technology

Having recently converted to Android from my iPhone 4, I have been very happy with the range of apps to replace what I had on iOS. In many cases, I’m finding the apps better. The Android ethos seems to be more about function, rather than design and aesthetics. However, one area where I’ve found the Android to be lacking is in respect of the “todo” category.

Don’t get me wrong, there is no shortage of “todo” apps. However, they seem to be lacking in the features that I want – well one feature to be specific. They don’t allow you to create todo lists within a list. They only seem to provide two heirarchical levels – namely, “categories” and the “todos” themselves. Whilst this may serve most people’s purposes – I assume it must, otherwise, todo app makers would have implemented the feature (surely) – for me, having many levels of hierarchy is important for the way I work.

When I was an iOS user, I had found the perfect app for managing tasks – 2do, made by Guided Ways Technologies. There were two killer features of this app that I loved. First, you could create projects and checklists within a category. This meant that I could organise my “Work” tasks within the framework of “projects”, rather than lumping everything willy-nilly under that ubiquitous category. Secondly, you could add tags to tasks (yes, I know every task manager allows you to add tasks), such as people or words and then (and this is what’s cool) create persistent folders based on tag filters which update as you add new tasks. Whilst many todo apps have similar features – for example Astrid (now) allows subtasks, and you can save filters, it doesn’t have tags – none of them, that I’ve seen so far, have all of them.

The sad thing was that this app wasn’t in the Android Marketplace (now “Play Store”) … until now. 2do has finally been ported to Android, and I’m very pleased. It’s a pay app – it was on iOS also, but I don’t mind, because it’s a damn good app, and I’m happy to pay for damn good apps.

2do has all the other features you would expect of such an app, including priorities, desktop sync, due dates, start dates, notes etc, etc. However, if you want some pretty sophisticated management of your tasks – and if you’re using a task management app, you will probably be into organising stuff – 2do seems to be streets ahead.