New iPadOS versions usually mean that the default apps get some (sometimes much-needed) TLC. That’s the case with iPadOS 16 too, although most of the coverage has been related to Mail, which, in all fairness, is getting the most updates.
The additions to Reminders is more subtle, but much appreciated. I’m actually using Reminders for my task management, thanks to its wonderful integration with both Siri, and other apps, like Readdle’s Calendars, for example. There are plenty of trade-offs, and Reminders isn’t without its quirks, as I’ve talked about several times before, but here we are.
I’m pleased to say that Reminders are getting a little nicer in iPadOS 16.
I, like many other Reminders users, I’m sure, are spending most of our time in the Today view. It’s a list of tasks with the due date (and occasionally a due time as well) set to the current day. With iPadOS 16, the Today view is now split into four sections. Up top, you have tasks with today as a due date, but no specific time set. Subsequently, you get Morning, Afternoon, and Tonight. Tasks are split between these depending on the due time, so anything before noon is under Morning, and anything between noon and 5pm is Afternoon, whereas the rest of the day’s timed tasks end up under Tonight. I like this a lot, it brings clarity to my day.
Oh, and another thing, while we’re on the topic of Reminders. When adding a new task outside a particular list, the app sometimes suggests a list for that particular task. It’s been hit or miss thus far, but I still like it because having everything that you add in the Today view end up in Inbox, which I then change by tapping the information icon to pick the correct list, feels like an unnecessary step. It’ll be interesting to see if Reminders can learn to predict where tasks should go, thus saving me some taps.
Of course, it would be even better if I could just use natural language input to add to the correct, with autocomplete, but that doesn’t seem to be happening just yet.
