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    Type or Say a Task and Let Tasks Fill In the Details

    Write a task the way you would say it. Tasks spots the date, repeat, priority, place and tags, or listens and fills them in for you.

    By Mustafa Yusuf4 min read
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    1. Type it the way you would say it
      1. Phrases Tasks understands
    2. Jump to a project, person or tag
    3. Or just say it

    Type Team meeting every Monday at 4pm and Tasks offers to turn it into a weekly repeat at 4 PM, leaving a clean title. No menus, no pickers.

    Type it the way you would say it

    1. Open Create Task and type the whole thought in the title.
    2. Tasks highlights the parts it understood and shows each one as a chip with a + under the title.
    3. Tap a chip to apply it. The phrase moves out of the title and into the right field.
    4. Save as usual.

    Nothing is applied until you tap its chip, so a title like Read John 3:16 stays exactly as you wrote it.

    Three iPhone screens of Create Task in Work: Team meeting every Monday at 4pm typed in, with every Monday at 4pm highlighted and a chip reading Event will occur every week on Monday at 4 PM; Renew the lease when I arrive at the office, with the place phrase highlighted and an Arrive · office chip; and the draft after tapping that chip, titled Renew the lease with a blue Office location chip.Open full size in a new tab
    Type naturally and tap the chips you want. Places work too: when I arrive at the office becomes a location reminder at your saved Office.

    Press ⌘N, type the task, then click the chips under the title. It works the same way in the Add Anywhere window.

    The Mac Create Task window over the Work board, with Renew the lease when I arrive at the office typed in, the place phrase highlighted, and an Arrive · Office chip under the field chips.Open full size in a new tab
    The same chips appear on Mac. Click one to apply it.
    The same Mac Create Task window after applying the details: the title reads Renew the lease, and the finance tag, High priority and Office location are filled in as coloured chips.Open full size in a new tab
    Applied details turn into filled chips, and the title keeps only the action.

    Phrases Tasks understands

    Detail Try typing
    Date and time today, tomorrow at 9, next Friday, in 3 days, this weekend, end of month, March 14 at 5:30pm
    Duration for 30 minutes, for 2 hours
    Repeat every day, every weekday, every other Friday, every Monday and Wednesday, monthly on the 15th, every July 4th
    Priority p1 to p4, !!!, !!, high priority, low priority, urgent at the start or end
    Place when I arrive at the office, when I leave the gym
    Tag any tag you already have, with or without #, such as #sales

    It also reads French, German and Spanish: Appeler demain à 9h30, Alex nächsten Freitag anrufen or Cena esta noche.

    Tags and priorities only match what the project already has. A place you have not saved opens the location picker already searched for you.

    Jump to a project, person or tag

    Type a symbol in the title to pick from a list without leaving the keyboard.

    Type To choose
    / A project. The draft moves to that project.
    @ Anything: tags, priorities, statuses, task types, people, assistants and projects
    + A person or assistant to assign
    ! A priority
    ^ Today, Tomorrow, This weekend or Next week

    Keep typing to filter the list. Use the arrow keys and Return or Tab to pick, or Esc to close it. The + list needs an Assigned to field in the project, and ^ needs a date field.

    Three iPhone screens of Create Task in Work: a slash in the title lists the projects Inbox, Work, Home and California; @sa finds the sales tag and the people Sam and Sarah, each labelled Tag or User; and +s lists Sam and Sarah to assign.Open full size in a new tab
    Type / to pick a project, @ to search everything at once, or + to assign someone.
    Two iPhone screens of Create Task in Work: an exclamation mark lists the priorities High, Medium and Low; and a caret lists the dates Today, Tomorrow, This weekend and Next week.Open full size in a new tab
    Type ! for a priority or ^ for a quick date.

    Or just say it

    Tap the waveform button in Create Task and talk. The first time, allow Tasks to use the microphone. Your words appear as you speak. Pause, or tap again, and Tasks writes a short title and fills in the fields you mentioned.

    1. Say the task: Complete the client presentation, high priority, with the tag sales.
    2. To change the draft, tap the button again and say what to change, such as Make it due Friday.
    3. Check the draft, then save. Nothing is added until you do.

    Voice works on one task at a time and never makes up people, statuses or tags. A tag you name that does not exist yet is offered as a new tag.

    Three iPhone screens of Create Task in Work: the system prompt asking to allow Tasks to access the microphone, with Don't Allow and Allow; the spoken words Inform Alex to with a high priority and the tag sales complete the client presentation appearing in the title, with + High and + sales chips offered below; and the finished draft titled Complete client presentation, with the sales tag and High priority filled in.Open full size in a new tab
    Allow the microphone once, then speak. When you pause, the spoken sentence becomes a short title with the tag and priority already set.

    Voice needs iOS 27 and Apple Intelligence turned on. Tasks uses Apple’s Private Cloud Compute first and falls back to the model on your iPhone.

    Click the waveform button in the Create Task window. Voice needs macOS 27 and Apple Intelligence turned on, and it runs entirely on your Mac.

    Try it with your next errand, then see how repeats work in Recurring tasks and reminders.

    Used to Quick Add in Todoist? See how Tasks compares with Todoist.

    Questions, ideas or a setup you'd like us to look at? Email tasks@msquarelabs.com.