Smartphones have become so smartypants these days that they are now virtually holding our hand every day, making sure that we successfully navigate the hazardous minefield known as life. From making sure that we don’t miss any important birthdays, anniversaries, or dinner dates, phones these days can also give you reminders when you reach a certain place. These are called “location-based reminders” and they require that you switch on your GPS.
The most famous app which does location-based reminders, is of course Apple’s Siri (my girlfriend). But there are other apps which are vying for a piece of the location reminder pie. Here are 5 of them – 2 free, 3 paid.
We’ll start off with an Android-only app. With Geobells (which got confused with an infamous historical figure when I put it into Google), you can set reminders for when you enter or leave a location. You are apparently able to set reminders for a type of place, rather than an actual address. So as the screenshot above shows, you can say “grocery store” and “movie theater”, and it will find some on the map for you.
To be notified, you can get either voice reminders or pop-ups on the screen.
LocationMinder is for iOS, and costs 99 US cents. With this, you can have multiple locations in every reminder, as well as multiple reminders in every location. So when you get to the store for example, you will get your checklist of what you need to buy. One nice function is that you can fine-tune the locations right down to 500ft.
It also keeps a history of all your old reminders, so you don’t have to keep typing in the same old thing, over and over. Just go into the history, and reactivate the one you want.
Costing $3.99, this app seems to be one of the nicer and more functional ones. It also has a very strange video with an even stranger weirdo in it.
It synchronizes all of your data into iCloud, which is very convenient if you use multiple iOS devices. With one tap, you can also move the reminder ahead by a few minutes, hours, or days. Reminders can also be recurring — daily, weekly, monthly — and you can pick and choose particular days of the week.
Todoist is slightly different because you pay a subscription to use the Premium Todoist service. Which isn’t so bad, because you get a lot of other features for your money as well. The paid version comes to about $30 a year. That’s $2.50 a month, so it isn’t wallet-busting or anything. Especially when you see the feature list which is much more extensive than what the other apps here are offering you. Even poor Siri pales in comparison (don’t worry Siri, I’ll give you a hug later).
Finally, a free option for Android, although there is a paid option as well, if you feel like breaking out the big bucks. TickTick has a pleasant looking interface. As well as the location-based reminder function, you can also synchronize across devices, create a widget to easily access the app, integrate with the phone’s calendar app, and voice inputs via Google Now.
Instead of being called a smartphone, our phone should be called “the nanny” because pretty soon, we will never have to think for ourselves. The phone will handle everything. Which location-based reminder app do you use on your phone? Or is smartphone privacy a more important concern?
The most famous app which does location-based reminders, is of course Apple’s Siri (my girlfriend). But there are other apps which are vying for a piece of the location reminder pie. Here are 5 of them – 2 free, 3 paid.
Geobells (Android)
We’ll start off with an Android-only app. With Geobells (which got confused with an infamous historical figure when I put it into Google), you can set reminders for when you enter or leave a location. You are apparently able to set reminders for a type of place, rather than an actual address. So as the screenshot above shows, you can say “grocery store” and “movie theater”, and it will find some on the map for you.
To be notified, you can get either voice reminders or pop-ups on the screen.
LocationMinder (iOS)
LocationMinder is for iOS, and costs 99 US cents. With this, you can have multiple locations in every reminder, as well as multiple reminders in every location. So when you get to the store for example, you will get your checklist of what you need to buy. One nice function is that you can fine-tune the locations right down to 500ft.
It also keeps a history of all your old reminders, so you don’t have to keep typing in the same old thing, over and over. Just go into the history, and reactivate the one you want.
Snowman (iOS)
Costing $3.99, this app seems to be one of the nicer and more functional ones. It also has a very strange video with an even stranger weirdo in it.
It synchronizes all of your data into iCloud, which is very convenient if you use multiple iOS devices. With one tap, you can also move the reminder ahead by a few minutes, hours, or days. Reminders can also be recurring — daily, weekly, monthly — and you can pick and choose particular days of the week.
Todoist Premium (Android / iOS)
Todoist is slightly different because you pay a subscription to use the Premium Todoist service. Which isn’t so bad, because you get a lot of other features for your money as well. The paid version comes to about $30 a year. That’s $2.50 a month, so it isn’t wallet-busting or anything. Especially when you see the feature list which is much more extensive than what the other apps here are offering you. Even poor Siri pales in comparison (don’t worry Siri, I’ll give you a hug later).
TickTick (Android)
Finally, a free option for Android, although there is a paid option as well, if you feel like breaking out the big bucks. TickTick has a pleasant looking interface. As well as the location-based reminder function, you can also synchronize across devices, create a widget to easily access the app, integrate with the phone’s calendar app, and voice inputs via Google Now.
Instead of being called a smartphone, our phone should be called “the nanny” because pretty soon, we will never have to think for ourselves. The phone will handle everything. Which location-based reminder app do you use on your phone? Or is smartphone privacy a more important concern?
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