PopTask is live · free plan, paid from $14.99/yr · last verified 5 Nov 2026 · viability healthy
PopTask
PopTask turns messy typed or spoken tasks into scheduled reminders on Mac, iPhone and iPad with on-device parsing under 500ms.
PopTask solves the step most task apps ignore: getting the thought out of your head before you've formatted it. The on-device parser and mandatory approval step are the right design, and two-way Google/Outlook sync in 3.0 removes the main reason Apple users drifted to Todoist. Budget Pop as a separate $9.99/mo decision, not part of the $1.99 base.
Verdict generatedVerified 9d ago · liveness 84/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/poptask
- Mac, iPhone and iPad users who want to log a task without leaving the app they're in
- People whose blocker is capture friction, not planning depth — typing or speaking beats forms and date pickers
- Multilingual users typing or dictating mixed languages, slang and abbreviations (12 languages parsed)
- Privacy-conscious solo users who want on-device parsing, zero tracking and no ads
- Windows or Linux users — PopTask is Apple-only
- Teams that need shared lists, task assignment, or comments
- Anyone planning projects with hierarchies, dependencies or Gantt-style views
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Skip PopTask if you're on Windows or Android, or if your to-dos live in shared team lists with assignment and comments — it's a personal, Apple-only capture layer with no project hierarchies.
Pop sits on top of Pro at $9.99/mo and is not included in the Pro subscription — budget for two subscriptions if you want voice planning.
Pro is a low-cost personal subscription and Pop is an add-on on top of it. Compared with Things 3's one-time purchase or Todoist's free and paid per-seat tiers, PopTask's pitch is a cheap base plus an optional voice layer — economical for a solo Apple user, awkward if you're paying per seat for a team that needs shared lists.
In short
PopTask — PopTask turns messy typed or spoken tasks into scheduled reminders on Mac, iPhone and iPad with on-device parsing under 500ms. Best for Mac, iPhone and iPad users who want to log a task without leaving the app they're in, People whose blocker is capture friction, not planning depth — typing or speaking beats forms and date pickers, Multilingual users typing or dictating mixed languages, slang and abbreviations (12 languages parsed). Free to start; paid plans from $14.99/yr.
No head-to-head comparison for PopTask yet — the alternatives below are the closest matches we list.
What is PopTask?
PopTask — PopTask turns messy typed or spoken tasks into scheduled reminders on Mac, iPhone and iPad with on-device parsing under 500ms. Best for Mac, iPhone and iPad users who want to log a task without leaving the app they're in, People whose blocker is capture friction, not planning depth — typing or speaking beats forms and date pickers, Multilingual users typing or dictating mixed languages, slang and abbreviations (12 languages parsed). Free to start; paid plans from $14.99/yr.
PopTask is an AI to-do list for Apple hardware built on a single premise: capturing the task should cost less than doing it. Type "gym tue thu 7:30 n sat mrng" and Smart Suggestion hands back "Morning Gym, Weekly, 7:30 AM" with the repeat already set — nothing lands until you click add. The parsing pipeline runs on-device in under 500ms, and shorthand, slang and typos survive the trip. Capture is spread across the OS rather than locked in a form. Hold ⌘⌃P from any Mac app, tap the iPhone Lock Screen, Control Center or Share Sheet, or open the menu bar list. Version 3.0 changed the shape of the app: Pop, a voice assistant you talk your day through, turns "groceries, milk, and pick up the kids, suggest me a time" into timed cards you accept or discard, using your usual times as anchors. 3.0 also added two-way Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook sync, a reworked Today view with Snooze and live countdowns, a completion-streak grid, and a resizable Mac window. The maintenance releases matter for anyone outside English. 3.0.1 broadened natural-language date parsing to 12 languages and fixed Pop billing so a dropped connection no longer keeps the meter running past a session. 3.0.2 added an iPhone Duo layout, an iPad sidebar and localized Family and Work starter lists. Separately, an onetap AI breakdown splits a large task into checkable steps, and correcting a suggested time once teaches the app your habits for that task type — weekdays and weekends tracked apart. The app collects zero data, shows no ads and tracks nothing. Pop is the exception worth reading twice: while it's open, your voice and upcoming tasks go to a third-party AI that never trains on them. Against Todoist or Things 3, PopTask is the lighter capture layer — no shared lists, no project hierarchies, just a fast loop for people who already live on Apple devices.
