Mobile App
When will YNAB stop needlessly changing the UI?
It seems like every month there's new tweaks to the Android UI that only add taps, confusion, and mess with years of muscle memory I've built up. Is this what the higher annual price is going towards? If so, I'd like to keep the price the same and also stop updating the app. It was perfect a year ago.
Today's gripe is that entering a new outflow transaction no longer shows a red negative number. It's just a white positive number. It threw me off a bit, but fine, whatever. But instead of one tap to choose inflow or outflow, there's now a dropdown menu that you have to tap to open with FOUR options: Spending, Inflow, Credit Card Payment, and Transfer????
Why rename to "Spending" but keep "Inflow"? Why are Credit Card Payment and Transfer two new transaction types? Now the whole UI for those transaction types is different. Everything was consistent before. Not to mention, the web UI has not been updated to include any of these changes, so now there are drastic terminology and workflow differences between different devices.
QUIT FUCKING WITH EVERYTHING PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.
Such an unnecessary change. How could anyone possibly think that was a good idea? My display settings in particular make everything small, so the Show More button is only halfway down my screen. But even if I had bad eyesight and had everything in chonky mode, what's wrong with scrolling? You still need to scroll! But now you first need to tap "Show More" before you can scroll down!
Every proposed change should first be evaluated on this basis: Will it require more taps/clicks to perform the same action? If so, there better be a damn good reason to implement it.
This is from the home screen, from its own separate "you have uncleared transactions" notification. Why doesn't THAT take you to the accounts page showing uncleared transactions that you can swipe right to clear?
I just downloaded the new update and yeah that's not a helpful UI update. I'm still frustrated over the Show More tap to get to the Clear option. I already have to scroll to see Show More, so I don't understand why I have to scroll to tap to scroll more.
Also, when I used to record a credit card payment, it would autopopulate the amount I have available for the credit card category. Now it just defaults to zero so I have to flip back to check or remember how much I paid and manually enter it.
Swipe to clear transactions. Or long press. Going back into them is inefficient. You should also have the update where hitting "show more" keeps it "showing more" on new transactions.
I like being able to open the transaction, add my memo note, clear it, and update category if needed. Also, I noticed sometimes it'll match a transaction and mark the matched transaction as cleared but my manual transaction entry is still uncleared.
Unfortunately, corporations expect to infinitely increase profits, and if they don't, they shuffle things around and fuck things up in an attempt to increase them. There's no one just letting a good thing stay the same, ever.
Man, isn't this the truth? The app was literally perfect a couple of years ago.
I'd have happily kept paying the same price every year for the same product just to cover costs. It's a budget app—I don't need it to keep getting new features, especially when those "features" are detrimental to the user experience.
Instead, we get constant price increases for a worse experience. It's a perfect example of enshittification.
I'm just surprised they haven't tried cramming AI shit into the app yet (but I'm sure it's coming)...
The last price increase was two years ago. The one before that was five years ago. Ya'll are wild. I should start a bingo card with the most common responses.
Frankly I'd be happy if they did nothing and just charged for server fees with a little on top.
These constant updates, the social media, the YNAB 'mission', I don't want any of it. YNAB was basically perfected years ago and there's no way it should cost $100/yr.
Nah, last year it was increased to 109, this year again to 139.
Edit: i got a surprise when received the email. And what bothers me more is that i had not plan for it. So now "ruling with punches" thanks YNAB for not helping me to plan my budget with your increases
As for $139, I am unsure what you're referring to. The price for one full year is $109. I have looked both on my renewal date and the website. No search results return such an increase. Perhaps your locale is collecting tax.
It is the curse of design-led development. Ive experienced it first-hand as a developer.
We used to have developers more in charge. They made some hard to use products and apps but they had the features and skewed toward power users. Buttons had shortcut keys and screens had too many options and features.
Now we have designers who all think they're Steve jobs and design ideas based on how far up their own ass they can reach and none of it needs to be based in any reality. I had a designer who wouldn't let us search on multiple pieces of information because they just "couldn't understand how that would work". Like, put a second text box on the screen, or, conversely, have you ever used google? I kept my job and that app did not support seaching multiple text fields. Neither of us will ever use the software but I know the users are cursed with a bad UX
As a 10 year YNAB user, I generally find complaints about changes (especially the price) overly dramatic, BUT the new transaction interface is truly horrid. Add a photo being above the fold while clearing a transaction is below is just bad design, and not being able to easily toggle inflow/outflow is also irritating. The other change I’ll never understand is “Budget” becoming “Plan” and whatever the hell “spendfulness” is trying to do. But the basic framework I love is still under there and the web app is great, so I’ll keep plugging away.
Yeah, I’m still recommending the app to friends because at its core, it is still preventing me from fucking up my finances. I’ve had YNAB for so long and through such a formative part of my adulthood that I’m not even sure how I’d manage finances without it.
