App review: Any.Do for Android

Any.DO for Android is a simple, clean and very well designed to-do list manager. It's the first app of its kind of Android that I haven't uninstalled after a day and best of all, it's completely free.

As a journalist, I consider myself fairly organised so an effective to-do list is one of my most used smartphone apps. Apple's iOS platform boasts a handy built-in reminders app which I make regular use of when I'm using an iPhone, but I've always found Android lacking in this area. There are plenty of to-do list apps available in the Android Market, but none of them are as simple or intuitive as Any.DO.

Any.DO manages to offer plenty of features without hindering its clean and minimalist UI. This intuitive design is highlighted by the "I want to..." text box at the top of the app. Type your reminder into that box and you can then choose to add it to your to do list, configure a reminder or share it. A reminder can be quickly set to today, tomorrow, this week or next week, while you can also use the calendar to select a date and time that's further down the track.

The auto-complete feature in Any.DO is a handy addition. As you begin typing, it immediately begins to suggest options. If you start typing a name that's in your contacts list, it will suggest that person's name. You can also use Google's built-in voice recognition to enter tasks and while it's not completely error free, we came away impressed with the general accuracy.

A simple list format shows all of your entered reminders and you can drag and drop each reminder, or choose to place them in folders rather than times. If you tap on a task you can set more advanced options, like priority level, folders and notes. Annoyingly, there's no option to set a recurring task such as daily, weekly or monthly.

Sharing a task sends a contact an email that invites them to download Any.DO. The icons for these settings are a little vague though, so we'd have appreciated a text description to avoid confusion.

The Any.DO app comes with five home screen widgets at various sizes, but it's a shame they are only available in white. The app itself allows users to choose from black and white background themes. We found the shake to clear done tasks feature hit and miss.

Creating an Any.DO account through Facebook or using an email address means you can save and syncronise your tasks across multiple devices. There's also a very handy Google Chrome extension that allows you to access tasks through the browser and the company says a generic web app is "coming soon".

Developer: Any.DO
Version: 2.24.1
Size: 5.1MB
Cost: Free
Requirements: Android 2.1 and up
Reviewed on: HTC One SV