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February 3, 2009

Standalone Versions of Google Tasks for iPhone and iGoogle

There's a new interface for Google Tasks, the experiment initially launched as part of Gmail Labs. Now you can view and edit your tasks on an iPhone by visiting http://mail.google.com/tasks/iphone (a shorter URL: gmail.com/tasks).



Google also launched an iGoogle gadget that provides similar functionality. The gadget is only a wrapper for the standalone version available at http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig, a page you can bookmark or add it to your sidebar in browsers that support this feature (Firefox, Opera).



Gmail Blog explains that the most important competitor for Google Tasks is paper (I remember a similar statement regarding Google Calendar). "Among the world's leading productivity tools is an advanced technology known as paper. Many of the world's top corporations and most active internet users have adopted paper as a method of organizing their daily lives. (...) When we set out to build Tasks (now in Gmail Labs), one of our goals was to improve upon paper. With the version of Tasks in Gmail, we focused on making editing very fast and simple -- as close to paper as we could."

Hopefully the next iterations will bring a proper standalone version, the integration with Google Calendar and an API that will facilitate synchronization with other applications. That will give Google Tasks competitive edge over paper.

60 comments:

  1. Hi

    Doesn't seem to work (as of this moment) with google apps. I have tried to type http://mail.google.com/a/[mydomain.com]/tasks/iphone, but google just sends me back to the inbox view.

    Trym

    ReplyDelete
  2. try this:

    http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/yourdomain.com

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  3. this is the Gadget for Google Apps:

    http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/117808631063490062819/hostedgoogletasks.xml

    it useful for iGoogle, Start Page and Sites.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The iGoogle widget doesn't let you select between lists, for those who have more than one. This is a dumb limitation. Also, it's fine to make jokes about paper, but as far as I can tell, this is way more limited than paper. Given the sophisticated task managers that are out there, is this the best Google can come up with?

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  5. http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/yourdomain.com doesn't work, for the record. It just bounces to http://mail.google.com/mail/help/tasks/.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The URLs for Google Apps are:

    http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/yourdomain.com/iphone - iPhone interface
    http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/yourdomain.com/ig - iGoogle interface

    The shorter URL works only on the iPhone because Google checks the user-agent.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yep, definitely better than paper.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Paper always beats out anything without an API! Paper I can shove in my pocket next to my Blackberry. If there's no API then there's no sync'ing to the Bb so no carrying it with me, so way too limited. I'll mess around with Tasks but I won't get serious until I can sync them.

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  9. Don't forget that with the standalone url (http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig) Chrome lets you create a separate desktop app.

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  10. It's convenient to use paper, but it's not searchable, it can't notify you about the tasks you need perform, it's not password-protected and you can easily lose it.

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  11. Don't forget Remember the Milk as a competitor... I still think it's better than Tasks. And it integrates with Gmail!

    http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yup...Remember The Milk still wins my vote. I've been hoping for a Google Task tool for years...but I won't make the switch until the tasks can be made to repeat, and work as an offline app on my iPhone.

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  13. @ jaduncan: if you point this URL: http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/yourdomain.com with your iphone IT DOES WORK

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  14. Does (or will) it have webcal feed? Does anybody know?

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  15. Great tool. thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I am on Android, and assumed the redirect would still work. To clarify,
    http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/yourdomain.com/android does work on Android.

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  17. I made an app for Android (Tag-ToDo-List) and people have been asking me for synchronization with an online service for quite a while. A Tasks API would be a great opportunity for that.

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  18. Looking forward to gCal integration...at that point it will be useful

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  19. hmm tried all suggestions above to get tasks for google apps working.. nothing works - keeps coming up with goanna_mobile errors...

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  20. what about s60 version?

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  21. I had to enable Google Labs from the Google Apps Admin page and then restart my browser to enable tasks in my individual settings page. Tasks in Safari and Firefox now work, but the iphone is still giving me the redirect and goanna_mobile error.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi there,
    is there a mobile version of Google Tasks? I use Google Notebook instead, but I found out tasks much more easier so I moved all my tasks . But I'm not able to reach the tasks using my mobile phone. Is there any java application or mobile interface using easy html code that my mobile would understand?
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  23. Is it possible to build a full-screen mode for iPhone? The full-screen mode webapp is working very good on iPhone.

    an example check it out:
    http://blog.packagetrackr.com/2008/10/chromed-out.html

    http://www.packagetrackr.com/iphone/

    ReplyDelete
  24. I think Google's tasks ap is so lame I'm thinking of returning to Outlook. For God's sake, Outlook had regular task functions from the beginning, integrated with the calendar, where it should be. And, you can sync with your phone. What good is a task list that I can't get to my phone? If Microsoft produced such garbage, you'd never hear the end of it.

    ReplyDelete
  25. There's even a basic interface for regular mobile phones:
    http://mail.google.com/tasks/m

    ReplyDelete
  26. I can't get google task to work right in IGoogle. It keeps saying there was an error and to restart.I use FF and vista prem. Another laptop with XP works fine. What's up?

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  27. jmyers8888 - I sync my Outlook contacts and calendar with my iPhone but as far as I know, Tasks do not sync.

    PhilD

    ReplyDelete
  28. Hi.

