Clear: Minimalist Todo Lists

What a life enhancer. This app is an example of the very best kind of thing that pocket computers can do: simply take a basic need (“to do” lists) and, in a very unobtrusive way, extend the utility of this “simple list” significantly beyond what it’s ever been before. Your best thoughts or needs for a given list are not lost. Instead they sit there, dark and crossed out, until you bring them to life in prioritized color for your latest shopping trip or vacation or goal or whatever. Gradually, you enhance them with additions and deletions. This entire tool of the details you need just sits there until you press one button and use it. I just hope they keep adding colors and don’t “feature” it to death. So far they’ve let it stay nice and simple. If they want to add features and sell more I hope they just do a second, different app with, say, nesting folders of lists. That would not be as simple but might be a different tool for different problems.

I love the feel and layout to this app. I can organize and see my individual lists in a simple way. BUT it is missing 1 big thing and has 1 minor annoyance. It is missing the ability to have daily repeating lists. If you don’t intend to have everyday repeating things on this app, then ignore this part and see the annoyance below. However I have a daily list for the things I need/want to accomplish every common day, but I can’t mark each item complete or I’ll have to retype them tomorrow. Why can’t I set daily repeating reminders for the same time for at least 1 list?! I just don’t touch my daily list, I look at it and it’s ordered how I go about it and I just have to know what is and isn’t done. The annoyance....I like the dark purple theme, it looks great on my lists. But my upper tier list (the list of your lists) doesn’t follow that theme, that tier is ugly bright yellow/orange that I can’t read well, so I can’t use the purple theme on my lower lists because of its opposite effect on the upper tier. If the theme I choose isn’t going to be universal across all my lists, then let me at least change the other tier theme to something else. The dark themes are the only ones that stay constant on both tiers. I’ll stick with boring black or noir until that’s fixed....

I have been using this app for many years. According to the App Store I first put it on my phone back in May, 2013 (WOW really THAT long?!) and I gotta say it’s pretty great. I have tried, and subsequently deleted, untold numbers of list apps. What keeps bringing me back (or making me never leave) Clear is the absolute simplicity. It lets me make lists like I would on paper, and delete/cross off, my choice. Themes, whatever, I don’t care. I want it easy to use and easy on my eyes, and this 90% succeeds. Unfortunately, I was forced to take a star away due to the last update removing Apple Watch support. I understand the need to do so, and honestly I didn’t use the feature THAT often, but the times that I did use it (phone in another room, phone in pocket, during meetings, etc.) it was quite helpful. Obviously this review will be amended once it returns (or if it never returns). Just sayin’ Anyway, love the app. Cautiously optimistic about what is to come (a lot of times developers “improve” their apps and they get considerably worse, see Dark Sky weather as a current example), hoping if there are major changes in store, there will at least always be a way to use it as my simple, list-making app!!

I love this app. It’s fast and responsive. It’s very simple to use and has a very attractive design. It has fun sounds too. It doesn’t have complex features like recurring tasks and scheduling. I use another app for my more complex needs, but when I want to get things done today, I use Clear. It’s just a cool simple “to do” app, which is exactly what I want! You can have multiple lists, which is nice. Also, it does sync nicely between my MacBook, iPhone and iPad. I highly recommend it. My past problem with Clear: I wrote a 1 star review in January of 2017 titled “Last update 2015, not syncing.” That’s a long time not to update an app, so I’m concerned they might stop updating the app again. Since it wasn’t working back then, I uninstalled the app. At the time I was very disappointed in Clear’s app developer and felt that I had wasted my money. But wait the story has a happy ending. Re-discovery: Recently I was searching for a new “to do” app and I was surprised to see Clear and that it was being updated. I immediately downloaded it and am using it daily...and loving it.

I got this app a few years ago as a free download from Starbucks, and since then, I use it for my grocery lists, Christmas lists, and birthday lists. Unfortunately, I had it on my husband’s iCloud account. Due to issues with the account, he stopped sharing. I tried other list apps to avoid having to buy it. Nothing else comes close to CLEAR. I live how you swipe the item, and it gets dim, others don’t do that. Needless to say, I bought Clear. The only thing I would change is when copying a list from a text, each [enter/carriage return] would put the item on a separate line/bar. I get a lot of lists from my husband and copy/paste the items one at a time, so I can swipe each one once I get it.