New Reminders App
The single biggest upgrade to Apple’s first-party apps this year is Reminders, which gets its first major overhaul since… well, ever.
Reminders debuted back in iOS 5 as a simple way to create lists of tasks with basic alerts, and although it got a new coat of paint when iOS 7 came along, it really hasn’t evolved much in the previous seven years. In iOS 13, however, Apple has taken steps to bring it closer to a full-fledged task management system, with the ability to set dates on tasks without reminder alert times, flag tasks, and even create subtasks.
Four new smart lists allow you to quickly view what’s on your list for today, what’s flagged, what’s scheduled for the future, or a listing of every task you’ve got across all of your reminder lists. You can even now associate reminders with contacts in order to get an alert the next time you’re chatting with them in Messages.
It’s a nice set of enhancements for one Apple’s stock apps, and while it’s not about to replace more powerful choices like Things or OmniFocus, it offers a lot more for those users who find the “pro” tools to be overwhelming, but found the prior version of Reminders to be too basic.