DiffWatch

Appspecto

Contains ads

About this app

DiffWatch keeps an eye on web pages for you. Add the address of a page, choose how often it should be checked, and DiffWatch fetches it on that schedule. When the content differs from the previous check it shows a coloured, line-by-line diff and sends you a notification.

PLEASE READ FIRST

The interface of this app is in Turkish only. There is no English user interface in this build and no language switch. If you do not read Turkish you will be able to install and open the app, but you will not be able to use it well enough to give useful feedback.

WHAT IT IS FOR

Waiting for an announcement page to be updated, a price on a product page to move, or a list of results or places to be republished — instead of opening the page yourself and comparing it by eye, DiffWatch finds the changed part and shows it to you.

HOW IT WORKS

• Add a page: paste the address, give it a title and a check period.
• Watch the whole page or one region: open the page inside the app and tap the area you care about; DiffWatch derives that element's CSS selector for you.
• Get told when it changes: tapping the notification opens the diff directly.
• Read the diff: added, removed and changed lines are listed in separate colours, in a git-style view.
• Look back: a snapshot of each check is kept on the device, so you can compare against earlier states.

YOUR DATA

The watches you create, the page snapshots and your settings stay on your device. There is no account and no sign-in. The app goes online to fetch the addresses you entered, and those requests go straight to those sites. Beyond that, the only thing sent to us is which screen you opened, as an anonymous statistic, to our own Plausible server. The addresses you watch, page contents, titles and diffs are never sent, and no identity or device identifier is used. You can switch it off in Settings.

WORTH KNOWING

• The shortest check interval is 15 minutes. That is Android's limit on background work, not a choice the app made.
• Checks run when the device allows it, so a long sleep can delay one.
• Pages behind a login, and some pages that build all of their content with JavaScript, may not be read correctly.

This is an open test build (0.1.0). Reports of what went wrong, together with the address of the page you were watching, are the most useful thing you can send.

What’s new

DiffWatch 0.1.0 — first open test build.

Add a page address; DiffWatch checks it on a schedule and shows a coloured line-by-line diff when the content changes. Watch a whole page, or tap to pick a region.

The interface is Turkish only; there is no English UI.

Worth trying: the region picker, different check periods, opening a diff from a notification.

Known limit: checks run at most every 15 minutes, an Android rule.

If something looks wrong, send the page address and what you expected.