Google, like other large companies in the tech space, is well known for making strategic acquisitions, and this appears to be no exception: Google has announced today that it has acquired Timeful, Inc. to help make getting things done just that little bit easier.
There’s already been a lot of work on the productivity side of things from Google, with smart features already built into their products — Inbox makes it easy to mix your to-do list and email, which many people already do anyway, and Calendar can automatically add events from your Gmail.
Timeful offers a system that allows even more fine-grained and intelligent management of your schedule. For example, you can tell the system that you want to exercise three times a week, or call the bank next Tuesday, and Timeful will make sure you get it done based on your schedule, other priorities and more. Google is particularly excited about how this technology could be used in Inbox and Calendar, but also elsewhere in its product suite.
Timeful is (for the time being) an iOS productivity app, which makes this acquisition a little more unusual, but it’s the system behind the scenes that Google wants its hands on; the front-end app will likely reach end-of-life and be quietly retired, with the functionality appearing in Inbox, Gmail and Calendar down the track.
Some of the features that Timeful offers, which might find their way into Google’s suite of apps soon include:
- Everything comes together on your Calendar, seamlessly – events, meetings, to-dos, and repeating habits all appear in one place so you can see what is competing for your time
- Schedule your to-dos and habits by simply dragging them directly onto your calendar and get reminders to make progress when the time comes
- Timeful will help you schedule your day based on the patterns of your habits, upcoming deadlines, and time available to make progress on your big to-dos
- Make time for good habits – plan out your work, personal, wellness or other categories of habits that should appear multiple times per day, daily, weekly or monthly
- Protect time on shared calendars – schedule your to-dos or habits and they appear as “busy” on your work or personal calendar
We’re always excited to see improvements to Google’s key apps and this sounds like a great idea. What are your thoughts?
