Although the reception of Parcel 3.0 was mainly positive, we have received a number of complaints about accounts in Parcel. Some users were unhappy about creating an account for Parcel and we would like to explain the reasons for using accounts in Parcel.
First of all, it is important to understand that any tracking app with push notifications stores your data on its own server. There is no way to keep your data locally on a device and receive push messages at the same time. You need a server to do that for you.
Secondly, iCloud cannot be used in Parcel. iCloud storage is protected and cannot be accessed by a server. Therefore, you tracking data cannot be updated in the background and push notifications cannot be sent when using iCloud.
So why exactly did we decide to introduce accounts in Parcel? Why not to keep the old system?
Since the beginnig Parcel was using so-called UDIDs (unique identificators) to identify users and store data on the server. This allowed to have a persistent storage - no trackings would be lost if a user reinstalled the app.
However, UDIDs are longer allowed by Apple and since the first of May all apps using UDIDs will be rejected. There was no way for Parcel to use its existing system in the future.
So, there was a basic choice. Either to use temporary identificators in Parcel 3.0 or to introduce accounts. The first option means that in case you reinstall the app or lose your device, all trackings will be lost forever.
Accounts, on the other hand, allow users to keep their data safe, forget about restoring purchases, sync an unlimited number of devices and use web access with less hussle.
Since long-term customer experience is a priority, the choice to use accounts was obvious.
If you are worried about privacy, you can use a fake email to register in Parcel, e.g. john@parcelapp.net. However, in this case, you won't be able to restore your lost password.
Kind Regards, Ivan