When it comes to to-do apps and reminder tools, Android is the perfect platform thanks to its mobile nature and the various synchronization options that are available to ensure that the same data is available on your PC or Mac. So ideal is the platform for this type of app, there is no shortage of titles that have been designed to help you to keep your life in order, avoid missing deadlines and appointments, or keep track of things you need to do and buy. Even before days of iOS and Android, Remember The Milk was available as an online app and the level of control the service provides over your to do list is unparalleled.
The iOS app has been available for the iPhone and iPod for a little while now, but the update to version 2 for Android has seen the software evolve into a free app that brings the same powerful options that have been available to iOS devotees for so long a time. The interface has been given a major overhaul, but it is the fact that anyone with a Remember The Milk account -- both free and paid-for -- can now make use of the app free of charge that is the real headlines news.
When created, tasks and reminders can be easily organized into categories to allow for easier sorting in future by assigning them to lists. To make it even easier to manage very extensive lists of things you need to remember, additional fields can be added to individual entries including tags, location information, web links and more. As you would rightly expect from any to-do app worthy of note, Remember The Milk allows for different priority levels to be assigned to tasks so that you can see at a glance what you need to be focusing on next.
Despite the huge range of options available in the app, the interface remains remarkably uncluttered and allows for easy navigation. By default you are greeted by the list of tasks you have to complete today, but links are available so you can see what needs to be done tomorrow and in the week ahead. You can also view all of the lists you have created and this makes it easy to separate the tasks that you have created that are related to work, and those that are more personal in nature, but it can also be used to manage large project by breaking them down into a series of smaller sub-tasks.
Other options come into play when you have assigned a task to a particular location. This can then be used as another method of sorting all of your incomplete tasks, but you also have the option of using location services to determine if you have anything on your to-do list that could be done in the surrounding area -- for shopping this can be a real time-saver as it is all too easy to drive home only to realize that there was one more shop you needed to visit. Depending on how you work and what you are using the app for, you may want to adjust the search radius for what qualifies as 'nearby'. By default this is set to 1 kilometer, but can be reduced to as little as 250m or increased to up to 50km.
Keeping in Sync
It is hard to find any complaints with the app -- it's so well thought out. If there is one minor niggle it would be using Remember The Milk with a standard, free account; you are limited to synchronizing once every 24 hours. Upgrading to a Pro account also adds support for push notifications and badges, and this can make it easier to monitor how many tasks you have left to complete.
For everyday use, such as shopping lists and reminders for doctors’ appointments and the like, this should not be an issue, although it does mean that you have to plan ahead with your syncs. Of course, the premium subscription allows unlimited synchronization, but this does come at a cost -- albeit a fairly low one. The homescreen widgets that are also available with a Pro account are available mean that you can monitor your to-do list at a glance, while the app in never far away for when you need more detail or more control.
In many ways, Remember The Milk for Android is something of a strange app, particularly for a web-based service. Rather than simply complementing or replicating the options that are available at the RTM website, the app actually makes the service easier to use. If you have signed up for a Remember The Milk account in the past but have been put off by the way in which the website works, downloading the app will enable you to completely re-evaluate the service and see it in a new light.
Many people will find it difficult to get excited about what is essentially a to-do app, but until you have tried out Remember The Milk, it is hard to understand just how much better it is when compared to other similar tools. The range of options available is simply unrivalled, and this is coupled with a delightful ease of use that actually manages to make tasks management a pleasure.
You can download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the Remember The Milk page.