Barzaman — an offline-first planner and calendar across three calendars

At a glance

• A reminder that misses because a phone restarted, or a calendar that ignores the Hijri lunar months, makes a planner useless for a student, teacher or nurse in Iran.
• An offline-first planner with three calendars side by side, reminders scheduled with the operating system and optional field-by-field sync between devices.
• Live on native Android, native Windows 10/11 and the web, with a free tier and Plus and Pro plans.

Highlights

• Offline first, sync optional

  Works for weeks without a connection; with an account, edits from two devices are merged field by field.

• Reminders scheduled with the OS

  On Android and Windows, reminders fire after a reboot or with the app closed, with snooze and full-screen alarms.

• Jalali, Hijri and Gregorian

  Three calendars side by side, with Umm al-Qura or tabular Hijri and a moon-sighting adjustment of up to two days.

• Entry types shaped to the user

  Classes, exams, shifts or visits, each with its own fields, statuses and default reminders.

• Reports and scoring

  Completion, time spent and streaks over 90 days, Konkur-style scoring with negative marks and a 20-point GPA.

• Private by design

  No ads and no tracking, encrypted local data on Android and Windows, free export and an app lock.

The challenge

A planner is only as good as its last reminder. For the people Barzaman is built for (a Konkur candidate with a dense study timetable, a nurse on rotating night shifts, a teacher with odd and even weeks) a reminder that does not fire because the phone restarted, the app was closed or the connection dropped is a missed exam session or a missed shift.

The calendar is harder than it looks. Daily life in Iran runs on the Jalali calendar, religious dates on the Hijri lunar calendar, whose months follow moon sighting and can differ by a day or two from any computed table, and work with the rest of the world on the Gregorian calendar. Official holidays come from all three.

The data is also personal: study scores, shifts, habits and goals. Users should not have to trade it for ads, tracking or a mandatory cloud account, and the app has to keep working where connectivity is unreliable.

Architecture

Barzaman is designed local-first: the device holds the working copy of the user's data, and the network is an option rather than a dependency.

• The local store is the source of truth. Entries, reminders, notes and reports are read and written on the device, so the app works offline for weeks. On Android and Windows the local data is encrypted.

• Optional sync, merged field by field. With an account, changes sync between devices and are merged field by field, so edits made offline on two devices still come together.

• Reminders owned by the operating system. On Android and Windows each reminder is scheduled with the OS rather than held by a running app, so it fires after a reboot or with the app closed.

• Three calendars on one timeline. Jalali, Hijri lunar and Gregorian dates sit side by side. The Hijri calendar follows Umm al-Qura or a tabular calculation, with an adjustment of up to two days for moon sighting, and official Iranian holidays are cached on the device.

• Three targets. A native Android app, a native Windows 10/11 (64-bit) app, and a web app that installs as a PWA in any browser, iPhone Safari included.

What I built

Barzaman brings a calendar, a planner, reminders and reports into one app that adapts to the shape of each user's week.

• Custom entry types: classes, exams, shifts, visits or anything else, each with its own icon, colour, statuses, default reminders and typed fields (text, number, date, choice, score or link) recorded per occurrence.

• Reminders that are hard to miss: several per item, with done, snooze and dismiss, and full-screen repeating alarms on the Plus plan.

• An automatic weekly timetable: odd and even weeks, overlaps and night shifts on 15-, 30- or 60-minute grids, with multiple tables and export to image or PDF.

• Reports: daily, weekly and monthly views over 90 days with completion rate, time spent and streaks; tasks missed more than three times are flagged; Konkur-style scoring with negative marks and a 20-point GPA; a custom report builder on Plus.

• Focus and self-management: notes, a Pomodoro focus timer, habits with streaks and goals with key results.

• For each audience: shift and on-call patterns with fatigue alerts for medical staff, timetables and scoring for students and Konkur candidates.

• The user owns the data: no ads and no tracking, a full .barzaman backup, CSV and ICS export and an app lock, all free.

• Plans without lock-in: a free tier with no time limit, and Plus and Pro plans, monthly or annual, bought through Bale with no automatic renewal. A referral gives both users 30 days of Plus. Sign-in is by username, email or phone with a password, with no SMS codes.

• Made for Persian: right-to-left throughout, Vazirmatn, IBM Plex Arabic and Inter fonts, and light, dark, ocean and forest themes.

Outcome

Barzaman is live on native Android, native Windows 10/11 and the web, with a free tier and paid Plus and Pro plans. Every user can take a full backup and export to CSV and ICS.

My role

• Founded Barzaman and leads its product and engineering.
• Set the local-first direction: offline for weeks, with optional field-by-field sync between devices.
• Delivers the app on native Android, native Windows 10/11 and the web as a PWA.

Engineering

• Local first, sync second

  The device's copy is the working copy; sync is optional and merges per field, so an offline edit on one device is not lost to an edit on another.

• Let the OS own the alarm

  A reminder held by an app process dies with the process; scheduling it with Android and Windows is what lets it fire after a reboot.

• Date math across three calendars

  Jalali, Hijri lunar and Gregorian dates, with a user-set moon-sighting offset, so every date and holiday lands on the right day.

Outcomes

• Live on Android, Windows 10/11 and the web, including iPhone Safari as a PWA.
• A free tier with no time limit; Plus and Pro bought through Bale with no automatic renewal.
• Full backup and CSV and ICS export for every user.