Gneo is an interesting task management app that tries to do things very differently. On first glance, the app appears to be a cross between Trello and any other GTD app, but what sets it apart is its advanced feature set and rather unique take on overseeing your entire task list.
The app isn’t without fault and, in some instances, the app can be frustrating but it sets itself apart with a fresh perspective on task and project management that stops this from being just another todo app.
Overview
Gneo is, quite simply, a task management app. It has all the hallmarks of any other related app, such as tasks and lists (which Gneo refers to as Notebooks). Gneo keeps everything in sync by way of an account you’ll need to register, even if you only intend to use the app on a single device.
The app’s appearance is rather simplistic. In fact, Gneo makes good use of this and displays additional task information as icons, depending on whether each task has had tags or additional information assigned. This avoids overloading the user with information when you can just swipe and get more information.
Gneo is mostly gesture based, which can take some time to get used to and the built-in tutorial is rather extensive.
At the heart of Gneo is a gesture-driven interface that draws inspiration from apps such as Mailbox. Swiping various distances left and right will trigger different actions, though completing a task is still the tried and trusted way of tapping a checkbox.
The gestures work well, on the whole, though I found myself constantly tapping on a task repeatedly, only to then remember that I have to swipe left to edit. Tapping on a task actually does nothing, but it would certainly benefit from some action being triggered.
Taking to Task
Adding tasks is as simple as tapping the new task button, always located at the lower left corner. Gneo has a few tricks up its sleeves when it comes to new tasks and you can assign reminders, which sync to your calendars in iOS, locations and even attach files and voice recordings. As someone who uses voice recordings as a way to better explain a new task, I’ve found this to be a great function since it can save me using another app to record in, keeping everything together.
Creating new tasks is very straightforward and there are a number of options to include attachments, including voice recordings.
Attachments sync between devices and recordings are saved in a low bit rate to ensure that file sizes are kept as minimal as possible.
Urgent or Important?
I found the use of both these tags rather confusing as, to me, they mean the same thing. In Gneo, these are independent and tasks can be assigned either or both. For me, at least, all urgent tasks are important and vice versa, so I’m not sure what the difference should be.
This leads on to the Trello-like overview of your tasks. Tasks are displayed vertically and separated by whether they are marked as important, urgent, neither or both. I’m not sure how this makes for a better organisational method as it just makes tasks feel rather cluttered, especially if you have a lot you need to do, and the view can become quite restrictive very quickly.
I’m not sure how useful the overview pane is when compared to the more traditional list.
While it certainly provides a way of breaking down which tasks you would more likely need to accomplish first, this grid view doesn’t feel like an efficient way to do it and I often found myself ignoring it altogether.
Notebooks
Gneo prefers to call task lists Notebooks, all of which are accessible via the dedicated button on the opposite side of the display. As you’d expect, you can create new notebooks to store different tasks, depending on the requirements. Interestingly, Gneo supports Smart Notebooks, letting you create live searches for a number of different areas. Want a notebook to show all tasks tagged as work or include all tasks in multiple notebooks? Gneo has you covered and they work just like smart playlists in iTunes. This builds upon tagging in a big way and is a powerful organisational tool to help keep you on top of your workload.
Smart Notebooks is a great feature, providing live search functionality for tasks across different Notebooks.
Because each Notebook has its own calendar, list and overview panes, switching between views and notebooks can be cumbersome and downright clunky. It takes several taps and swipes to switch from, say, the calendar view of one notebook to the task list of another. While you’ll certainly get used to it, it never feels fluid and is an almost constant reminder why task management apps have always adopted a more traditional multi-pane view, such as OmniFocus, Things and Firetask.
Calendar
Integration with your iOS device’s calendars is provided via Gneo, as previously seen when setting a reminder for a task. Gneo can also display events from your entire calendar, as well as displaying tasks with reminders along side them. There doesn’t appear to be any way to decide quite which calendar you want to add events to, as well as which ones you want to display (I have several calendars that I use on iCloud) and Gneo has no settings for it, despite displaying a message telling me to check the calendar settings. Until then, this calendar view is almost useless if you regularly use multiple calendars.
Gneo intergrates with your iOS calendar, though the settings it references don’t appear to be anywhere in the app.
Evernote Integration
The ever popular Evernote is a great way to keep notes and scraps of information to hand, and Gneo offers some great integration. Tasks that contain attachments or notes can be synced to Evernote, including audio recordings. Each task is synced as a note of the same name with any additional information stored within. Even better, tasks that are synced include a to-do item created in Evernote and checking it off will sync back to Gneo, pretty impressive integration between both platforms.
Notes are removed from Evernote once a task is completed though they are still recoverable from the trash. I’d like to have seen an option to avoid deleting from Evernote once a note is created, or at least have the move to an archive notebook as it’s always worth keeping any attachments regardless of whether a task is finished.
Conclusion
Gneo is a unique, if a little flawed, task management app that offers a lot more than most other ones available at the moment. Task attachments and built-in voice recordings make this a great task management app, especially for Evernote users with Gneo’s deep integration and ease of use with the service.
The flaws with Gneo are purely aesthetic, stemming from a sometimes-awkward interface, apparently missing settings and an overview that really doesn’t add to the experience or make life easier. These types of issues can be both the easiest and most difficult to fix, so it’s interesting to see where Gneo goes from here.