Telegram Messenger (for iPhone)

By Max Eddy

The Telegram iPhone app balances security and fun with easy messaging and a novel decentralized system that allows anyone to create and share sticker sets. It has long been a PCMag favorite. iOS 10's reinvigorated Messages app offers a real challenge with its continued emphasis on security in addition to its new animations and stickers, but Telegram counters strongly with smart compromise between ease of use and encrypted messaging, which secures all your messages and uses end-to-end encryption for secret messages. Telegram is one of the best chat apps for the iPhone, and still an Editors' Choice winner, despite the increased competition.

Setup
Telegram is available for free from the Apple App Store. I had no trouble installing it on my iPhone 6, and am thrilled at all the other platforms Telegram currently supports, including Android, PC, Mac, and even Windows Phone. There's also a Web client, making it easy to log in and check your messages wherever you are.

Before you can begin with Telegram, you have to enter your phone number. This is the main identifier that Telegram uses. After you enter your number, Telegram sends a confirmation code via SMS. If you choose to link your Telegram account to the desktop, tablet, or Web client, the service confirms your identity by sending a special message to the Telegram app on your phone. It's wonderfully seamless, though the downside is that you can only have one phone associated with a Telegram account. If you want to install Telegram on a second phone, you have to create a separate account.

Using a phone number also raises some legitimate privacy concerns, as does Telegram's requirement that it view your contacts to connect you with other users. Any Telegram user who has your phone number in their Contacts list will see you in their Telegram contacts. This is part for the course for such apps, but I still prefer adding contacts in apps the old-fashioned way.

Unlike messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram lets you create a special Username from the Settings panel. If your account has a Username, anyone can search and find you using your Username instead of your phone number. Telegram also generates a public link that you can share to let friends easily find you. I particularly like that you can change your Username at any time.

Telegram on the Telephone
The first thing you notice when you log in to Telegram is that the app is very well designed. It's extremely responsive, and has all the high design we've come to expect from a polished iPhone app. Google Allo has a similar interface, and feels a little snappier, but Telegram is no slouch.

The threaded conversations and uploaded images in Telegram look excellent, and have a distinctly WhatsApp-like vibe. And as with WhatsApp, you can choose one of your photos or one of the 33 tasteful images included with Telegram as the background for your chats.

Secrets and Super-Secrets
There are two types of messages in Telegram. By default, messages between two users are called Cloud Messages. These are encrypted at rest and while in transit, and are accessible to all of your devices running Telegram. This is possible because your Cloud Messages, as well as the cryptographic keys to read them, are stored and managed by Telegram. It is possible that a hacker could steal, or law enforcement subpoena, messages and keys from Telegram's servers. Depending on how that information is stored on Telegram's end of things, it is also possible that these messages could be decrypted. Telegram makes these limitations clear in the service's documentation.

What good are Cloud Messages then? Consider that when the FBI wants to read an encrypted message, they use investigations of the physical device (see the FBI's fight with Apple) and subpoenas to obtain information from wireless carriers and companies like Telegram. The NSA, on the other hand, looks at signals as they travel. If the NSA or a hacker took a peek at your Web traffic when you were chatting over Telegram, they'd see nothing but meaningless gibberish. Using a good VPN service is another way to keep your traffic safe from prying eyes, one that can further protect you by hiding your IP address.

The other type of messages are known as Secret Chats, and these trade the accessibility of Cloud Messages for better security. When you start a Secret Chat, the encryption keys for the messages are managed on the sender and recipient's devices. These are the only devices that can read the Secret Chats. This means your Secret Chats aren't held on Telegram's cloud, and by extension aren't available on any of your other devices. This sounds like a downside, but really it's the best method for sending a message you want secured in the best possible way.

Many secure messaging apps aim for what's called perfect forward secrecy, meaning that breaking one message won't allow an attacker to read all your old messages and all your future messages. Telegram comes close by destroying the encryption keys for your Secret Chats after every 100 messages or every seven days, whichever happens first. Editors' Choice Wickr, on the other hand, creates new keys for each message. Signal, also an Editors' Choice winner, has its own scheme for ensuring a broken key won't imperil your communications.

