Tomorrow is an end of an era and will twinge the nostalgia strings for many users. Wunderlist, the once immensely popular to-do task management applications is shuttering. Microsoft purchased the app in 2015 and brought its 13 million users with it. However, the company transitioned Wunderlist features into Microsoft To Do and decided to close the app.
That closure announcement was made in December and tomorrow is the day Wunderlist will ride into the sunset. When it became clear the app would be closing, Wunderlist founder Christian Reber announced he wanted to buy the service back off Microsoft.
It seems that offer was not accepted by Redmond and Reber has announced a new application that will build on Wunderlist and compete with Microsoft To Do. Called Superlist, the app is “a fresh new take on supercharged team productivity”.
On Twitter, Reber says he will provide advice and support to the Superlist team. However, it is worth noting the app is still in development. One of Reber's first tasks will be drumming up support and developers to work on the service.
He says the goal is for Superlist to be “more than just a to-do app, but never as bloated as the project management software you loathe to use”.
Today is a good day for reflection. With @Wunderlist closing down and @Pitch ramping up toward launch, I'm excited to announce a new company: @SuperlistHQ — a fresh new take on supercharged team productivity. https://t.co/YNmddyQxpP
— Christian Reber (@christianreber) May 5, 2020
Microsoft and Wunderlist
Microsoft decided to ditch Wunderlist because the app run on Amazon Web Services. Naturally, the company wanted its task management tool to run on Azure. Instead of repurposing Wunderlist, Redmond decided to write a new app.
It was not a smooth process. Microsoft regularly lamented how difficult it was to transition Wunderlist features into Microsoft To Do.