Why to-do list apps suck, and here’s how we fixed it
In the past few years we gained a lot of experience in the productivity space, developing the smart Personal Assistant 24me. Being in that space, and wanting to keep updated with what’s going on around, we checked many other apps that were tackling the similar needs. Needless to say, there are many (or maybe I should say — endless) to-do list apps on the App Stores. Playing with many of them, we saw how they miss key elements.
Don’t get me wrong, many to-do list apps are beautiful and try to address the problem from the design aspect. But this is not enough. When you ask people how they manage their to-dos, you realize that most of them do it via notes or email. This is amazing because it’s 2017 and many people still use the old methods to manage their to-dos. @pierce wrote a great piece about it and addressed the problems around to-do list apps. The frustration around the right to-do list is still here. @ev mentioned it in his tweet last month:
So what the hack is the problem with to do lists?
There are a few things that to-do list tools need to be good at, to become a better replacement for pen and paper:
- Input — a quick and simple way to add what you need to do
- Management and Priority — make sure you won’t miss your due dates
- Output — help you complete your to-dos
When it’s complicated to add the tasks in, and to get them done — you look for the simplest alternatives around. To put it in other words, when you need to work for an app, instead of it working for you — you stop using it.
Here is how we addressed that. Meet — ‘Complete’
Complete is a new app that we launched today on the App Store. We created Complete to fix exactly what the other to-do lists got wrong. We built a product that incorporates everything that a to-do list should have. Things like integrations to outside resources like Amazon Alexa, and Apple Reminders, advanced list management with one-tap completion buttons, and more.
Complete enables getting things done quickly and on the go. Here’s how we addressed the top three complaints related to existing to-do lists in the market:
- Input — Complete makes it simpler to add tasks. It uses a unique integration to Amazon Alexa to add tasks by voice, without opening the app. You can also forward an email to Complete to have it appear as a task in your to do list.
- Management and Priority — Building a robust mechanism of multiple reminders, nag alerts and priority management — so your tasks won’t be forgotten.
- Output — Complete uses ‘Completion Buttons’ that allow you to complete tasks with one-tap right from the to-do list. It automates sending gifts, calling, texting and emailing right from the to-do list. It also shows weather forecast on the list so you can plan your tasks based on the forecast.
Complete takes advantage of the knowledge we gained out of the development of the 24me personal assistant. It uses AI and machine learning to provide personalized reminders and advanced features for task management. Here are few examples of unique features you will find in Complete: email to task, label management, sophisticated time management, reminders handling, task collaboration with group of people, and more. It’s available for Apple Watch and localized to 13 different languages.
With the new integration to Amazon’s Alexa, it is possible to add tasks and lists to Complete by simply talking your thoughts out. Using Alexa, you can simply say things like “Create a new grocery list” and then list the items you need: “2 Bananas, whole milk, 5 tomatoes…”. You can also add simple tasks by saying: “Add a task to set an appointment with the Doctor tomorrow at 2pm”.
The integration with Amazon Alexa is powered by a technology built by our friends at VoiceIDE. VoiceIDE builds a platforms that provides developers with everything they need to build, test and deploy their voice apps to voice enabled services such as Amazon Alexa.
Complete has a unique smart alerts technology. It keeps you on top of things. Based on our experience, we learned that users want to get heads up about what’s happening tomorrow, and also in the morning, before the day starts. Complete’s Smart alerts addresses that in a very elegant way.
Complete also enables to share tasks with a group of people, so everyone are synced real time with updated to the task.
And of course — customization. You can color code labels, configure text size, set reminder sounds and much more — to allow you flexibility to customize the way you want to work with your to-do list.
Complete is available on the AppStore, and you can download it for free for limited time to celebrate the launch.
Happy to hear your feedback.
Liat.
