Popular to-do app Things reached version 3.4 today and gained a trio of additional features made possible by the introduction of all-new Things URL links. Basically, the app now supports a special kind of link that starts with “things:” and enables users to send a variety of commands to the app.
For example, it’s now possible to link to your Today list, as well as the contents of your Upcoming and Logbook lists, from anywhere, such as in another app or within Things itself. In addition, links can be tied to specific to-dos within lists.
On Mac, links can be generated within Things by right-clicking on any to-do or list in the sidebar and selecting Share -> Copy Link. On iOS, the same option can be found in the Share menu, accessed via the chevron button in the upper right corner of a list. Some examples of the new links users can generate include:
- Show Today: things:///show?id=today
- Show Upcoming: things:///show?id=upcoming
- Show Logbook: things:///show?id=logbook
- Show your “Vacation in Rome” project: things:///show?query=Vacation%20in%20Rome (This works if the project has that name).
Apart from simple navigation, more advanced users can use Things URLs to execute powerful commands from outside of the app – to create to-dos, show tag filters, perform searches, and so on – while other apps will soon be able to use the URLs to send data to Things. For example, MindNode now lets users brainstorm on an empty canvas and then “hand it over” to Things as a project via a link.
The popular Drafts app is planning support for Things URL links in its next version, and with the publication of Things’ open source Swift library, more are likely to follow suit.
Things 3.4 can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99 and from the iOS App Store. The iPad version is priced at $19.99 [Direct Link] while the iPhone version (which includes Apple watch support) is priced at $9.99. [Direct Link] A 15-day trial of Things for Mac is available on the Cultured Code website.
Tag: Cultured Code
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