By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 18th, 2024
Microsoft has decided to shut down personal organization app Wunderlist in favor of its To-Do solution.
After much foot-dragging, software giant Microsoft has finally decided to shut down its Wunderlist App come 2020. Sources indicate that Microsoft prefers its To Do as it offers a better end-user experience and be able to compete favorably with other personal organization apps that are currently in vogue and trending in app stores.
Wunderlist app users will no longer be able to sync their to-do lists starting from May 6, 2020, but rather will be able to import their data into Microsoft’s To Do from that date on. Even though many of the Wunderlist users aren’t quite keen on the shutdown of their favorite app, sources further indicate that Microsoft had wanted to shut down Wunderlist since April 2017. This indicates that the maintenance of the program is just not tenable for the software giant. On the other hand, Microsoft has also made sure that all the favorite features available in Wunderlist are also available in To Do as well.
Microsoft introduced new upgrades for To Do in September with changes such as new backgrounds and smarter to-do lists and task suggestion capabilities as well. Integration with other Microsoft legacy apps such as outlook and Cortana were added to the mix. This led many to believe that a shutdown of Wunderlist was in the works and it has occurred as speculated by pundits in the technology world.
Already Christian Rebber the developer of Wunderlist has indicated remorse about the shutdown of the app and has said that he would buy it back if offered the chance however his current involvements with content startup Pitch would prevent that from happening on many levels.
Still sad @Microsoft wants to shut down @Wunderlist, even though people still love and use it. I’m serious @satyanadella @marcusash, please let me buy it back. Keep the team and focus on @MicrosoftToDo, and no one will be angry for not shutting down @Wunderlist. pic.twitter.com/27mIABncLF
— Christian Reber (@christianreber) September 6, 2019
Microsoft, on the other hand, has stated that it decided to shut down the app due to competing interests between the two and the desire to maintain one app (To Do) propelled it to make this decision. The software giant also indicated that it intended to continue developing To Do for it to become the best replacement for Wunderlist available in the app market currently. Furthermore, the company has made it clear that new users won’t be able to sign up for the service because it is shutting down. To migrate successfully, users have to use the Wunderlist importer when they sign into the app from either web, Android, iOS, Mac or by PC though they can also do the reverse if they wish to as well.
Microsoft said in a statement:
“Some of you have been on this journey with us since the very beginning,” said Microsoft, in an announcement. “You, our users, mean everything to us, and we hope that you continue to share our vision and join us on this next step of our journey. You helped us make Wunderlist what it is, and we’d love for you to help us do the same with To-Do. Tell us what you love and what you’d like to see added or updated. With our latest additions – printing, smart due dates, and dark mode – you can be sure that we always take your feedback into consideration when building new features,”
This goes to show that Microsoft is changing and ready to take on the big leagues in terms of building apps that are user-centric and not about the brand which is a big shift from its legacy products that made the company become what it is today.