Copyright © 2022-2024 SheftApps. All rights reserved.

​Latest version: 2024.5 (compatible with macOS 13 Ventura and later and iOS/iPadOS 16 and later)

​Want to see the code that makes this app work?!
RandoFacto GitHub repo
SheftAppsStylishUI GitHub repo

Note: The "Menu" button is 3 dots (…) inside a circle.

Fact Generation

When you launch the app and dismiss the welcome screen, "Loading…" will be displayed while the app configures its network connection and loads your favorite facts list (if logged in). Then, a random fact will be generated from uselessfacts.jsph.pl and displayed on the screen, or if you're logged in to your RandoFacto account and "Fact on Launch" is set to "Random Favorite Fact", the app will randomly pick one of your favorite facts.

Press “Generate Random Fact” to generate another random fact.

Important:​
  • If you're offline, the "Generate Random Fact" button isn't displayed.
  • If you go offline while generating a random fact, "Internet connection lost." and "Fact unavailable" are displayed.
  • If the app is launched while offline and "Fact on Launch" isn't set to "Random Favorite Fact", "No internet connection. Running in offline mode." is displayed.
  • It may take a moment to load favorite facts from the server if there's a large number of favorite facts to be downloaded or deleted (e.g. there's a batch of changes made on one device waiting to be synced to another device where the app hasn't been opened in a while).

Favorite Facts

Want to save your favorite facts for viewing offline? Create a RandoFacto account to store your favorite facts and sync them across all your devices. Favorite facts database is powered by Firebase.

  1. Open Settings and go to the Account page to signup for or login to your account.​
  2. You can then press the star button in the top right corner of the fact screen to save the displayed fact to your favorite facts list. Press it again and press "Unfavorite" to remove it.

Important:
  • Deleting the app doesn't log you out unless the keychain data associated with the app is also deleted.
  • Passwords must be at least 6 characters long and can't contain emoji.
  • If you forgot your password, clear the password field and press "Forgot Password" to send a password reset email to the entered email address. You'll receive an email from "RandoFacto" (check your spam folder in case it lands there). Click the link and enter the new password (or use the auto-generated strong password), then press "SAVE".
  • If you see an email from “RandoFacto” but didn’t initiate the password reset request in the app, immediately delete the email—don’t click the link!

You can get a random favorite fact by pressing “Get Random Favorite Fact”, or select “Favorite Facts” in the sidebar (you may need to press the back or sidebar button in the top-left first) to select from a list of all of them.

In the favorite facts list, you can:
  • Enter one or more words to search for a fact. Matching text in each fact is colored.
  • Display a fact by selecting it.
  • Have a fact read aloud to you (go to Advanced settings to choose a voice) by pressing the speech bubble next to it.
  • Sort the list by pressing Menu and selecting Sort>the desired setting.
  • Unfavorite a fact by doing any of the following:
    • Swipe left with one finger on an iPhone/iPad screen.
    • Swipe left with 2 fingers on a trackpad or Magic Mouse.
    • Right-click or tap and hold the fact and press "Unfavorite".
  • Unfavorite all facts by pressing Menu and selecting "Unfavorite All…".

Settings

In Settings, you can choose whether the app should generate a random fact or get a random fact from your favorite facts list upon launch, enable a randomizer effect when getting a random favorite fact, change the fact text size and voice, and manage your account.

On Mac, select RandoFacto>Settings in the menu bar or press Command-Comma. On iPhone/iPad, select "Settings" in the sidebar (you may need to press the back or sidebar button in the top-left first).

Notes:
  • On iPhone/iPad, you can quickly adjust the fact text size by using the buttons located above the fact generation buttons.
  • On Mac, or if a keyboard is connected to your iPhone/iPad, you can use Command-Plus and Command-Minus to change the fact text size.
  • The “Fact on Launch” and “Favorite Fact Randomizer Effect” settings are only available while logged in, and will reset to their defaults upon logging out or deleting your account.
  • The favorite fact randomizer effect only works if you have at least 5 favorite facts.
  • On supported devices running macOS 14 Sonoma and later or iOS/iPadOS 17 and later, you can choose one of your personal voices to use as the voice for speaking facts. For more info on requirements for using a personal voice, see Tyler’s blog post on this feature.
  • If you delete your account, you’ll be logged out of all your devices and the “Fact on Launch” and “Favorite Fact Randomizer Effect” settings will be reset to their defaults.
  • If you try to signup and you get an error saying that the email address is already being used by another account, even though you've deleted the account you're trying to re-signup for, the account wasn't properly deleted. Login to the account instead.
  • If you've been logged in on a device for more than 5 minutes and you try to change your password or delete your account from that device, you'll be logged out and you'll need to login again and retry the operation.
  • If you change your password, you'll be logged out of your other devices within an hour (the authentication token on your other devices will expire).

Resetting

If you want to reset the app to its install state, go to Advanced settings and press "RESET ALL SETTINGS…". Press "Reset" to confirm. The welcome screen will appear the next time you launch the app.

Notes:
  • ​This will only reset the app settings and log you out of this device. It won't delete your account.
  • iPhone/iPad: If you change any accessibility settings for RandoFacto, such as the text size, these settings will remain until you uninstall the app.