Microsoft announces when it will kill Wunderlist

Microsoft’s Wunderlist to-do app has been living on borrowed time for a while now. It was back in 2017 when the software giant announced it would be phasing out the app, which strangely enough, Microsoft had only purchased in 2015. The plan then was to phase out Wunderlist as Microsoft worked on its own in-house developed to-do app, imaginatively named To-Do. It seems that plan has now come to fruition as Microsoft has announced that it will be shutting down Wunderlist on May 6, 2020.

Wunderlist has long been regarded as one of the best, and certainly has been one of the most popular to-do lists apps ever. Even the free version of Wunderlist offers some great features, all packaged into a nice simple design with an intuitive interface. You can create lists for your to-dos and then group them into folders. You can then add different types of tasks, star them, add due dates, filter them when you’re searching through them, and even collaborate with others on your tasks at hand. This, however, is all about to end, although not quite.

Microsoft’s plan has always been to incorporate the best Wunderlist features into its own app To-Do. Some have made the jump to the new Microsoft app, but unfortunately there are still plenty that have been left behind. To-Do still has no recurring tasks, no collaboration, or tags and it isn’t very easy to get the hang of, unlike Wunderlist.

So why exactly, is Microsoft pulling the plug on Wunderlist while To-Do is still in such a state? The short answer is support. The blog post announcing the move to cut Wunderlist said, “We’ve stopped releasing new features and big updates to Wunderlist, so as the app ages it’s become more difficult to maintain… As technology continues to advance, we can’t guarantee that Wunderlist will continue to work as it should, or as we’d like it to.” Microsoft is dedicating all its time to developing To-Do so it no longer has time make sure Wunderlist works as it is supposed to.

If you’re a Wunderlist user and you’re worried about this, you’re right to be. Come May 6 your to-dos will no longer sync across devices. If you’re not a Wunderlist user, it is too late. The same blog post announced that Microsoft is no longer accepting new Wunderlist sign-ups.

The big push for Microsoft here, is of course to get Wunderlist users to switch to Snap. Microsoft has tried to make it as easy as possible for Wunderlist users to import their tasks to To-Do. If you want to do that, click here for the full instructions.