PopTask for Apple

The "gym mon wed fri 6am" natural-language parse into a scheduled recurring task is exactly the friction that makes me bail on most to-do apps. Day-one thing I'd want to know: when it mis-reads a messy thought (sets 6pm instead of 6am, or the wrong repeat), can I fix the parsed task inline, or do I have to delete and retype from scratch? And since it syncs through my own iCloud, if I add a task on mac while my phone is offline, does it reconcile cleanly when the phone is back or can I end up with a duplicate?

The "3 seconds between remembering and it being saved" framing is exactly right. Running a few businesses at once, that gap is where I lose the most - by the time a task app makes me pick a date and project, the thought's already gone. Congrats on going universal with this launch.

The gap between a to-do list and actually blocking time for the thing is where most of my week leaks out. When PopTask schedules a task and I blow past the block, does it reshuffle everything after it or wait for me to re-triage? That overrun problem is usually where these apps break for me.

I like how PopTask simplifies task creation, but I'd love to see some level of customization for the menu bar icon on Mac - maybe different colors or a compact mode to save space.

How well does the natural language parsing handle recurring tasks with exceptions, like "gym mon wed fri 6am except holidays" or tasks that need to skip specific dates?

The Siri-while-driving path is the one I'd stress-test hardest. Typed "gym mon wed fri 6am" is messy but the characters are at least what I meant; dictation stacks a transcription layer under the parse, so "meeting with boss two hours tomorrow at three" can go wrong twice before you ever see the preview, and driving is exactly when you can't glance down to catch a wrong 3pm/3am. Do you read the interpreted task back by voice on that path, or is the preview still visual-only? I build in a category where the user's hands and attention are both gone in the moment, and "confirm without looking" turned out to be a genuinely different problem than "confirm fast."

On-device is being read as a privacy checkbox, but for a to-do app it's bigger than that. A task list is a running log of everything you haven't done yet — half-formed, "mtng wth boss about the thing" — which is about as intimate as personal data gets. Keeping it on the device isn't a feature, it's the only respectful default. Good that you led with it. Congrats on the launch

the on-device angle is what caught my attention reading through this thread, running decent NLU across 6+ languages locally is a real engineering constraint, not just a privacy checkbox. curious how big the parsing model ends up being and whether older iphones (like an SE or an iphone 12) handle it fine, or if you had to trim capability for lower-end hardware. also "holiday-aware recurrence" is a genuinely clever detail most to-do apps never bother with

The messy-input parser is the whole product here. I like that the capture path stays fast, but the trust layer is showing the interpreted date/repeat/reminder before it commits anything. Tiny Apple utilities live or die on whether they preserve flow without making the user wonder what just got scheduled.

The natural language parsing for dates and recurrence feels really tight, "gym mon wed fri 6am" just working without any friction is a small thing but it makes the whole experience feel considered. Nice execution.

@lilhadi dude - the app looks great, the site is beautiful, but... why, oh WHY... do you seemingly have NO product shots on the homepage?!?I totally get wanting to focus on the philosophy/ethos, here, but my good man - you built sexy tech, show it off, let folks know what they're getting into! :DCongrats on the launch!!

Really like the focus on natural language instead of making people fill out forms and date pickers.Curious.....what's the most surprising prompt PopTask has successfully turned into a task?Wishing you a fantastic launch today! 🚀

The natural language parsing actually works as advertised, typed "dentist thursday 2pm" and it just landed correctly without me double-checking. Living in the menu bar makes it frictionless to dump tasks throughout the day.

heyy folks,
i built PopTask for myself, honestly .. i kept losing thoughts to the same annoying ritual: have a quick idea, then fill out a little form for it .. title, tap the date, tap the time, tap the repeat, set the reminder .. by the time am done i've half-forgotten why i even opened it

so i made the opposite, just to fix my own problem .. you type the mess the way you'd say it .. "mtng wth boss 2hr tmrw 3pm" or "gym mon wed fri 6am" .. and PopTask figures out the date, time, recurrence and reminder in about 3 seconds .. it'll even break a big task into steps and suggest follow-ups if you want the help .. no pickers, no forms

then something i didn't really expect happened .. i put it out there, people started using it, and telling me it finally stuck where every other app hadn't .. that meant everything to me .. PopTask went from a little fix for myself to the thing i work on full-time now

it started as a tiny mac menu bar app, one shortcut from anywhere (⌘⌃P) .. and this launch is the part am most excited about: it's now universal .. the same brain is on iphone + ipad too, with home and lock screen widgets, a live activity + dynamic island counting down your next task, control center, and hands-free siri so you can add a task even while driving .. everything syncs across your devices through your own icloud, near-instant, and one purchase covers all of them

the parts am proud of:
- it runs on-device where it can (apple intelligence on newer machines), so your tasks never touch my servers, and sync is end-to-end encrypted
- it reads real, messy input .. typos, shorthand, "nxt thrs", multiple weekdays .. in 9 languages
- it's genuinely fast .. the whole point is 3 seconds and back to what you were doing

free up to 3 active tasks .. pro unlocks unlimited (less than a coffee $)

this one's personal for me, so i'd genuinely love your brutal feedback, especially on the parsing .. throw your messiest input at it and tell me where it breaks .. am here all day replying to everything .. thank you for checking it out