Key features
- Natural language task creation from typed shorthand like 'gym tue thu 7:30 n sat mrng'
- On-device four-stage parser: tokenizer, date resolver, title cleaner, AI fallback
- Sub-500ms parsing, roughly three seconds from thought to scheduled task
- Smart Suggestion preview of title, date, time and recurrence before you commit
- Pop voice assistant (v3.0) that plans your day conversationally and adds tasks only on approval
- Voice capture on Mac, iPhone and iPad via the mic or Talk to Pop
- Habit learning for suggested times, with weekdays and weekends tracked separately
- Shorthand and typo learning after you confirm a correction twice
- One-tap AI task breakdown that splits a big task into checklist steps
- Two-way sync with Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar
- Apple Calendar and Apple Reminders sync across devices through your own iCloud
- Mac menu bar capture with ⌘⌃P from any app, plus a resizable Dock window
- iOS Lock Screen, Control Center and Share Sheet task capture
- Home Screen widgets and Dynamic Island live task countdown
- Today view with Snooze, live countdowns, overdue block and time-of-day grouping
Behind the verdict
We'd reach for PopTask when the failure mode isn't discipline but friction. If you've abandoned three to-do apps because typing a task meant opening a form, picking a date from a calendar widget and choosing a project, the ⌘⌃P-and-go loop is the fix. Three seconds from thought to scheduled task is the whole pitch, and it holds up. The parser is where the product earns its keep. Shorthand it hasn't seen before still resolves, and the Smart Suggestion preview shows you the parsed title, date, time and recurrence before you commit — so a misfire costs a glance, not a cleanup. Training it is cheap too: correct a time once and it remembers for that category of task, with weekdays and weekends kept separate, so your "run thu 6" doesn't get the weekend's 9 AM. Pass if collaboration is the requirement. There are no shared lists, no assignment, no comments, no project hierarchies or dependencies. Teams running standups through Todoist or ClickUp will find PopTask underpowered precisely where it's strongest solo. Windows and Linux users are out entirely. Pop is the honest caveat. It's a genuinely different interaction — you narrate your day and get cards back with times proposed from your own patterns — but it's a separate $9.99/mo subscription on top of Pro, and it sends your voice and upcoming tasks to a third-party AI while open. The zero-tracking promise covers the rest of the app, not that. We'd trial the included week and 20 minutes before committing, and check you're on 3.0.1 or later so a dropped connection doesn't bill past the session. Where it bites in practice: the calendar sync is two-way for Google and Outlook, but Apple's side is Calendar and Reminders through your own iCloud, so mixed households need to know which system is authoritative. And the streak grid
Limitations
- PopTask runs only on Mac, iPhone and iPad; the evidence describes no Windows, Android or web client.
- While Pop is open, your voice and upcoming tasks go to a third-party AI (never used for training), and the vendor does not name that AI, so the underlying model is unknown.
- Pop is a separate subscription that includes everything in Pro: free for a week with 20 minutes, then $9.99/mo.
- The app is built and shipped by one person.
as of 2026-10-31
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Is PopTask still active?
PopTask is live · free plan, paid from $14.99/yr · last verified 5 Nov 2026 · viability healthy.
Viability score
How well maintained and how widely used is PopTask? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: November 2026
How we score →What's new in PopTask
Checked 5 days agoAcross the latest 3 updates: 2 feature updates and 1 launch.
PopTask 3.0.2 adds iPhone Duo layout, iPad sidebar, localized starter lists
PopTask fits iPhone Duo, Today/Later/Completed and your lists move into a sidebar on iPhone and iPad, and the Family and Work starter lists are named in your app's language.
PopTask 3.0.1 fixes Pop session billing, broadens multilingual date parsing
A dropped connection no longer leaves Pop silent with the meter running, sessions end when the plan's minutes do, and natural-language dates now parse in 12 languages.
PopTask 3.0 launches Pop assistant, two-way Google and Outlook calendar sync
Pop is a separate subscription that plans your day by voice and creates tasks on approval; Google and Outlook calendars now sync both ways, and the Mac app gains a resizable window.
What do users say about PopTask?
What people actually say about PopTask — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
ResearchedDiscussed by users across 2 sources (Product Hunt, App Store) · researched Oct 8, 2026.
