My Wishlist for Things 4
Image of the icon of Things 3
I’ve been using Things 3 as my go-to task and project manager for a while now, and I have to say—it’s an amazing app. It’s beautifully designed, super intuitive, and gives you just the right amount of features without overwhelming you. It’s a refined product, often compared to a Porsche 911—small, thoughtful tweaks here and there, each making it even better without losing its essence.
Unlike many other task managers, Things actually helps you get stuff done while letting you organize your tasks in a way that works for you. It’s lightning-fast and has one of the best interfaces I’ve seen, with smooth gestures on iPhone and powerful keyboard shortcuts on Mac. Once you’re used to its workflow, navigating, adding, editing, or deleting tasks feels effortless. That’s a big reason I keep coming back to it after trying other apps.
As someone who geeks out over well-made software, using Things on both Mac and iPhone is just so satisfying. Jumping between projects and tasks is a breeze, and it’s really hard to find anything else that compares.
Now, some might say Things 3 is already perfect and doesn’t need any updates. I disagree. Sure, it’s simple and effective, but there are a few features I’d love to see in the next version. And no, I’m not talking about overcomplicating things—I’m all about simplicity. But there are some small additions I think could enhance Things without ruining what makes it great.
If these features ever made it into a future version of Things, I’d happily pay for a subscription.
The Five Big Features I’d Love to See
The features I’m hoping for align with my goal of minimizing the number of apps I use. I know some people prefer having a dedicated app for every little thing, but I’d rather have one app that does multiple things well. And I believe Culture Code (the makers of Things) could absolutely nail this.
1. Improved Project Notes
Right now, Things lets you add basic notes at the top of each project, and you can add notes to individual tasks too, which is great. Plus, it uses markdown, which is cool for formatting, although I’m not sure how necessary that is for a task manager. What I’d love, though, is the ability to collapse and expand the notes section, and even have multiple notes within a project.
This would be a game-changer. It would allow me to ditch my notes app for most of my project-related note-taking. Think of how Notion links notes together—being able to create separate notes within a project, with links between them, would keep everything so much more organized, especially on the iPhone. Without something like this, relying solely on Things for notes would quickly become a mess.
2. Attachments
Every project I work on—whether personal or for school—has attachments like screenshots, PDFs, Word docs, etc. Being able to attach these files directly to my projects would be a huge help. Whether they’re in a dedicated section or just within the notes, I don’t mind.
Since Things 3 is marketed as both a task and project manager, why not let us manage the entire project, including files? I know some people might worry this would push Culture Code into a subscription model, but honestly, I think it would be worth it to keep the app sustainable and allow for ongoing improvements.
3. Full Natural Language Input
Things already supports some natural language input, like typing “in 8 days,” “tomorrow,” or specific dates. But it could go further. I’d love to be able to type out a task and assign it to a project, set it as a repeating task, and more—all in one go. This isn’t a dealbreaker, but it would make the app even faster and more enjoyable to use.
4. Location-Based Reminders
One of the few reasons I sometimes switch back to Apple Reminders is the ability to set reminders based on location. For those quick tasks that aren’t tied to a specific time, it’s really helpful to get reminded when I arrive or leave a location. I’d love to see this in Things.
5. Better Siri Support
This is another reason I use Apple Reminders from time to time. It’s just so convenient to ask Siri to remind me of something without having to open the app. I’m hoping this gets better with the upcoming improvements to Apple Intelligence. If Siri can become smart enough to add tasks to Things without me having to specify “in Things” at the end of every command, that would be perfect.
The Smaller Features I’d Like to See
These are more minor, but they’d be nice additions:
- An option to hide markdown syntax.
- The ability to mark repeating tasks as complete before their scheduled time.
- A way to hide time-specific tasks in the Today view until their set time.
Conclusion
Things is still an amazing piece of software, and I’ll continue using it even if none of these features are added. But if Culture Code wants to keep Things relevant in the long term, I think they’ll need to start introducing new features—even if it’s a slow, steady process.
I know Culture Code operates a lot like Apple, keeping their plans under wraps and not sharing much about what they’re working on. That has its pros and cons, but personally, I prefer when developers are a bit more open with their users, sharing what’s in the pipeline. Apps like Bear Notes, Reeder (Newly Released), and Obsidian do this really well, and it keeps users engaged and excited for what’s coming next.