The ability to synchronize the timer countdown on desktop and mobile

Wishlist Countdown Timer
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The ability to synchronize the timer countdown on desktop and mobile. So, the users may see the same left time on both devices.

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Hi there, @user19433 :wave:

Thanks for the idea! We’ll have it in mind and see what others think about this opportunity :slightly_smiling_face:

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Currently, the time data is stored locally (in the browser). It would be great if the functionality of synching time between browsers and devices on the server is implemented.

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Friends, important question about user synchronization logic: do you have any ideas on how we could reliably identify the same user across different devices?

Right now, the only approach we see is this: if a user logs into your website, you could pass an identifier to our widget. Would that work for you?

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Hi Helga, I don’t know what exactly you mean by an ‘identifier’. Would this require the visitor to log in to an account to be able to see the deadline ? In that case (in my opinion) it could deter the visitor to access the website altogether.

Alternatively, I think a good way to do it would be to combine locally stored cookie + IP address + email address and check those 3 to see if there’s a matching at each visit.

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Thanks for chiming in and sharing your thoughts, @Ophelie_Voyage_Facil!

While this setup might sound promising, there are a few technical obstacles we’re facing:

Cookies

  • Cookies are stored locally in a browser and on a specific device.
  • Cookies don’t sync across devices.
  • Even on the same device, different browsers store their own cookies.

IP Addresses

  • IPs can vary depending on the connection type. For example, your computer might be on Wi-Fi, while your phone uses mobile data — resulting in different IPs.

Emails

  • There is a similar challenge with emails: we need some way to collect the user’s email to identify them — which would likely require a form or something similar.

As for the ‘identifier’, my apologies for the vague word. Our idea is if a user logs into your website, your system could send a simple detail to our widget like their email or internal user ID so the widget can recognize the same user on different devices or browsers. This way, we don’t rely on cookies or IPs, which can change or vary.

Let me know what you think or if you have other suggestions/thoughts! :raising_hands:t2:

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