There are more to-do list managers and utilities available for Android that there's no way we could mention every one of them. That said, after testing several apps and companion services, we settled on Wunderlist as the best to-do manager for Android, but it has very stiff competition.


Platform: Android
Price: Free
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  • Cross-platform, with dedicated apps for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux in addition to a webapp to access your to-dos when you're on a system without the Wunderlist application installed
  • Syncs all tasks to your Wunderlist account on the web, so no device-to-device sync or third party intermediary services are required
  • Features homescreen widgets so you can see your upcoming to-dos without opening the app
  • Quickly add and manage tasks from the mobile app, assign deadlines and due dates
  • Allows you to send tasks to Wunderlist via email, and supports email reminders when a task is due
  • Allows you to organize and make tasks stand out by starring them, adding notes to help jog your memory, or sorting them into lists or categories
  • Offers multiple backgrounds to personalize your mobile experience/li>

Where It Excels

Wunderlist's greatest strength is in its flexibility. The Android app is great and richly featured on its own, and gives you access to all of the features you would want from a mobile to-do manager. You can add tasks easily, move them around between categories or star them to mark them as important, change due dates, and even change the view so you can focus specifically on the most important items you have to work on. Plus, all of your tasks and changes are synchronized to your Wunderlist account on the web so you don't have to sync or push your changes to another device. Additionally, you can share to-dos with other users and collaborate on projects. Plus, it doesn't hurt that Wunderlist is available for virtually every platform, with native apps for iOS, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux in addition to Android and a fully-featured webapp.

Where It Falls Short

Wunderlist's Android app is relatively new, so some users have reported issues getting the homescreen widgets to work just right, or sorting tasks to work. These all worked fine in our tests, but they're worth noting. Also, while Wunderlist does allow you to star tasks and make notes on them for more reference, there's no tagging support. Plus—and this is a big one—Wunderlist has no location-awareness at all. It's a con when you consider some of its competition has it, but it's not as big a drawback when you consider that Wunderlist is completely free and its competitors that do have location-awareness charge for it.

update: As many of you reminded us, Wunderlist does not support recurring tasks.

The Competition

To say there are alternatives on Android to Wunderlist would be a gross understatement. Astrid (Free) was extremely close to taking the top spot. We've mentioned Astrid several times before, most notably in our Lifehacker Pack for Android, and we still think it's a great app. It's free, was one of the first feature-rich to-do list managers for Android, and unlike Wunderlist, syncs with Google Tasks and Producteev as well as its own webapp, partly to make up for lacking a desktop client. If you're already using another web service and want an app that will sync with your Android phone, Astrid is an excellent alternative. If you're willing to put down money, Astrid has a plug-in for location awareness that will set you back $1.49, and a "Power Pack" for $3.99 that includes features like homescreen widgets and voice support.

Taskos (Free) is another free option that looks great and has a lot of great features baked into the free version that other apps include in their paid versions or in-app purchases, like homescreen widgets, alerts, voice actions, and Google Tasks sync. The only downside to Taskos is there's no webapp or desktop app to use when you're at your computer—everything's on your phone.

Also, no discussion of to-do managers would be complete without mentioning ToDo.txt and Todo.txt Touch ($2) for Android, written by our very own founding editor, Gina Trapani. To use Todo.txt Touch, your to-do list needs to be a text file stored in your Dropbox account. Combined with the Todo.txt Command Line Interface (CLI) for Windows, and you have a elegant but powerful way to manage your to-dos on the go or at the computer. Another utility, Epistle (Free), works in similar fashion.

Most other to-do managers for Android are in the "free with paid add-ons" or freemium department. ReQall (Free), has a great Android app that syncs with ReQall's webapp, but syncing is often buggy and its best features, like integration with Evernote and Google Calendar, SMS reminders, and location awareness are only available to $19.99/year ReQall Pro subscribers. GTasks (Free) is an easy-to-use to-do manager that syncs with and is ideal for people who use Google Tasks. It's ad supported, and it'll cost you $6.99 to remove them. Task List (Free) for Android is another great option that features widgets and color and category organization. It's also ad-supported; $1.99 will remove them.

Finally, Remember The Milk (Free) is another option, and the service updated just this week to make the Android app free to all users, not just those willing to pay $25/year for a pro account. Still, even though the app is free, you can only sync with RTM's servers every 24-hours and you'll have to do it manually. To unlock the app's true potential, you'll have to pay for it.

This isn't an exhaustive list of to-do apps for Android to say the least. There are dozens in the Android App Market, some of which serve as stand-alone organization tools and others that are just third-party conduits to popular web services. Do you have a favorite that we missed? Let us know in the comments below.
