Need a mobile task app to manage family to-do lists.

February 22, 2016 8:15 AM

I'm looking for an app to co-manage household tasks with my husband from our phones. There are a few requirements scenarios this app needs to allow. What do you use that meets those requirements?

1. My husband and I each have a list of tasks we need to do.
2. Some of these tasks need to happen at a specific time (I.e. monthly reminder to check the boiler) and we get push notifications when these are due.
3. Some tasks just need to happen...some time.
4. When we've completed a task we need to be able to check it off.
5. Some tasks are repeating tasks at various intervals; some just appear every day.
6. We're an interfaith family, combining Android and iOS practices, so the app needs to be available for both.
7. We can assign each other tasks.
8. We can view scheduled tasks as a calendar in Google, or add them to our own google calendars.

Doesn't have to be free, doesn't have to be super pretty, OK with either a native or web app. Doesn't have to have any other functionality -- the simpler the better. Would love to hear what works for you.

posted by chesty_a_arthur to Technology (10 answers total)

Wunderlist covers most of it but I don't know if they do a repeating task or sync with google but it works for both iphone and Andriod.

My fiance and I have it - we have many lists from grocery to "honey-do" lists and we each get email notification when something is added or checked off.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 8:22 AM on February 22, 2016

I like ToDoist. I think it can do everything you're looking for though I'm not sure about the last one. Though it does have a lot of integrations so it might be possible.
posted by bleep at 8:22 AM on February 22, 2016

I admit I didn't take to these very well, but they are actually really cool and my wife bugs me to try and use them from time to time.

Wunderlist

Todoist.
posted by AlexiaSky at 8:23 AM on February 22, 2016

I think you can do all of this with ToDoIst (though you may need the paid version), plus Sunrise to show tasks on your calendar.
posted by neushoorn at 8:34 AM on February 22, 2016

I like Remember the Milk for my to-do list. I find it much simpler than Wunderlist or Todolist, especially for those tasks that just need to be done sometime, not at a specific time. I believe it meets your requirements. I haven't shared it or used it with Google Calendar myself, but it is supposed to be able to do both. I'm not positive about assigning tasks... it would be easy to label them as belonging to one of you, but I'm not sure if you'd both still receive push notifications.
posted by Kriesa at 8:34 AM on February 22, 2016

Wunderlist and Todoist are well-known to-do apps. Others are Any.do and Remember the Milk. I personally like Clear, but that's for individual use.
posted by Dansaman at 8:36 AM on February 22, 2016

You could also consider using Trello, which is very professionally designed and uses a Kanban (index card) interface.
posted by Dansaman at 8:39 AM on February 22, 2016

I am fairly sure that you can do all or at least most of these things with Trello. I use it to keep longterm lists myself and don't use the due dates function, but I know it was created for work collaboration so you should be able to set dates and assign things to each other. The only thing I'm not sure about is the recurring tasks. Those I personally just set up in GCal, since their repeat and notification functions work really well.
posted by possibilityleft at 8:40 AM on February 22, 2016

Trello can do most of this. It doesn't have a built-in facility for recurring tasks, although you copy and paste an existing card, and I've seen workarounds using Zapier or If This Then That to create cards on a schedule.
posted by adamrice at 9:08 AM on February 22, 2016

Asana does all of this.
posted by Brittanie at 9:24 AM on February 22, 2016