Google plans to make Inbox and Calendar think for you with Timeful acquisition

By Kris Wouk May 5, 2015

Timeful App

Since the dawn of the computer – even before the personal computer – the trend has been that as time moves forward, computers do more for us, and we do less in return. Many Google apps are a great example of this, particularly its most recent email app, Inbox. Now, the strategic purchase of a time management calendar app called Timeful may have Google’s apps doing even more thinking for us.

Last year we spoke with the creators of Timeful, a combined to-do list and calendar app that went above and beyond what most of either type of app normally does. The app took to-do list items that its users had to do, along with things that they wanted to do, and neatly scheduled them around calendar events. It was a time management app without all the work normally involved therein.

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Yesterday Google announced that Timeful would be “joining the Google family to help make getting things done in your life even easier.” The goal isn’t for Timeful to remain a standalone app, however. Instead, Google plans to roll Timeful’s functionality into its own apps.

“The Timeful team has built an impressive system that helps you organize your life by understanding your schedule, habits and needs,” director of product management Alex Gawley wrote in the announcement on the Gmail blog. “We’re excited about all the ways Timeful’s technology can be applied across products like Inbox, Calendar and beyond, so we can do more of the work for you and let you focus on being creative, having fun and spending time with the people you care about”

Considering how powerful Timeful already was, adding email to the mix seems like a perfect match. Google Calendar can already recognize appointments in emails, so it will be interesting to see how Inbox and Calendar will benefit from the new technology.

“Timeful is our attempt to do things better in the world,” co-creator Dan Ariely told Digital Trends last year. Now with the power of Google’s apps at their fingertips, the team may find that easier to do.

The Timeful app is still available in the App Store, but it won’t see further updates. An update on the Timeful website reads “you can continue to download and use the Timeful app, but moving forward the team’s attention will be on new projects at Google.”

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