Q: I use Gmail for my e-mail and calendar on my iPhone and iPad, but I’m wondering if there’s any way to sync my Reminders with Google’s Tasks? I’d like to have access to them from my computer, but it seems silly to have to log into the separate iCloud website just for that one thing. I’m a Windows user, so I don’t have an “iCal” app like Mac users get. I’ve heard that I might be able to do this by setting up my Gmail account as a Google Sync account, but I don’t quite know that means. Any advice you can give me would be great.
– Edwin
A: Unfortunately, there is really no straightforward way to do this. Although iOS Reminders can be synced via the standard CalDAV protocol—the same method that the iOS Calendars app uses to sync with Google Calendar—Google Tasks are unfortunately not accessible via CalDAV.
Google Sync is a feature whereby Gmail users can get “push” e-mail, calendar, and contacts using Microsoft’s Exchange ActiveSync technology, however Google has discontinued this service for standard Gmail users; it remains available only to business, education and government customers. Further, however, although the Exchange ActiveSync protocol allows for the syncing of Reminders with an actual Microsoft Exchange server, Google has similarly not provided any access to Google Tasks via Google Sync.
If you want to use Google Tasks, this means that your only option is to look to a third-party app designed to work with this service. Since Google’s release of its Tasks API, several apps for Google Tasks have appeared on the App Store, however these act as replacements for the built-in Reminders app.
Third-party tools could potentially bridge the gap between the two services, but there do not appear to currently be any such tools available. If you’re using Microsoft Outlook, you can sync Reminders via the iCloud Control Panel for Windows and sync Google Tasks via Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, however your tasks will sync to two separate data files, so this still doesn’t provide a solution for easily moving tasks/reminders between the two services.