When Wunderlist closed down we’ve been left without a good task manager that easily syncs across Google and MacOS. AnyDo doesn’t have a MacOS app. I can’t get my Google assistant to add a new todo into to ‘Todoist’. Google Tasks isn’t great but it does have the advantage that it is built right in to gMail. So it’s what I’m running with at the moment. Google tasks is available on MacOS but the App is called ‘Tasksboard’. Here’s the convoluted way to get it up and running!

Here’s what Tasksboard looks like on MacOS OSX.

It’s a simple app that displays your Google Tasks. It’s pretty ugly, I think Google would do well to read their own interface guidelines, but it works.

On the Tasksboard.app webpage the picture looks a bit better.

This picture is misleading. They haven’t included the big ugly window that surrounds the interface, and to make the background blue like that you need to pay $6 per month for the premium version. This is not the Google that I’m used to dealing with…

Installing it

Taskboard is not an Application that you download. To get it going you need to go to https://tasksboard.app using Google Chrome browser and and sign in.

After you sign in you’ll see your tasks in a normal Chrome window. To turn it into an App you need to go to the menu at the top right of Chrome, go down to ‘More Tools’ then select ‘Create Shortcut.’

Then when prompted make sure you select the box that says ‘Open as Window.’ That makes it open in its own window like an app. Otherwise it will open in your browser.

The shortcut will be created in a Folder called ‘Chrome Apps’ in your Applcations folder. You can add it to your dock from there.

That’s it, you can now access your Google Tasks from OSX.

Now all we need is for the Google Assistant to talk to Google Tasks. Yes that’s right, the Google Assistant on Android phones will talk to 3rd party ToDo apps but it won’t talk to Google’s own app! Here’s hoping…

Update: Even though this app uses the Google Tasks icon I think it’s a 3rd party app.

Update: There’s also a free app called  fullscreen-for-googletasks.com

Install it in exactly the same way as Taskboard.