Google has released Google Tasks, the company’s first standalone app for natively managing tasks on an iPhone. The new app is part of a major redesign of Gmail that began rolling out today, and although the new app appears to be pretty basic, it promises to bring some order to the chaos that has been task management in Google’s apps — previously a hodge-podge between “reminders” that could be set in Google Inbox, Google Calendar, and Google Keep, and an older simple web-based “Tasks” apple that existed primarily within the Gmail web interface.
The new Google Tasks app takes a fairly minimalist approach, but still features several enhancements to the former Google Tasks experience, which has also received a refresh on the web. Users can create multiple task lists, and view, edit, and manage tasks — from both Gmail and Google Calendar, as well as adding notes, creating subtasks, setting due dates, and getting standard iOS notifications for tasks that are due. The app also supports iOS 11 drag and drop features for reordering and organizing tasks. The app is considerably simpler than other task management apps, lacking support for auto-entry for even things like date inputs, no priorities, and no iOS Today screen widgets or Apple Watch support — in fact at this point, the Google Tasks app remains iPhone only, and it’s unclear if an iPad version will be coming anytime soon.
