Cultured Code Releases Things 3 for Apple Vision Pro

Things is a great app but with some of the most stubborn developers of all time.

I've gone back as far as SIX years ago on Twitter to find the first time a user requested the extremely simple but useful feature of showing Tags in-line on iPad (the new Vision app is also lacking this). They constantly say they'll add a +1 to any feature request but these +1s clearly go into a bin along with a "Thanks for letting us know you'd like this" response.

They appear to have a form of pathological demand avoidance where it comes to implementing basic features and seem to wear this as a badge of pride. Other minor annoyances include their refusal to adopt the post Big Sur macOS icon shape like EVERY other app out there. Like why?




The app is very, very well made and the devs always update religiously to support new OS features like Widgets and others. I wouldn't use anything else.

But where it comes to simple, and perfectly valid user requests and feedback, it's almost as though if it's requested they will double down on not doing it.

I fail to see a real difference to the iPadOS Apps on most of these Vision Pro optimized apps like it’s still just a floating 2D window like what is the difference? The transparency effect? Bigger buttons?

Things is a great app but with some of the most stubborn developers of all time.

I've gone back as far as SIX years ago on Twitter to find the first time a user requested the extremely simple but useful feature of showing Tags in-line on iPad (the new Vision app is also lacking this). They constantly say they'll add a +1 to any feature request but these +1s clearly go into a bin along with a "Thanks for letting us know you'd like this" response.

They appear to have a form of pathological demand avoidance where it comes to implementing basic features and seem to wear this as a badge of pride. Other minor annoyances include their refusal to adopt the post Big Sur macOS icon shape like EVERY other app out there. Like why?




The app is very, very well made and the devs always update religiously to support new OS features like Widgets and others. I wouldn't use anything else.

But where it comes to simple, and perfectly valid user requests and feedback, it's almost as though if it's requested they will double down on not doing it.

They also refuse to let users complete repeating tasks early despite committing to fix that years ago on Twitter.

They appear to have a form of pathological demand avoidance where it comes to implementing basic features and seem to wear this as a badge of pride.

This is a really odd assessment. I've seen no evidence that they have a fixation on, or are proud of, avoiding user requests. Just because they didn't include your pet features doesn't mean they aren't listening to their users.

A recent example of responding to user feedback and adding a "basic feature" is that when they implemented support for Interactive Widgets (on day one!), some users requested the ability to disable the interactivity so that you couldn't accidentally check off a to-do, and... they promptly added that! Another recent example that's specific to iPad is that people wanted to be able to toggle the visibility of later tasks in Areas and Projects, and they added that too (via Cmd+Shift+E).

A more major and longer term example would be that lots of users had for years wanted Markdown support in task notes, and Cultured Code added that! (with a very nice implementation) Another very frequently requested major feature was support for adjusting the app's text size, and they added that too (with the ability to follow the system's Dynamic Type size setting or to override it in the app).

Maybe they just have a clear idea of how they want their apps to work instead of adding every little thing people want? Maybe there are downsides to your requests that you haven't thought about but which they've already prototyped and think need more work?

Cultured Code are also one of the most consistent developers in adopting Apple's new platforms and platform features every year, despite the apps having so far been one-off purchases without a subscription (even though their superior syncing service totally justifies a subscription all by itself, in my opinion, and I would happily pay for one if they ever introduce it).

In fact they're usually among the first developers to add support for new OS features to their apps. This year, I think all on release day, they: had a totally rewritten Watch app ready for watchOS 10 using SwiftUI to match the new look and behaviours (among other features like now having direct-to-cloud syncing on the Watch app), supported the watchOS Smart Stack, updated all the Widgets on iOS, iPadOS and macOS to make them Interactive Widgets so items can be checked off without having to open the app (including Desktop Widgets on macOS), implemented support for Lock Screen Widgets on iPadOS, added support for the new StandBy interface on iPhone (including support for Night Mode), and now they're launching - again on day one - a native visionOS app.

And users didn't even have to ask for all of these new features, they were just ready to go... on day one!

So just superimposing the window on the real environment? Innovative. Now if I could, say, look at my shed and see a list of things I need to do in the yard, or look at my desk and see today's meeting schedule, then we'd be getting somewhere.

Things is a great app but with some of the most stubborn developers of all time. [..] They appear to have a form of pathological demand avoidance where it comes to implementing basic features and seem to wear this as a badge of pride.

Well, stubbornness does make for good product management. If they accepted and prioritized every user suggestion, the end result would be a shapeless blob. You differentiate by saying no to things, and by prioritizing.