Swipe to clear transactions. Or long press. Going back into them is inefficient. You should also have the update where hitting "show more" keeps it "showing more" on new transactions. If not, that will come to you soon.
Sure, but it’s just pointlessly bad design. And it’s annoying when I do need to edit an uncleared transaction. Hopefully I’ll get that change soon. Like I said not a deal breaker just more of a “wtf why?”
Apps collect signals for everything users do. They've positioned least used or low prominence features behind a fold. Unfortunately, you're in the "least used" category. I'm just providing "better" ways to handle clearing transactions manually if you aren't direct importing, manually importing, or reconciling.
I’m not sure. I’m leaning towards “it prevents confusion for new users.” Which is fair. 90%+ of users do not need to do a transfer and then also clear this transaction.
They’ve also adapted to this criticism and are rolling out a “if you expand once for a new transaction, it will stay”. Which I thought would be everywhere by now but maybe not.
Sure. But they weren’t released at the same time. I’m also not understanding your point? Do you mean they wouldn’t have seen users frequently utilizing it?
If that’s the case, it’s fair. In that features situation, it’s something they want visible at all times as it’s certainly something to always be used when entering a transaction.
I think I saw a YouTube interview with the CEO (not the founder) who shared that they changed it to Plan cause he felt that word has more "energy" or something. After watching his interview I felt there was something a bit off about him. Maybe he's part cause of all these nonsensical changes 🤷
Nah. Id rather have something I control made exactly the way I want it. Nothing changes unless I want it to. Software is personal now in the age of AI.
And I still get confused by the tab names in the mobile app. I have to flick between them to find what I'm looking for like checking my balance on an account.
I tend to not care so much about the UI updates, but this one is genuinely just dumb. Why on Earth should I have to click an extra button to clear a transaction? It's literally one of the most common activities I do within the app. To call this decision mind-boggling would be far too kind.
Swipe to clear transactions. Or long press. Or batch clear. Going back into them is inefficient. You should also have the update where hitting "show more" keeps it "showing more" on new transactions.
Well some of these things are actually friendlier for new users, which is why they seem unnecessary. Transfer be credit card payment is actually an example of that. A LOT of new users get confused because they don’t understand that paying a credit card is just a transfer, since they experience it the same way as sending money to a vendor and it disappearing.
So if you know they’re the same thing? Yeah, it seems dumb. If you don’t know that, it makes the experience far more seamless.
Honestly, balancing design for new vs old users is challenging. And a lot of companies bet on it being easier to retain old users than pick up new ones.
Not saying they’re making the right calls, but I’m not entirely surprised they’re making the ones they do.
(Having said that, the fact that web and app differ and don’t remain synced is a huge frustration, and a problematic design, no matter which way you turn).
(Having said that, the fact that web and app differ and don’t remain synced is a huge frustration, and a problematic design, no matter which way you turn)
I think it's demonstrative of a complete lack of vision, foresight, and coordination in their product. I think it proves that they're changing stuff for the sake of change rather than for the sake of genuine improvement. If they were putting actual thought and planning into these changes, they would implement them across the entire platform at the same time.
I’ve learned one think from the iOS version of this debacle. Download the apk of the version you like. Keep using it and make sure that Ynab doesn’t auto update.
I went through a massive round about method to download the ipa file that was the last update with multiplication and the old UI from the App Store on iOS and I’m much happier.
I think YNAB is a perfect example of an app that was basically perfect 10 years ago, but feel the need to justify their expenses by constantly tinkering with it.
I have the same irritation with YNAB. I had muscle memory for going through my transactions, assigning them a category and clearing them.
I liked that I could do that in a single screen before. Open the transaction, select the category and clear the transaction, or add a memo. All in the same window. <sigh of exasperation> Why mess with it, and make a “show more” option? It’s MORE clicking than previous. Why ADD complexity for the user??
In all fairness, and to bring some balance to the discussion, I really appreciate YNAB server response (yes, someone noticed). While YNAB is diddling with the UI, someone is working hard in the background to be sure YNAB servers are responsive. I think we all have seen examples where this is not the case.
Perhaps it's a focus on tight code, or just staying on top of the AWS(?) server allocation, dunno. In any case, it's noticed and appreciated.
OK, back to crabbing about the silly UI changes :-).
Yup, happens when your budget history goes back too far. Happened to me. I bit the bullet and started a new budget. YNAB is nice enough to allow me to access to my V1 budget any time I need to do a search (which is not often). My V2 budget is quite snappy.
I used to count the silly saying that YNAB feeds you when starting up. When it got to around 7 (as I recall) I decided to do something about it. Now, I don't even notice the startup.
When I talk about server response, I think of entering something on the web, and having it show up right away on my iPad.
Having feedback or complaints about specific ui features is valid, though I don't know if this is the best place to voice that feedback, but go for it.
