14 DAY TRIAL // ToDoist is one of the great apps for iOS. A clean interface, a well-thought workflow and an impressive suite of integrations with 13 different platforms make ToDoist the perfect app for a busy schedule. According to the developers, ToDoist is currently used by over 2 million people around the world.
The App has been featured in major tech magazines and blogs. You can get the free version and that has most of the things you need. The developers have added new functionality in the latest release: share projects, assign tasks, collaborate and see the tasks ahead with visual scheduling.
For advanced users, there's always the in-app purchase option. You can pay $28.99 / year for the Premium subscription that gets you reminders via SMS, Email and push notifications, filets, colored labels and the ability to access tasks via the default Calendar app.
We've sat down for a chat with Nuno Baldaia, the lead iOS developer for ToDoist. Nuno is 37 years old and he comes from Porto, Portugal.
"I've first graduated on Electrical and Computers Engineering (2001) and then I got a Master in Informatics Engineering (2009), both from Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal," Nuno Baldaia explained.
The developer of ToDoist for iOS is working as a software engineer since 2002. He started on the Web and now he moved onto iOS apps. Besides ToDoist, he is involved in a personal project called Listary. This was created back in 2010 by Nuno and his designer friends. The project is maintained by him and Ana, the head of Design for Doist, the parent company of ToDoist. Listary is described as a simple and fast app for creating lists. You can use it for to-dos, gift ideas and other things that help you be organized.
Nuno Baldaia has been with Doist since 2012 and he currently is the Head of iOS Developement. Besides work, he says "I enjoy spending time with my little daughter, and do many other nice things such as photography, mountains, sunny days, foggy days, bees..."
iOS 9 will be out in 2015. What do you think Apple should add to iOS in order to make it more user friendly and to help developers get more out of their apps.
On a developer perspective, I’d like to have access to core system features from third-party apps, such as access to Siri, not only from the Apple Watch, but also from iOS devices, or replying right from notifications, like on the Apple’s Messages app.
Then, the communication between apps and their extensions is very limited at the moment. I’d like to see a direct communication on iOS 9. It would allow us to provide a much better and live user experience to our extensions. Still talking about Siri, an offline version, if possible, would be welcome.
Then, a better system to update to iOS 9 from older versions. One of the great things of developing for Apple devices is the high adoption rate for new OS versions. For iOS 8, it was not that high as usual, and it has apparently been due to the size of the update, for which, most of users’ free space was not enough. We use to adopt new features very early so, I wish it will be fixed on iOS 9 so that we can have as our users taking advantages of the new features as fast as possible.
Finally, as a long term personal wish, I’d like to be able to run wirelessly Xcode projects on physical devices.
Extensions was a big feature for iOS 8. As expected, your implementation was a simple one. Do you have any plans on improving on that?
Yes, we have a Today extension, and an Action extension that allows users to add tasks from other apps. We plan to improve both, and especially the action extension to take advantages of the new powerful features we are adding for the next big release.
We also integrate with 1Password, which is very convenient for users to login to our app, and we are open to support other useful integrations. So, let’s see what iOS 9 will allow us to do more…
Todoist is famous for the simple yet elegant interface. Have you ever thought about getting your app more texture or let the user customize its appearance? What are the pros and cons of that approach?
Well, that would be a good question for Ana, the head of design for Doist :). However, yes, we are seriously redesigning Todoist for the next major version — Todoist 10 — which will include colorful themes that users will be able to choose.
What do you have planned for the next major version of the app? I know you may not be able to get into specific features, but what do you think can be added to an app that does almost anything you ask it to do?
We can always improve it :). For Todoist 10 we are mainly focused on redesigning the user interface and improving the way users interact with the app. It will feature collapsing of projects and tasks, organizing sub-projects and sub-tasks inline on long press, adding tasks inline with natural language parsing to auto detect due dates, priorities, labels, etc, and other overall improvements.
What is your favorite Todoist version? Are you an iOS person or more of a Mac or a browser guy? Where do you add your to do items the most?
I use Todoist mainly for work, and I work most of the time in front of a computer. That’s why I use mostly the Mac version. However, our aim is to provide almost the same power of usage on our mobile apps.
For me, the mobile version is useful for any time I’m not in front of a computer but I can imagine how useful and powerful it can be for individual users or entire teams that work mainly outdoors.
What other apps (iOS or Mac) help you be more productive in your work or your daily life?
Well, I use very few and basic services/apps for my work and personal usage. I keep all my stuff on Dropbox and use CloudApp for quickly sharing files with others. For work communication we use mostly Slack and Skype, and for personal communication I just use Apple’s Messages and FaceTime.
Then, for reading, I use Reeder, Instapaper, iBooks and recently Short from Enric (iOS Dev at Doist). 1Password is always there, and I use Listary for my personal stuff. Finally, I have an entire screen of apps for my little daughter :).
How does you work day go? Let our readers know a little bit of your daily life as a developer.
It’s pretty standard :). I start early in the morning reading and replying emails, reading feeds, and planning and discussing the work with the team. Then, I focus on the work I have to do. I work most of the time remotely on my own office and use to meet personally with the Porto’s team at least once per week.
Do you have any side projects? Let us know more about that.
Yes, I’ve created, designed and developed Listary together with Ana (head of design for Doist). Listary is another productivity app but with a much simpler approach.
It’s a kind of a sharable notebook of textual items. It has been designed for use cases like shared grocery lists, taking note of stuff to pack for a travel, books to read, etc.
Listary is a subset of Todoist, optimized for simplicity.
What is your favorite feature of Todoist and some of the secrets that anyone should take advantage of when using this app?
Todoist was designed for both regular and power users, on both personal and collaborative environments. I think power users on collaborative environments will take full advantage of this system by using labels, priorities and dates to organize their lives.
However, for Todoist 10 we are bringing even more power to the iOS app and better support for basic use cases like managing shared grocery lists by supporting inline adding to quickly add a bunch of items. I think my favorite features are those that will come with Todoist 10 :).
The downfall of the Apple Software has been in the news lately. As a developer, what do you think about that? Have the bugs in iOS bothered you in any way or made your apps act strangely?
I do fear that Apple degrades in quality by the speed it’s releasing new software and hardware to beat the competition. However, other than some issues on Xcode and, mainly, serious problems on iTunes Connect, I don’t have much claims about the iOS SDK itself. I really like to develop for this platform and I hope Apple will keep the quality it used to have in the past.
There are lots of To Do apps out there. Let our readers know what makes Todoist the best or the most useful out there.
Todoist is more than an app. It’s a multi-platform service to help users/teams/companies improving their productivity. I can say Todoist is the best on its scope, and I don’t think there are that much apps or services on that scope.
I think that what makes Todoist great is having a simple and effective user interface, with a powerful feature set behind, that works well for both regular and advanced users.
Make sure to check out Todoist for iOS, if you are not already an user and install the Mac app or browser version to get more productive.