Weighted by the 19 posts each of 2 sources contributed.
- +Sub-500ms parsing feels instant; users report capture barely breaks focus
- +Menu-bar shortcut (⌘⌃P) works from any Mac app, which reviewers call the killer feature
- +Natural-language input converts messy phrases like 'mtg w team mon wed fri 9am' correctly
- +Smart Suggestion preview lets you confirm parsed title, date, time, and recurrence before committing
- +Zero data collection, no ads, no tracking — a genuine privacy win for a task app
- −No shared lists, delegation, or project hierarchies — a hard blocker for teams and collaborators
- −Solo developer means support and roadmap depend on one person's bandwidth
- −Pop voice assistant is a separate $9.99/mo subscription rather than an included upgrade
- −Pop sends voice and upcoming tasks to a third-party AI, undercutting the local-first pitch
- −Context handling for follow-ups, rich notes, and multi-step tasks is thin compared to Todoist
- • Pop is a separate subscription that includes Pro — not an incremental upgrade to an existing Pro plan
- • The $9.99/mo Pop tier requires a third-party AI for voice processing, which some users view as a hidden privacy cost
- • Users on the free tier may hit limits before getting meaningful value from the advertised pipeline
How we verified this
Every listed fact about PopTask — pricing, features, links, status — is re-read from the vendor's own pages by our verification pipeline and each change is logged with a date; the last pass ran on 5 Nov 2026. Analysis is drafted with AI models and checked against our editorial standards before publishing; see how we verify.
Verification history
We have re-verified PopTask 24 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — changed SSL certificate
- — changed our verdict, who it suits, who should skip it, pricing tiers, summary, description, features
- — changed limitations, who should skip it, our verdict, who it suits, switching out, switching in, use cases, features, hidden costs, summary, description, setup time, pricing fit, pricing tiers
- — changed description, who it suits, our verdict, features, integrations, who should skip it, pricing tiers, summary
- — changed pricing page, models, limitations
- — changed features, who should skip it, summary, pricing tiers, who it suits, our verdict, description
Showing the 6 most recent of 24 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
How much does PopTask cost in 2026?
PopTask: Free to start; paid plans from $14.99/yr. Pricing last verified 5 Nov 2026.
Plans compared
Every published PopTask tier, its price as the vendor publishes it, who it fits, and what it adds over the tier below. The 12-month cost projection follows.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Who it's for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | — | An Apple user who wants to test whether the on-device parser and ⌘⌃P capture actually beat their current notes app before paying anything.Adds: Free entry point: natural-language task creation, the sub-500ms on-device parser, and Mac plus iPhone capture surfaces. |
| Pro Monthly | $1.99/mo | monthly | A solo Mac/iPhone user who now relies on the app daily and wants AI step breakdown, habit learning and two-way Google and Outlook calendar sync.Adds: Adds AI task breakdown, habit learning with weekday and weekend separated, two-way Google and Outlook sync, and Apple Calendar/Reminders sync. |
| Yearly Founders Deal | $14.99/yr | yearly | A committed Pro user who has already decided the app is a keeper and wants to pay once a year at the founders rate.Adds: Same Pro capability billed annually at $14.99/yr at the founders rate rather than monthly. |
| Pop (voice assistant) | $9.99/mo | monthly | Someone who plans their day out loud — driving, walking, or hands busy — and wants timed cards proposed rather than typed.Adds: A separate $9.99/mo subscription that includes everything in Pro plus voice day-planning, timed task cards, and learning your week and usual times. |
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where PopTask's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Pro is a low-cost personal subscription and Pop is an add-on on top of it. Compared with Things 3's one-time purchase or Todoist's free and paid per-seat tiers, PopTask's pitch is a cheap base plus an optional voice layer — economical for a solo Apple user, awkward if you're paying per seat for a team that needs shared lists.
Has PopTask's pricing changed?
No plan price for PopTask has moved since we began logging in Aug 2026; the pricing page is re-read on every verification pass.
Who should pick PopTask?
Pick PopTask if you are Mac, iPhone and iPad users who want to log a task without leaving the app they're in, People whose blocker is capture friction, not planning depth — typing or speaking beats forms and date pickers, Multilingual users typing or dictating mixed languages, slang and abbreviations (12 languages parsed), Privacy-conscious solo users who want on-device parsing, zero tracking and no ads.
