Google has begun the switch to its Tasks service in Calendar as a replacement for standard and Assistant-based “Reminders”. Previously, you could set reminders from Assistant or Google Keep for notes so that they would pop up at a pre-determined time or location. Now that both of these features are in the toilet though, I’m quickly realizing something about my Keep notes – they’re less useful.
Let me explain. The trifecta that was Google Tasks, Google Keep and Google Calendar existed in perfect harmony specifically because they worked perfectly in unison with one another. If you added a reminder to a Task or a note in Keep, they would all appear on your Calendar in one place, giving you an easy overview of everything you needed for your day.
Now, if you want to be reminded of a note, you’re going to have to head over to Google Keep and see them separately! After daily reminders by Google’s push notification system on Android, it’s beginning to give users the option of migrating their reminders to Tasks ahead of the forced switch.
Keep reminders remain on Keep, but will no longer show on your calendar.
You may be wondering why this is such a bad idea in my opinion. Well, I’ve long since used Google Keep as a personal journal, and oftentimes, sharing a piece of content temporarily to it instead of to another Google service has been more convenient. Share a YouTube video I want to watch later to Keep, slap a reminder on it, and watch it pop up on my Calendar later that afternoon so I could share it with someone in person.
Well, not so much anymore. The shattering of this Triforce of Google services breaks my heart. It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to rely on the tech giant for anything if you aren’t using what it provides in exactly the way it expects you to use it. However, with so many great tools, it’s natural to try to create your own system and enjoy using it – until it’s upended by Google’s plans, that is.
As previously mentioned, Keep reminders will still show on the ‘Reminders’ tab in the note taking service, and they’ll still pop up on your phone, but there was something truly special about seeing all of your events, reminders, tasks, and notes in one place – your Calendar. I’m so sick of having to hop between four different apps to get an overview of my day, and this was how I avoided such a hassle.
Luckily, with Google Workspace and Chat Spaces, Google is working hard to compete with Microsoft Loop, even for personal Google Accounts. This means that all of your notes (though limited compared to the full service), your Tasks, and Calendar events will all be accessible from the sidebar while you chat, manage tasks, and edit files in the main window.
It’s not the end-all-be-all of unity, and I much prefer how things were before, but I guess that’s on me for settling into a workflow that Google provided and getting too comfortable knowing exactly what kind of company is running the show. Will you be broken up about Reminders leaving Calendar, or are you welcoming the shift to Tasks and the separate Tasks calendar?
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