More Powerful Smart Lists and Filtering
Smart Lists and Tag Filtering are getting a nice boost in iOS 16, with the ability to filter by “any” and not just “all.”
This is a massive improvement for those hoping for a more powerful way to organize their tasks in Reminders. In iOS 15, a Smart List could only be created to match ALL the criteria on the list, which was pretty limiting. For example, you couldn’t make a Smart List that would show tasks that were flagged OR high priority, or tasks that were either in a selected list OR had no date. Similarly, filtering by tags could only show tasks with ALL of the selected tags applied.
With iOS 16, a new heading is shown in the tag browser and Smart List editor to let you choose whether to include reminders that match ALL selected tags or filters or ANY of the selected tags or filters. In the tag browser, you can also tap on a tag a second time to exclude tasks with that tag.
It’s much better than before, although there are still a few limitations. Most significantly, you still can’t create a Smart List based on multiple instances of the same criteria, such as combining tasks from two different lists or making a list of tasks that are medium and high priority. Each filter in a Smart List can be used only once.