Astrid Tasks & To-Do List Review

There are a host of productivity apps available for smartphones, whether you want to organise your schedules, share work or set reminders that will alert about deadlines. One such extremely popular app is Astrid. Astrid Tasks and To-do List is a task manager available as a web app and also for leading mobile platforms – Android and iOS. It has got timely updates and the most recent one was last month. Here's a quick review of Astrid to know how useful it can get.

Design and layout
Astrid has a really neat and unclutetered UI. You can make lists and add individual tasks under these lists. Switching between these lists is very simple and you can even delete or mark as task completed with a simple tap. Astrid lets you even share these lists with others. It has kept the user interface to its  minimal best with an icon that dunks in a slew of options like Search, Lists, Sync Now, Sort, New filter add-ons and Settings, once you tap on it. Just next to it is “My Tasks”, which shows all your assigned tasks and what you’ve modified. Both the icon and “My Tasks” are placed at the top left corner while the option to add new task is seen on the lower side of the screen. So, the free space in between can be populated with your tasks. However, it roughly squeezes in about eight tasks. As you tap to add a new task, it will take you to a page where you can choose who will complete the task and when, assign how important the task is and so on. You can even delegate tasks as the app lets you choose other names from your contacts list while assigning the task. Astrid is very easy to get started; you can go ahead and create lists and set tasks and reminders easily. However, setting additional features for a task can get a little confusing.

Managing errands using Astrid

Features and performance
On getting started, Astrid will ask you to sign in with your Google or Facebook account, but you can continue using it even without signing into the app. However, you won't be able to sync your work with its web app or share/assign tasks to others. Making lists and adding tasks is a breeze, and the notable feature is it allows assigning tasks to others by sharing via their email IDs. Under “Who should do this task?”, you can either choose an email ID from your contacts or the default option, which is  “Me”, if the task is for you. You can set the priority of the app too. If you look at the list of tasks, you will find that the due date is printed along with the list or task. Setting up recurring tasks is easy too. There are various options that will come handy when you set reminders or alerts such as reminding you about a task when it is due, overdue or just randomly once. When you set a reminder/to-do list, it efficiently sends an alert that you can view in the notifications bar. Moreover, you can snooze the alert by an hour. Each task can be synced with Google Tasks too. The app also supports voice input.

Astrid lets you assign and share tasks with others

Now, assigning tasks to others wasn't a very refined feature and can be improved, but it is worth mentioning. Moreover, while assigning work to others, they don't necessarily have to be Astrid users. Another notable feature is that you don't have to recreate tasks that you want to do on daily basis, such as a reminder to take medicines everyday at a certain time. The reusable lists option lets you set same alerts everyday. Another good aspect is that you can neatly categorise your tasks so that you can assign and complete tasks under each category, which will help you keep a tab if you are working on multiple projects or several tasks for a specific purpose.

Verdict
Astrid is synonymous to getting things done and one of the best apps in the productive genre at the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play Store. It is a simple yet effective app to form your to-do list and add reminders for the day, week and months. It goes beyond simply setting up alerts and reminders by allowing users to assign and share tasks with others. Though not a complete app for your professional alerts and project reminders, it is good for your everyday errands and other reminders. This app is available for free, while you can choose to support it. The free version will suffice your daily needs but you can buy add-ons like Locale to make the app location aware.

Click here to download Astrid Tasks & To-do List for Android.
Click here to download Astrid Tasks & To-do List for iOS.