    I like this in theory, but is there any chance of an App so that I can add/remove tasks offline too?

    ReplyDelete
  29. This is a great app. I used it a dozen times a day. Pure Google: elegant and effect. Gears is the only 'must have' on my list. thanks! Josh

    ReplyDelete
  30. I just began using this, so I can't say yet whether I like it or not. It seems like a helpful tool. But one of the reasons I like to use paper is because I can flip back through my handwritten task book for a specific piece of info.

    For this app, it would be great for completed tasks to go to a history list where the dates of task input, notes, and completion are kept. Right now, it just looks like tasks are crossed off when completed, and if you 'clear the list' it goes away forever.

    Task history, including dates and notes would be fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Needs to integrate with Calendar so it will remind you to do XYZ. Otherwise, it is useless to me.
    I need to by able to synch it with my phone for offline use.

    So far, it is worse than paper because it takes longer to write down.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I figured it out!

    For tasks in Calendar, I enter an all-day appointment on the day the task begins and extend it until the day the task is due. That way, tasks always appear at the top of the day's events. When you complete the task, just delete the appointment.

    Try it! Might not work if you have a great many all-day appointments, but it works for me.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Just what I was looking for...but any task I add fails to show up in my Iphone so I will just continue to just show any task as an all day event till tasks can show up in the Iphone Calendar. Google almost had this done right but it falls short. Disappointed

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  34. Is there a desktop gadget?

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  35. I made a "app" button for the Google Tasks by clicking the plus sign and then add to home screen... it's not as great as an app since it takes a little bit of time to "download" but works good enough for now.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Has anyone figured out how to make this work with a Google Apps account? I'm still getting the goanna_mobile error.

    ReplyDelete
  37. It works fine on my Google apps account. I guess the natural progression from here would be to be able to assign tasks to others in the same apps domain. Or if Google can provide APIs to tasks, someone will build it.

    ReplyDelete
  38. If you want a standalone for your PC that provides Google Tasks inside an application window, check out taskalone at http://code.google.com/p/taskalone/

    ReplyDelete
  39. In order to get tasks to work in my google apps domain I had to "Enable pre-release features". This can be done by going to the "General" tab under "Domain Settings" in your Google Apps admin interface :

    https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/example.com/DomainSettings

    (replace example.com with your domain)

    In here Check "Enable pre-release features"

    This will cause browsing to :

    http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/example.com/iphone

    on your iphone go from giving the error :

    "We're sorry, your domain does not appear to support features such as the stand-alone version of Tasks"

    to displaying the iphone mobile safari google tasks interface correctly.

    I found out about this in this support forum :

    http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=79c11857733490dc&hl=en

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  40. Check out GeeTasks - online/offline iPhone client for Google Tasks. Ideal for iTouch users.

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  41. Is there no way to (un)indent tasks on the iphone version?

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  42. can I use google tasks offline the same as the mail app on the touch and iphone as I don't alway have wifi connection?

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  43. No, at least not if you use Google's mobile interface. There's a third-part app at http://www.geetasks.com/ that promises to solve your problem. Unfortunately, it costs $3.

    ReplyDelete
  44. I don't recommend buying Geetasks for 3$. There are login problems with this app, so you can't log into your Gmail-account. The developer says it is only a small number of users, who can't login - maybe I was just unlucky, because I am one of them :-(

    I wasted my money on a non-working app.

    ReplyDelete
  45. The Geetask login issues were prevasive enough that the app store has suspended sales. Maybe the developer will get his act together.

    ReplyDelete
  46. GeeTasks is back in store, login problems were solved over a month ago.

    ReplyDelete
  47. So far, I like having my Tasks available on my iPhone, but....I wish I sould sort by due date on the iPhone. Works great on the laptop and in iGoogle, but no luck finding out how to do this on the iPhone. If anybody figured this out, please post the steps. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  48. The canvas view of the iGoogle gadget is great, and also works for Google apps:

    http://mail.google.com/tasks/canvas

    or on google apps:

    http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/example.com/canvas

    Hope this helps others too.

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  49. Geetasks has free option! thanks for the tip!

    ReplyDelete
  50. You can also try GoTasks as free alternative to GeeTasks http://shurakov.name/gotasks

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  51. All of this is pointless if I can't view the tasks while NOT connected to the internet...

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  52. I also found "gTasks" for iPhone which synchronizes with Google's tasks and has nice, clean user interface.
    It also has alerts!

    http://www.katans.com

    ReplyDelete
  53. I'm still unsure whether the latest iteration is completely stable. Perhaps it is indeed my iPhone 3 that has the problem and not Google. =/

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  54. On my iPhone 4S in Safari the Google iPhone-specific Tasks seems stable and highly functional and intuitive UI as on the laptop ... But I can't rearrange the blasted list members.

    Also I wish Google would generalize tasks to have more than a single indent layer and make the items with sub-items collapsible.

    ReplyDelete
  55. I really don't know how you got that icon for the home screen shortcut. All I get is a tiny screenshot of the page and I hate that.

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  56. Please add the Tatar language

    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  58. Even though HTML 5 is not yet popular, HTML 5 linked with the modern technologies may bring about powerful results.

    ReplyDelete

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