Where it started
spectacled began as CalDAV Notes, a project funded by NLnet’s NGI Zero Commons Fund. It builds directly on earlier work: jtx Board, an open-source Android app developed with support from Austria’s FFG research funding agency, in cooperation with bitfire web engineering GmbH – the team behind DAVx⁵, the CalDAV/CardDAV sync adapter used across the Android ecosystem. jtx Board was the first mobile app to fully support VJOURNAL, the iCalendar component for journal entries, and has since been translated into 16+ languages by its community. Click below to find out more about jtx Board.
The feedback from jtx Board users made one thing clear: journaling, note-taking, and task management deserved the same standards-based, self-hosted approach – not just on Android, but everywhere. spectacled is that next step: a cross-platform family of apps, built from a shared Kotlin Multiplatform codebase, with native CalDAV and iCalendar support on every platform instead of relying on a separate sync app.
What we believe
Your notes, journals, and tasks are yours. They shouldn’t be locked into a single app’s cloud, a single company’s business model, or a format only one piece of software can read. Open standards – CalDAV and iCalendar – make it possible to build software that respects that, without asking you to give up a good user experience to get it.
Who’s behind it
spectacled is developed by Techbee e.U., based in Vienna, Austria. Behind the company it’s me, Patrick. Ambitious about open source development and eager to contribute to strengthen open standards. If you want to find out more about me, please have a look at my Github or LinkedIn profile.
Supported by
This project is supported by a grant from NLnet through the NGI Zero Commons Fund.