Confirming that the person at the end of the line is who they say they are has always been a problem for secure messaging. After all, if someone borrows or steals your phone, they can impersonate you. You can prevent this by enabling the option to require a password to open the Telegram app on any device (and, of course, setting a passcode on your iPhone's lock screen). Signal addresses the identity problem with a scannable QR code to confirm identity, and also displays keywords that can be spoken aloud to prevent a man-in-the-middle attack. Unfortunately, Telegram does not include Signal's secure voice features.

Not all features are available for all types of Telegram messages. For example, Secret Chats can have a timer set that deletes the message from both your phone and the recipient's phone after the set amount of time. You also see a notice when the person you're sharing a Secret Chat with takes a screenshot within the app. These features aren't available for Cloud Messages, but Cloud Messages (including Group messages, but more on those later) can be forwarded to other users while Secret Chats cannot.

A quick word on self-destructing messages: They aren't just a fun gimmick as they are for Snapchat. Deleting a message is the best way to make sure that it doesn't get intercepted or decrypted. Wickr was one of the first apps to introduce self-destructing secure messages, and it's a feature I always like to see in a secure messaging app. Google Allo, for example, includes an excellent self-destruct feature in its Incognito mode.

Most users can't accept the idea of not having access to their messages at all times, which keeps them from embracing secure messaging platforms. To me, Secret Chats are like taking someone aside to whisper a secret. It might not make sense all the time, but there are some things best discussed in private.

Groups, Stickers, and More
Both Secret Chats and Cloud Messages do more than simply send text. You can send photos, audio clips, and emojis, just as you would from your SMS client of choice. You can also send local files or files stored on iCloud Drive or Google Drive. Telegram claims there is no limit on how large these files can be. Sending large files might test your patience and your data bill, so send them wisely. Telegram also supports attached videos, contact information, and current (or nearby) location.

Note that stickers and attachments by definition have to live in Telegram's servers. But for attachments to Secret Chats, Telegram has a special scheme for dealing with this problem. Telegram's excellent and exhaustive documentation explains that attachments are encrypted with a separate key that is itself encrypted, along with the location of your attachment. These encrypted attachments appear as random data on Telegram's servers, and are periodically deleted.

If you love Facebook Messenger's stickers (and I do), you're in luck because Telegram has the best and strangest collection of stickers I've seen. Users are encouraged to make their own creations, meaning that there are, at last count, more sticker sets on Telegram than atoms in the universe (confirmation pending). On my phone I have very handsome stickers of cartoon magpies, frightening owl men, and a set composed entirely of images from hit show Murder: She Wrote.

The downside to Telegram's sticker system is that there is no centralized store; to find them, you have to save a set sent to you by another user or search out special Telegram bots via public links. The app will show you trending stickers, giving you some insight into what other people are sending on Telegram. Facebook Messenger has a massive, and mostly free, sticker store. The iOS 10 Messages app also uses a centralized store for its growing sticker collection, but these generally cost money and the store is difficult to navigate.

Telegram also sports a number of surprising photo and video tools. Snap a picture and you can adjust the photo's exposure, contrast, warmth, saturation, tint, fade, highlights, shadows, vignetting, grain, blur, sharpness, and even its image curves. These tools aren't as powerful as those of PicsArt, but far better than other messaging apps.

You can also draw on images, but Telegram now lets you place any of your downloaded stickers, too. The app even includes special masks meant to fit over images. Like sticker packs, these are numerous and high quality, with everything from snake-hair to cyber sunglasses. If you tap the mute button after shooting a video, the app converts it to a looping GIF, and lets you draw as well as add stickers and masks. It's a lot of fun.

For times when one-on-one messaging simply isn't enough, Telegram offers Groups and Channels. These are very similar to WhatsApp groups; pick a name, add some users, and your missives are delivered to everyone. Groups can have a specific admin, or share those privileges with everyone, and any of the participants can mute their own notifications or leave a group. That's great. Channels are like bigger, more public groups and are a kind of social feature I've never seen in a secure messaging app before. Telegram Channels feel a lot like the anonymous, encrypted chat rooms used by Cryptocat, but Cryptocat allows any user to use any username at any time. Telegram is a little less flexible, and, for me, a little more trustworthy.