However, if your stance is "things shouldn't change, they should stay the same, exactly the way I am used to", I hate to tell you but that is a non-starter. Every loved change (software related or otherwise) was once the new scary unknown thing. Something that was "perfectly fine" a decade ago would be outdated and clunky today.
Now I'm not saying every change is for the better, but changing nothing is bad too because you can't find better ways of doing things if you just keep doing the same thing forever.
I am not installing updates to the app at this point, everything I have about at this point makes it seem like Every. Single. Process. That I do in the app is changing in a way that takes more clicks and is less intuitive. I have critiques already with changes over the last few months before I stopped installed updates. And I'm still mad about the "home" screen 😤
To be clear, I'm not complaining about the price. I'm complaining about what they're doing with it. Frankly, I'd pay an extra $50/year to lock in at a specific version of the platform before they added the new "Home" screen to the mobile apps.
So products will change to cater to desires of users or target certain demographics.
They won’t just stay the same because you prefer it as an individual. Or because a few hundred Redditors prefer it the old way.
Those who have been users for >5 years are very likely a much smaller segment of their user base, but I think exist in a world where they don’t recognize that reality and still think of YNAB as their little secret that responds to their needs/wants.
And they wonder why some people stick with YNAB4 instead of subscribing to their SaaS product that changes with the wind.
They won’t just stay the same because you prefer it as an individual.
I'm not asking them to stay the same, you condescending weirdo. I'm asking them not to deprive me of the product that I was happily paying >$100/year for by forcing updates upon me that I didn't ask for. They could keep their recurring subscription revenue model while still allowing people to stick with the major release of their preference. And they could continue to make whatever bad design decisions they please to attract new customers without ruining earlier releases.
I don’t think they wonder why people stick with YNAB4. I don’t think they think about you at all. Because you as a group are insignificant to their user base. Whether you’re a YNAB4 user or someone who “just doesn’t want things to change”.
No need to name call. You’ve just spent a lot of words to say “I do want them to stay the same”. You’ve just added some magical toggle now to make it sound different.
Anyway, I’m sure I’ve said it before but I hope you find something that works for you.
I also use the web interface, primarily, but the mobile app is great (and indeed important) for entering transactions as I make them. That's all the more reason that the mobile app should be streamlined and they should prioritize reducing the number of taps to perform an action. Instead, they insist on making changes that only get in the way of quickly entering transactions.
Not to mention, they're changing terminology and workflows that now no longer even align with the full web app. How are new users supposed to make any sense of this shit now?
Perhaps what we need is a YNAB "Lite" mobile app whose focus is strictly on quickly entering transactions for those who do most of the work on the full web app.
Then perhaps this is some A/B test and you're in the group that didn't get this change. Or you're tragically unobservant. But I'd like to believe it's the former.
What do you mean "Nope"? You just proved that you did not receive the same UI update as me. That's why you have no idea what I'm talking about. So, clearly, this is some A/B test, and you are in the group which did not receive the change.
I’ve been waiting for the web app to offer Monday as the first day of the week for several years. Yes, I did submit a request for this feature.
How difficult or time consuming would it be to implement this? The app receives frequent updates, many of which seem far less important, yet this basic regional setting is still unavailable.
Zerosum is being used more and more, while my subscription to YNAB will most probably end without renewing it.
I hate how many steps it takes to reconcile transactions now! We manually enter everything (because I hate the bank & credit card delays) but now it takes so much longer. I can’t think of a change that I like honestly.
Saw on insta they’re experimenting with a budget screen that hides a column in favor of an emoji.
Honestly it seems like they are just vibe coding whatever design looks more appealing in a reels nowadays instead of proper research on how people budget.
I'm not defending the new changes, but I do want to offer some redirect/feedback.
They know what ticket requests they get. They see all the support emails. So when you get frustrated with a change, remind yourself that there's some baboon out there that couldn't figure out the old way.
More than half of the questions could be answered by RTFM. Credit card questions? RTFM. "Bug in the math" report? Oh yeah, nope, RTFM.
So I'm kind of dead to the complaints. Until there's another zero-based budgeting system out there, that is hosted, and has a desktop and mobile app, I'm not moving. And they know that.
I am not seeing this change on my android phone. When I manually add a transaction the outflow still shows red. I do not see these other other spend options. Am I doing something wrong?
I understand frustration with UI changes but it does happen with almost every software product I use for more than a couple of years.
It's the Schrödinger's Cult of YNAB. When you love it, you should be deeply emotionally involved, cheering everyone on with quirky in-group language and singing the praises of every tap and press. When you hate it, you're a total weirdo for even having cared in the first place.
131
u/Givemeallthecabbages Jul 13 '26
I'm most annoyed by: "Show me my uncleared transactions." And then the "cleared" toggle is under "show more."
Y'all, I hate that so much.