The Workflowy app for iPhone offers a lovely and quick way to make nested lists, which you can use to jot down your to-dos, shopping list, work assignments, or whatever you like. Items on your lists can be marked "complete" and crossed off, suggesting that this app is meant to be a task manager. However, it falls short in that department because it lacks the ability to add due dates or see your to-dos in a calendar view. Despite a few shortcomings, I found its balance of simplicity and interactive design charming. Its potential uses are infinite, and the Workflowy iPhone app is poised to be great quite soon if the developers can implement a few fairly minor tweaks in upcoming version releases.
What is Workflowy?
The Workflowy iPhone app has a companion Web app of the same name. Whichever version you use, you'll need a Workflowy account (free to $49 per year for Pro). Workflowy lets you create nested lists, which sync between the two apps. In its concept, it reminds me in some ways of distraction-free text editors, such as Writebox and Writebox Mac app, which provide an austere workspace so that you can focus and write. There isn't much glitter and glitzy, which I like. It's straightforward, clean, intuitive, and almost endearing in how simple it is.
As a to-do list, Workflowy deserves a knock or two for not having deadlines and reminders of upcoming deadlines. When I reached out to the Workflowy team to ask about this missing feature, a rep explained that some users leverage hashtags for due dates—that is, they'll create a tag like #12-04-13 and sort by the day's tag to find everything due. The problems with this workaround are 1) it's a workaround and 2) you have to seek out the information, rather than it coming to you, which is how time-dated reminders should work.
Similar Products
Writebox (for iPad)
Awesome Note (+Todo/Calendar) (for iPhone)
Evernote
Basic Features
To use Workflowy, you simply start typing. Drop the cursor where you want it on the screen using your finger, as you would with any other text-editing app for iPhone. I started using the Workflowy mobile app after already setting up an account online, and I was happy to see all my data sync to my iPhone without a hitch. The Web app requires an Internet connection to work, but the iPhone app works offline.
If you enter new text, it turns into a bullet point. You can add more bullets, sub-bullets (nested items), as well as a note, which appears directly below the attached item in a slightly different font. You can mark complete (i.e., cross out) any item by putting the cursor on that item and tapping a green "Complete" button at the top of the page.
The Web app version of Workflowy has a few features that aren't in the iPhone app, such as the ability to drag items up or down to rearrange them; and export, share (via a link), duplicate, and delete any item by accessing a little menu attached to the bullet point itself. To squeeze in these features, the iPhone app might need some design tweaks, as it already exhibits some "fat-finger" problems. Buttons are small and hard to see when fingers reach for the screen, and some buttons are too close together, making it tough to accurately press where you intended. I do like two little arrow buttons at the top of the page that let you move a bullet in one step or outward to nest it or pull it out one hierarchical level.
Describing Workflowy in words doesn't really capture its true elegance. I've collected some images from the iPhone app in the slideshow above and created a quick video of the Web app so you can see it in action:
(Again, bear in mind that the iPhone app doesn't have all the same features as the Web app.)
Freemium
You can sign up for Workflowy for free, but the free version has limitations. It only allows 500 lists or "items" per month, two choices for typeface (a generic serif and sans serif), no options for background theme, and no connectivity with Dropbox to backup your account. Pro accounts, on the other hand, can be backed up to Dropbox, contain an unlimited number of lists, and have a range of options in themes and typefaces. There are two kinds of pro accounts: Individual ($4.99 per month or $49 per year) and Team ($3.99 per month per user, or $39 per year per user, with a two user minimum). Team accounts include support for collaborative editing.
Workflowy's Got Flow
The compelling simplicity of the Workflowy iPhone app makes it appealing to use and keep using. It's quick and responsive, yet uncluttered and elegant. New users may find they adore the app but aren't sure what to do with it (a perennial problem for one of my all-time favorite apps Evernote, too, by the way). If one of its primary intended purposes is to be a to-do list or task-management app—and judging by what else is included, it is—then it needs to add due dates, reminders, and a calendar view. Workflowy for iPhone is poised for greatness soon with a few tweaks, but solid enough to use now, too.
Download the Workflowy app for iPhone if you want a fresh, interactive, and neat tool for jotting down lists. Nested lists function almost like folders, to leverage the tried and true expandable-collapsible concept.
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