Summary

The iOS 17 update introduces significant enhancements to the Apple Reminders app, making it a powerful task manager that rivals third-party applications.

Abstract

The Apple Reminders app has undergone substantial improvements with the release of iOS 17, transforming it into a robust task management tool. The update includes features such as Sections, which resemble Kanban boards, allowing users to organize tasks into columns for better workflow visualization. The app now also offers AI-driven grocery list categorization, early reminders for time-sensitive tasks, and interactive widgets that enable task completion without opening the app. Despite these advancements, the article suggests there is room for further enhancements, such as improved natural language processing and better calendar integration for time blocking.

Opinions

The author believes that Apple Reminders is now as powerful as professional third-party task management apps.
The article expresses that the new Sections feature, akin to Kanban boards, is a significant improvement in task organization.
The AI categorization of grocery lists is seen as a very helpful feature, especially for those in a hurry at the store.
The author appreciates the addition of early reminders, fulfilling a long-awaited need for users.
Interactive widgets are considered a basic yet handy update, saving users time in managing tasks.
While acknowledging the improvements, the author also notes that Apple Reminders could be made even better with features like natural language processing.
The author recommends using Apple Reminders for those looking to avoid subscription fees, emphasizing its capability to handle various tasks effectively.

There’s A Powerful Task Manager Already Installed on Your iPhone

Game-Changing Features in the iOS 17’s Apple Reminders

For the longest time, if you wanted to find great productivity apps, you had to go looking outside of the Apple Ecosystem.

All of the best, what some would call professional, apps had to be purchased from a third-party app creator.

Apps like Things 3, Todoist, 2Do, and many more were the task managers you would turn to to keep track of all the things you needed to get done.

That is not the case anymore.

Apple Reminders has been getting incremental improvements for the last couple of years whenever Apple releases the latest iOS, iPadOS, or macOS updates.

iOS 17 should be released sometime in the next couple of weeks for everyone, but I couldn’t wait so I downloaded the beta version so I could try Apple Reminders and see if it was as powerful as those third-party apps.

Let’s dig in

When you first open Reminders, you will notice that nothing has changed when it comes to the home screen.

Today, Scheduled, Completed, All, or any Smart Lists you may have created are still there in the same place that they have always been.

This doesn’t mean that Reminders has not improved they have added features that have only been available in other apps that come with a much heftier price.

Sections

The Reminders app has always been a little boring when it comes to how you can view your tasks. The only way to view your tasks was in a list view, but that is not the only way to view them anymore.

You can now view your tasks in, what Apple calls, Sections.

Sections are what others call Kanban boards. (I don’t know why Apple can’t name things like everyone else?)

If you don’t know what a Kanban board is, instead of your tasks in a list, they can be placed in columns with each column’s tasks being able to be moved to another column.

I use this view for writing on Medium, which you can see in the photos below.

I have my section for ideas, then another section for creating, and another for publishing.

This keeps everything organized, so I know what I should always focus on.

Grocery list

Apple has brought a little bit of AI to Reminders with this new feature.

If you have written down your grocery list before, you tend to list the items you need in the order that you have thought about them, and when you go to the store these items are not listed in the order of the store’s layout.

This is where the AI portion I mentioned earlier comes in.

Now when you type milk, eggs, and bread into your list Reminders will categorize the list into dairy, eggs, and cheese for milk and eggs, while bread will be listed by breads and cereals.

This is a very helpful feature while grocery shopping, especially when you are in a hurry.

Early reminders

This is a feature that many have been waiting on.

Now you will be able to add early reminders to anything that has a specific date. You can get a notification 1 day before, 2 days before, 1 week before, 2 weeks before, 1 month before, 3 months before, and 6 months before, or you can add a custom time to your task.

Interactive widgets

This is just a basic update to the Reminders widget, but it is pretty handy.

In the past every time you wanted to check off a task from the widget, it would open the app to check off the item. Now you will be able to check off the item from the widget without the app opening.

If you have lots of tasks every day, this could add up to a bit of time saved over the year.

Conclusion

These improvements do bring the Reminders app closer to third-party apps in the task management space, but there are still areas like natural language processing that could make it even better.

I would also like to see better calendar integration for those who like to do time blocking. In my opinion, this should be fairly simple to do within their own ecosystem.

Beyond that, I do highly recommend Reminders if you are tired of paying subscription fees. It is a highly capable app that can handle anything you throw at it.

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