You do not forget names. You forget the context.
You remember Anna. What is gone is when you last talked, what about, and who else was there. That gap is what Umfeld closes.
You run into Anna at a wedding, three years after the last time. Her face registers instantly. Her name comes back a second later. What is missing is everything else: were you still on formal terms last time? Did you talk about her changing jobs, or was that someone else? Was her partner there back then, or is that over now?
That is not forgetfulness in the usual sense. Brains are surprisingly good at faces and names. They are bad at context, especially spread across years and hundreds of people, which is exactly the gap a personal CRM is supposed to close.
Interactions with a date and a note
Umfeld does not automatically log who you meet. That would be a different kind of product. What it does: you log a meeting, with a date, a short note, and everyone who was there, not just Anna but also Ben, who happened to be at the same table. Takes twenty seconds, right after the meeting or that evening, and it lands on the contact record already synced from your Google contacts.
One entry
March 14, Lea's wedding
Anna, Ben
"Anna quit her job, starts in May at a law firm in Hamburg. Had not met Ben before, came up through Anna."
Several people, one event
The multiple-participants part looks minor but changes a fair amount. Ben now has his own interaction logged, not just a mention under Anna, complete with how you two met. When you later wonder who actually connects Anna and Ben, Umfeld already knows, because both hang off the same event, the same edge in the relationship graph.
Over time, the individual entries build a timeline for each contact on their own: when you last saw them, how often, what about. That produces a health score, a rough read on how warm or how cold a connection currently is. Not a judgment, more a nudge that a hello is overdue.
What is still manual today
To be upfront: Umfeld does not yet detect meetings automatically from your calendar. You log them yourself. Automatic detection, pulling meetings straight from calendar entries, is on the roadmap, not built. Until then, manual logging is the way in, kept deliberately short so it does not feel like a chore.
Why that is still worth it
Twenty seconds after a meeting is a small trade for what it gives back: you do not start from zero the next time you see Anna. That is the real difference from an address book, which remembers who someone is but not what happened between you. Other tools, like Dex, lean on reminders to nudge you toward people. Umfeld leans on what was actually said.
FAQ
Do I have to log every meeting?
Can I add past meetings after the fact?
How is this different from a calendar?
Start logging your meetings.
Twenty seconds per meeting, so you never start from zero again.