Look elsewhere if you are Windows or Linux users — PopTask is Apple-only, Teams that need shared lists, task assignment, or comments, Anyone planning projects with hierarchies, dependencies or Gantt-style views, Users who require strictly on-device processing at all times — Pop sends voice and upcoming tasks to a third-party AI.
Skip it if Skip PopTask if you're on Windows or Android, or if your to-dos live in shared team lists with assignment and comments — it's a personal, Apple-only capture layer with no project hierarchies.
GeneratedReal-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas PopTask actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
You're mid-document and remember to send an invoice. You hold ⌘⌃P, type "send invoice to alex tmrw mrng," approve the Smart Suggestion card showing tomorrow morning, and go back to typing.
Outcome: The task is scheduled in about three seconds without opening a separate app, switching windows, or touching a date picker.
You open Talk to Pop and say "groceries, milk, and pick up the kids from school, suggest me a time." Pop anchors to the 3pm pickup and proposes groceries at 3:30 as cards you can discard or add.
Outcome: Your day is laid out with times that fit your habits, and nothing enters your list until you tap Add all.
You type "gym tue thu 7:30 n sat mrng" once, correct the suggested time, and confirm the shorthand. On later entries PopTask parses the same abbreviations and applies your learned weekday/weekend habit.
Outcome: Recurring tasks get built from half-words, and the corrections stop repeating — the learned habits sync to your other devices via iCloud.
Use cases
- Capture a task mid-work without switching apps using ⌘⌃P on Mac
- Schedule recurring reminders by voice while driving
- Log messy thoughts like 'call dentist next friday morning' and have them parsed
- Manage personal to-dos with multilingual input, including slang and Roman Urdu
- Plan a whole day conversationally with Pop and approve the proposed schedule
- Break a big task like 'plan weekend trip' into checkable AI steps
- Keep Mac, iPhone and iPad task lists aligned through your own iCloud
- Speak through the iPhone Lock Screen or Control Center when the phone is in your hand
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of PopTask — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Typed capture is close to instant: download from the App Store, and the on-device parser works on your first entry with nothing to configure. Calendar sync via your own iCloud is a short settings step. Pop takes longer — a week of free voice (20 minutes) is built in so you can judge whether the separate subscription earns its place.
Switching to or from PopTask
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Apple Reminders: connect Reminders sync and your lists travel across iPhone, iPad and Mac through your own iCloud.
- →From Google Calendar: turn on two-way sync and events on your PopTask calendar come back as tasks on both sides.
- →From Microsoft Outlook Calendar: same two-way path — move or delete an event and the task follows it.
- →From a notes app or Notepad: type or paste your lines into PopTask's natural-language field and let Smart Suggestion add dates, times and repeats.
- ↗To Todoist: there is no shared-list or project structure to port, so re-create lists manually and expect to rebuild recurring rules.
- ↗To Things 3: export your task names, then rebuild areas and projects by hand since PopTask has no hierarchy to map.
- ↗To Apple Reminders: if Reminders sync is connected, your tasks already exist there — sever the sync once you've confirmed the copy.
Integrations
Resources & guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “PopTask”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “PopTask” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about PopTask.
Official links
What are the best PopTask alternatives?
The closest alternatives to PopTask we list are PromptPaste, Elisi and Poke (Interaction Co.). Ranked by direct product-type match, not category overlap.
| Alternative | Pricing | Starts at | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| PromptPaste | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Elisi | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
| Poke (Interaction Co.) | Freemium | Pricing not published | — |
Alternatives to PopTask
View all
PromptPaste
Private AI prompt library that saves, organizes and pastes your prompts across Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Elisi
Elisi is an AI journal and daily planner that turns a few honest lines into one scheduled next step.
Poke (Interaction Co.)
Poke is an AI personal assistant you text on Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram or RCS to run email, calendar and reminders
Tools that pair well with PopTask
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside PopTask, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
PromptPaste
Private AI prompt library that saves, organizes and pastes your prompts across Mac, iPhone and iPad.
Elisi
Elisi is an AI journal and daily planner that turns a few honest lines into one scheduled next step.
Poke (Interaction Co.)
Poke is an AI personal assistant you text on Apple Messages, WhatsApp, Telegram or RCS to run email, calendar and reminders
Frequently asked questions
Categories
Best-of guides
Topics
For makers of PopTask
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