The last time any.do rolled out a big update, it was focused on bringing in expanded functionality, with attachments and collaboration with other being the focus. That design was close to material, but now we're full-on minimalistic material design ... maybe a little bit too much so.
Today any.do 3.0 is available on Google Play. Let's take a look at it.
any.do's layout is still simple, almost to a fault. After signing in, you're greeted with your all tasks list, sorted according to date, but you have two new layout to pick from: list and priority view. The list view throws everything into one big list, and priority puts starred tasks at the top, but most of the time, the good old-fashioned date view was what we used.
One tap on a task will bring up its options, which are unlabeled, so you'll want to commit them to memory. There's sub-tasks, the list picker, notifications, attachments, and share & delegate, where you can ship a task off to a team member or friend. Tapping the task again will collapse it. Swiping right across a task will mark it as completed, and then an x will appear on the right side of the done task to clear it. If you accidentally swipe right and tap that clear button, you'll have to dig into the setting for Completed Tasks in order to swipe left on it and bring it back to the board, so swipe carefully. Adding users to a list is also easier than ever, just tap the add icon under the list's name.
any.do 2.0 came with four color themes in addition to the standard white: pink, green, blue, and black. Well, blue seems to be missing in action this time around — which is too bad, because I was a fan of that soothing blue — and as before, the pink and green are only available to Premium any.do users. The widgets for any.do follow the theme in the app, so if you like the pink theme but don't want a pink widget on your manly homescreen, you're outta luck, sorry. That said, you can still opt for the dark theme this time around, but as much as I love glorious dark apps, this app's dark mode is a bit of a double-edged sword.
Good news: this is a dark theme that will be great for your AMOLED screen battery-wise. Bad news: it feels a little like you're fumbling around in the dark with it. None of the fine black lines that help users distinguish the boundaries between list items or list squares are really visible in the dark theme unless the brightness on your phone is cranked up, so you just have floating text/icons in a vast sea of pitch black. And that's fine if you're backstage at a concert checking off the last of the pre-curtain preparations, but when you're in the office, not so much, especially since the iconic blue icons and accents in any.do blend in with that black theme. The sections, titles, and list squares are also a dim gray, testing your eyes even more in an app that should be easy to glance over and then get on with what needs doing.
As before, you can quickly assess, re-order, and re-schedule today's items using any.do moment, which you can access through the multi-colored four-dot button in the bottom left corner of the app's main screen. You can schedule any.do Moments so you're reminded to do them at a certain point on certain days — the default is every weekday morning — or you can start one yourself with that colorful button. The blue floating button in the bottom right corner is the new task button, and it'll add it to whichever list your're in at the time.
All in all, any.do 3.0 is ready for the fast-paced schedules of both you and those you share a workload with, and while the themes could use a little bit of help, the UI they color is snappy, responsive, and minimalistic to a fault. Are you happy to see an even more material any.do, or are you still sticking with Google Keep? Is anyone else disappointed that there's still no Android Wear support for this app?
