub across NuPulse to see my net worth over time. Maybe even over a decade view.
- I keep wanting to tap Starting Balance, Total Money In etc to drill down. Instead I have to tap ‘More’. It’s so so minor, but my fingers wanna do what my fingers wanna do.
- When you do tap on ‘More’ it’s a list of all your categories with spend in, in descending order. For Total Money Out, in particular, it feels like there’s a level of the hierarchy missing. I want to see at a glance what I’ve spent on bills and what is discretionary spending. Perhaps this is another sign we need to be able to create category groups on the classic Trends screen that are more sophisticated than Spending and Excluded. Or perhaps ‘direct debits and standing orders’ versus ‘card payments’ would be a helpful heuristic? I dunno, but it feels like we go from too little info to too much in one tap.
- Prediction of future transactions works super well for money going out. But not for money coming in! This feels like a major, critical oversight that really messes up the graphs. And it’s made worse because of…
- The lack of accurate pay periods. I get paid on the last working day, but I nab my salary using Get Paid Early, so it’s
last working day - 1 day- a period you can’t set in Monzo
. That means that, whatever period I choose, the graph is always a bit off. Now, I’d be absolutely fine with a monthly view if I could add recurring payments in, or create manual transactions that I know will be coming up. But I can’t so it kinda takes a bit of gloss off it.
So what do I think it needs to move it from very good to absolutely excellent, cannot live without?
- Accurate pay periods that take into account Get Paid Early
- Recurring future payments
- Give
meus manual accounts, pretty please… - …and a net worth figure!
And, an extra bonus:
- Manual future transactions, so I can predict and forecast spend.
- Let us see future months in Pulse.
Having looked at all of that, it feels very much like this isn’t criticism of the actual feature (which, let me be clear is amazing) but that other parts of the app need tweaking to really make it pop and achieve its potential. Which is huge!
I’m hoping that 1, 2, 4 and 5 might be things to roll into the next, Summarycidal, release.
But for now, excellent job - and an amazing platform for future stuff! 
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From the way you describe it, same!
I do wonder though, if this interface might actually work better with Summary’s algorithm. Maybe it was the first screenshot in the OP that confused me, but it almost looked like it was predicting the future, because the line went up and then back down, but I guess that’s an example of someone pressing down on one of the dots.
Exciting stuff and I can’t wait to be able to play with it myself!
2 Likes
My best guess is that that in that example, today’s date is something like 20th July (where the light line graph stops) and the user has scrubbed back in time to see what was spent on the 11th. [Edit, I think that’s actually wrong - this is a graph for a previous period, whereas the other one is for the current period]
Now (unless I’ve got it horribly wrong) NuPulse can’t predict incoming money (boo!) so that bump can only be money paid in that’s happened already.
Indeed, if you look at the graph on the right (with the dotted line and hard angles) that’s a prediction - and you’ll see no upward trend there.
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This is definitely heading in the right direction.
Manual accounts and manual future transactions would seal the forecasting part for me. Add a mortgage account. Add property. Add external savings. And see the overall picture accurately.
#YNABkiller
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Be still my beating heart. 
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Thanks Peter for a comprehensive report on the new roll out. Could I ask are you able to change the period to 4 weekly (28day) pay periods
TIA
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If I worked for Monzo, I would definitely do this for you*. But I don’t, so cannot.
But I think it’s a jolly good idea!
*Actually, even if I did work for Monzo, I’m not the sort of person you want rummaging through your code base.
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Nice visual update but it really needs a bigger rethink. Those are the same options as Summary, and they’re too limited.
I really think we need something like this:
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Basically it needs to work like a decent calendaring app, doesn’t it?
(Also: please privately publish my past and expected transactions as a calendar I can subscribe to).
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Day 2 of the rollout and still no sign 
Monzo need a big rollout counter showing how far they’re through. Similar to the one they had on their homepage to track account openings but in reverse of course 
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still no new trends … but since im not part of the clique no one will care
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Someone somewhere must care 
Seems a very slow roll out don’t expect anything until Monday now TBH 
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I think these roll outs usually take weeks rather than days. And hardly ever any on the weekends (I think that Monzo engineers keep an eye on them to make sure that nothing bad is happening as the load increases).
It’s a bit rubbish, but hold on in there. It’s in Monzo’s best interest to get it to everyone asap.
(And I feel your pain: most roll outs I’ve been living on here vicariously whilst others have all the new things).
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In other new Trends news, here’s an excellent bit of attention to detail. I’ve been a bit critical of Monzo for not going far enough to spark joy, but here’s an excellent counter example: the Pluse line changes colour to reflect the account you’re looking at!
Here’s a bold orange for Sainsbury’s bank:
And a deep blue for Nationwide:
And a not-quite-as-impactful grey for Monzo Premium:
These only show when you’ve just got the one account selected.
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Is there a ‘pecking order’ I wonder on who gets the updates first? Length of time since account has been open? Full Monzo customers? Random? Alphabetical order? Whoever wrote something nice about Monzo on Trustpilot?
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I think that it’s random, but potentially weighted to make sure there is a good cross section of user types (different OS etc). I don’t think it’s a reward system - it’s just to avoid things falling over by turning everything on all at once.
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Another case of the plus members getting the nicest UI! Which I’m all for, being a plus member. I love the blues.
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I think I prefer the in app gradients for Premium. And I do like the Premium app icon.
But Plus Flex card is the undisputed champion of Flex cards. It’s beautiful.
1 Like