LapseWatch

How it works

LapseWatch has three entry points. Pick one and start — you do not need all three. Each section below starts from zero; by the end of one you should have your first reminder set.

In a hurry: add the LINE bot and send it “Netflix 12/25”. That is the whole thing. No signup, no install, no credit card.

Pick an entry point

Fastest, and right for most people

LINE bot

Add it as a friend and send one line. Reminders arrive on your phone, so it does not matter whether the computer is on.

No signup · No install · Free

If you subscribe to things at your desk

Chrome extension

Click the icon on the confirmation page and it finds the renewal date. Nothing is saved until you confirm it.

No signup · No network · Data stays on your computer

If you want to sort everything out at once

Web

Sign in to sync between phone and computer, and to share the list with family.

Sign-in required · Free · One-click export

Once you are signed in, all three show the same list. What you record in LINE appears on the web; what you edit on the web is what LINE reports back. The one exception is the extension while not signed in — that data is on your own computer and we cannot see it at all.

Using LINE: three steps

  1. Add it as a friend. Open this link on your phone, or search for the ID @473cljaj in LINE.
  2. Send “service name + date”. No particular format, no punctuation needed — if you can type it, it can record it.
  3. Wait for the reminder. One 3 days before and one 1 day before, straight into LINE.

The amount is optional. To change something, just send the same name again — sending the same name twice updates it, you do not have to delete anything first.

It understands these too

You send What it does
list Lists what you are tracking and when each is charged
spend Totals what you spend per month and per year
review What the subscriptions you dropped this year were worth
delete Netflix Stops tracking that one
cancel Netflix Sends you that service's official cancellation page
bind email Links an email address so you can sign in to the web with the same account
stop report / start report Turns the monthly summary off or back on
help Shows everything it understands

You do not have to memorise any of this — the six-panel menu below the chat box does the same things with one tap. The bot replies in Traditional Chinese, but it accepts these English commands.

Using the Chrome extension

Right for people who subscribe to things at a computer. There is exactly one moment to use it: just after you have subscribed, while you are still on that page.

The extension is not on the store yet.

It is going through review. To start now, add the LINE bot and send it “Netflix 12/25”. No install, no signup.

  1. Install it. Install from the Chrome Web Store, then click the puzzle-piece icon in the toolbar and pin LapseWatch to the toolbar. It only reads the page at the instant you press the icon — if you cannot find the icon, you cannot use it.
  2. Click the icon on the confirmation or plan page. It looks for dates near words like “trial”, “expires” and “renews”.
  3. Check the service name and date, then save. It creates nothing on its own, and when a date looks uncertain it leaves the field empty for you to fill in — a wrong date is worse than a blank one.
  4. Add the Google Calendar event while you are there. The reason is below; this step matters more than it looks.

Honestly: browser reminders can be late. Alarms do not fire while the computer is asleep; they are caught up once you wake it. That is a browser limitation, not a setting you can fix.

That is why “Add to Google Calendar” is given so much room — calendar alerts fire on time and reach your phone. Taking reminders through LINE avoids the problem too.

The extension reads no input fields; password and card fields do not exist as far as it is concerned. Even the last four digits of a card printed as ordinary text on a confirmation page are masked before anything is analysed, and masking cannot be reversed. Details in the Privacy Policy.

Using the web

  1. Sign in. Take a code by email, or sign in with Google or LINE. If you arrived through the LINE bot, send it bind email first.
  2. Add an entry on your list: service name and next charge date; the amount is optional.
  3. Choose where reminders go — LINE, email, or both.

The web can do two things LINE cannot: export the list to a file, and share the list with family (up to 5 people).

The signed-in app is in Traditional Chinese. The list, the account settings and checkout have not been translated — they are the parts where the strings live in the application itself, and a half-translated screen is worse than an untranslated one, because you hit the Chinese in the middle of a task.

After a reminder arrives

Decide whether to keep it. If you want to cancel, the cancellation guides (zh-Hant) link straight to each service's official cancellation page, with no tracking parameters — LapseWatch never cancels anything for you and never presses a payment button on your behalf.

When you would need to pay

The free tier has no limit on how many subscriptions you track and includes LINE, email and desktop notifications. It reminds you 3 days and 1 day before.

Paying buys when you are reminded — a reminder every day for the last three days, through the morning of the charge — plus your own choice of reminder days, price-change alerts and shared lists. It is NT$390 once (about US$12): no subscription, no renewal, nothing to cancel. Full refund within 30 days, no reason required. See Plans and pricing.

Things people get stuck on

The scan found no date at all

Many pages say “7-day free trial” without printing a date, or put the date in an image. Type the date in yourself — everything else behaves identically.

Why is the calculated date sometimes blank?

Because the page usually does not say when the trial started, so “count from today” is only a guess. A wrong date is more dangerous than a blank one, because you would assume it was set. The calculation is shown, but it enters the field only when you press the button.

A reminder was late

Alarms do not fire while the computer is asleep. Use LINE or the Google Calendar event for anything that has to be punctual. If several reminders are overdue at once they are merged into one notification rather than firing repeatedly.

I came from LINE — how do I sign in to the website?

Send the bot bind email, give it an address, and use that address to sign in.

Will it cancel subscriptions for me?

No. It tells you where to cancel; you press the button. It will never click a payment or refund button on your behalf.

I want to delete everything

In the extension, settings → “Clear all data” removes every reminder and schedule at once, irreversibly. For an account, email alan930604@gmail.com and we will delete it along with the licence and payment records.