Any Android user is familiar with the frustration of going through gazillions of applications downloading, installing and uninstalling. The amount of free and paid applications on Play Market is overwhelming, which is both a user’s delight and a curse because finding an application worth keeping becomes a challenging task. User reviews may be helpful, but sometimes they don’t seem genuine, and the best way to evaluate the product is trying it out.
Wunderlist for Android is definitely worth your attention. It is beautiful, simple and it does the job of keeping track of your to-do lists and synchronizing them across your multiple devices.
Synchronization
Synchronizing your tasks and lists is easy – you just log into your account and synchronize the lists. Both free and paid account holders have this option. One of the outstanding features of Wunderlist is its multiplatform compatibility – it works on iOS, Windows and Android.
Interface
Interface consists mainly of two panels – one for the list of folders or categories, and another which opens the lists when you click on the folders. The panel displays all the lists you have customized or enabled. If you are using a smartphone, open the sliding panel on your left side to get to the tasks list; if you are using a tablet, the panel is already expanded by default. Wunderlist features a set of pre-defined Smart Lists that collect tasks according to a specific type, such as tasks for today, completed tasks, starred tasks, personal tasks, work tasks, and the like.
Adding lists and creating tasks is a two-click process, so no difficulties. Overall, the user interface is extremely simplistic and intuitive, allowing a small extent of user tweaking the background and sounds.
What you can do:
- Prioritize tasks
- Set due dates
- Add alarms and reminders
- Have an email sent to you as a reminder
- Add notes and sub-tasks to the task, which is a nifty feature for complex tasking
Wunderlist also offers a few benefits if you sign up for a free account: synchronizing your tasks and lists with the cloud storage, add tasks via email and share lists and tasks with your colleagues, or friends.
Pros
- It works both with Android and iPhone, Windows desktop and Mac desktop platforms.
- It is lightweight and non-intrusive.
- It synchronizes your to-do lists across your devices, provided you have Internet access.
- It has a simple and neat design, and it is very easy to manage.
- The background is customizable with a dozen of images that come in both free and paid versions.
- Wunderlist features a home screen widget, so you can see upcoming tasks without launching the app.
Cons
Wunderlist does not offer synchronization with Google Tasks or Google Calendar, but it is not a Con for anyone who is not using Google Tasks. There is no option of uploading your own image to set as the program’s background. Free backgrounds are nice, but somewhat simplistic; more attractive images are available in paid version.
Automatic synchronization does not always perform properly. Perhaps, it depends on your Internet connectivity, or maybe it is something developers need to work out in the future. Wunderlist does not support recurring tasks, and we have read some user feedback on having troubles making the home screen widgets work the right way. While this may be a ‘drifting’ glitch, it is worth mentioning. Nevertheless, we did not experience any glitches during our test.
Upgrade or Not to Upgrade?
The paid version offers more powerful task management options, such as the possibility to assign tasks to other users, or have an aggregated list of tasks assigned to you by other members in your Wunderlist network. Additional stylish backgrounds also become available in the paid version, although we would rather see the possibility for the user to customize the background image. Users can attach files to tasks, or start a conversation within the tasks, as well as add comments, or leave feedback for the tasks. Wunderlist supports attaching photos, PDFs, spreadsheets and presentations, even videos and sound bites to any list or task. The number of subtasks is unlimited which allows managing lengthy projects.
Conclusion
Wunderlist sports a neat interface ; it is easy to navigate and create shopping lists, to-do lists, lists of movies to watch, wishlists, private tasks and tasks for work groups. The clean cut interface is attractive and consists of tasks, lists and options you can apply to them. Most importantly, it supports multiple platforms, which makes it one of the top choices among task management programs. Certainly, its free version does not compare to powerful project management applications, but it has its own niche and loyal users. On the other hand, Wunderlist Pro is a viable project management alternative, but $4.99/month or $49.99/year is somewhat expensive. The free application does exactly what a simple task management tool has to do in a simple and elegant manner.
Alternatives
There are many fine applications that manage tasks and to-do lists on the market, and enumerating all of them is virtually impossible. Even though Wunderlist is one of the best task managers, it has powerful competitors. We suggest you check on Astrid, Taskos, ToDo.txt, ReQall, and Remember the Milk, to name a few. This is by far a very simplified list of competitors, but it is enough for one user to be able to choose the one to suit his needs.
