Apple / productivity / THINGS 3
REVIEW
Things 3 has been the same app for nine years. That's the point.
Cultured Code's task manager hasn't changed shape since 2017. In an era where every productivity app is rebuilding itself around AI, the one that didn't is starting to look like the smart one.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 7, 2026 · 4 MIN READ
Things 3
CULTURED CODE GMBH & CO. KG
OUR SCORE
8.7
APPLE
★ 4.8
PRICE
$9.99
Things 3 shipped in May 2017 and has not been redesigned since. There has been no Things 4. There is no rumoured Things 4. Cultured Code has spent nine years adding small things — keyboard shortcuts, a Mac menu-bar widget, Apple Watch refinements, Shortcuts hooks — and not redoing the shape of anything.
In a productivity-app market that has spent the last three years rebuilding around AI summarisers, AI prioritisers, and AI follow-up writers, holding still has stopped looking like stagnation and started looking like a position. Things 3 isn’t anti-AI in the explicit way Halide Mark II is anti-computational-photography. It is something quieter: it has decided what a task manager is, and it is not in a hurry to find out it was wrong.
The thing about being right for nine years is that you start to look unimaginative. The thing about looking unimaginative is that, sometimes, you just are right.
Things 3 doesn't have an AI summarisation feature. It has the second-best one — making you think for yourself.
FEATURES
Things uses the Getting Things Done vocabulary — Inbox, Today, Upcoming, Anytime, Someday — and stops there. Tasks have headings, projects have areas, areas have nothing inside them but more areas if you want them. The famous Magic Plus button drags from anywhere on the screen to insert a task at any position; the equally famous Quick Find pops a global search from any screen with a single shortcut.
The interface is custom typography (Things' own typeface), custom interactions (the swipe-to-snooze, the slide-to-schedule), and zero customisation. You don't pick a theme. You don't pick a font. You don't pick whether checkboxes are circles or squares. Cultured Code picked.
Sync is iCloud-only and silent. Calendar integration is read-only — Things shows your day's events without trying to manage them. Shortcuts and Siri integration both work; the URL scheme is rich enough to drive Things from another app entirely.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
The app is fast in a way that almost no productivity app is in 2026. Open it, and the first paint is your list. Tap a task, and the keyboard appears in the same frame. There is no loading state, no synchronising banner, no "What's New" modal. The data model is small and local; iCloud is a sync backend, not a runtime dependency.
Things' opinions are mostly correct. The five lists are how most people think about time. The Today and Evening split inside the daily view stops your mornings from being haunted by what you "still have to do tonight". The "Anytime" list is the philosophical centre of the app — most things are not urgent and not scheduled, and they need a place to live where they aren't shouting.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
No collaboration. None. No shared lists, no assignment, no comments. If anyone you live with also wants to know whether you bought milk, Things is not your tool — Apple Reminders is, and it's free. Cultured Code has been clear for years that they aren't building this; you should believe them.
The Mac, iPhone, and iPad apps are sold separately ($49.99 / $9.99 / $19.99). For a single-user productivity tool that's defensible at the per-device price, but the absence of a bundle in 2026 is a holdout. There's also no Windows, no Android, no web. If you're not on Apple, the migration cost out is total.
CONCLUSION
Things 3 is the productivity app for people who have stopped being excited by productivity apps. It does the boring 80% — capture, schedule, complete — better than anything in its category, and refuses to do the rest. If your todos involve other people, look elsewhere. If they involve only you, this is what you wanted.