Apple and Google have both launched new efforts in the messaging space that incorporate novel features. The Apple Messages app has animations along with stickers, and third-party app integrations that let you, for example, search for and purchase movie tickets via Fandango without leaving your text messages. Google Allo introduces the Google Assistant, which integrates search results while you chat. Telegram can't match either of these features, and that could be a big problem in the coming years.

What's in a Protocol?
Rather than use an established encryption protocol, Telegram decided to roll its own. It's called MTProto, and it has all sorts of words associated with it that you're probably familiar with from the security world: 256-bit symmetric AES encryption, RSA 2048 encryption, and Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

Creating a custom protocol is an unusual move and one not usually accepted by the security community. Encryption, after all, is extremely complicated and building your own instead of using a tried-and-true solution is frequently viewed as a bad thing. To Telegram's credit, the company has opened some, but not all, of its source code for review. Hopefully, Telegram will continue to open their code and allow the world to pick it over for errors and help improve it.

Security researchers have had some success attacking Telegram, but not its encryption protocol. Last year, Zimperium reported that it had successfully found a way to access Telegram Secret Chat information held in device memory on an Android 4.4 device. This is an extremely complex attack, and it requires a very motivated attacker who is targeting your specific device—the kind of attack that is rarely seen in the wild. A more recent attack allowed someone to search through phone numbers, but was swiftly plugged by Telegram.

The biggest drawback to Telegram is, to my mind, its custom encryption system. Signal, on the other hand, uses its own protocol but is an open source project. Anyone can pick through the code and submit fixes for problems. It might sound counterintuitive, but security experts agree that open source is better for security. The Signal protocol is also being used to secure WhatsApp messages, private Facebook Messenger messages, and Google Allo's Incognito mode. That means it has been thoroughly tested, and may be one of the most widely used encryption systems. Best of all, Signal is maintained by Open WhisperSystems, which uses volunteers and grant money to operate. The organization is actively disinterested in monetizing its users or data.

Fun, Secure Messaging
With a simple, beautiful design, excellent cross-platform support, and multiple features to protect the integrity and security of your messages, Telegram Messenger is a top messaging pick on iOS. In addition to that, it has numerous photo and video embellishment features that take pictures to the next level. And while its sticker store is frequently bizarre, it's an experience unrivaled in the messaging space.

Telegram's decision to not open source its encryption protocol gives me pause. I consider it to be an excellent general-purpose messenger with security inclinations, and what I reach for when I want to send fun messages to friends. For truly secure (if somewhat less fun) messaging, I recommend the excellent Signal, which is also an Editors' Choice.

Google Allo (for iPhone)

By Max Eddy

No one knows what the next big thing in tech will be, but I suspect that it might be machine learning-powered chatbots like the Google Assistant found in the search giant's iPhone app Allo. At its core, Allo is a chat application like most others, but the Google Assistant is intended to integrate search tools directly into the conversation. It's a revolutionary idea, but one that comes up a little short when compared with iOS 10's own Messages app.

'Ello, Allo
I tested Allo on both an iPhone 6 and a Nexus 5x, and had no trouble sending messages between the two devices. Google wants everyone to get in on Allo, and makes a considerable effort to bring the new service to both platforms simultaneously. I go into great detail about Allo and what it does (and doesn't) do in the review of Allo for Android, so I'll just summarize here.

It's important to understand that Allo is only for text messaging. Google's companion video chat service is Google Duo. Allo's design is typically Google, in that it uses lots of white space and pops of color. It's also very fast and responsive, with elements leaping to your touch. It's an excellent experience. The app has all the usual bells and whistles of modern chat services, including stickers, and you can also send video, audio clips, photos, and emoji with ease. Allo includes eerily human canned text responses that will allegedly sound more like you over time as the service learns. I felt oddly compelled not to use the canned responses, because they felt too much like actual speech in my testing.

There are three types of messages in Allo: standard, person-to-person messages; Incognito messages; and Group messages. Group Messages smartly let any member leave or add members, or just mute the page. I particularly like the Incognito mode, which uses the Signal protocol to secure messages with end-to-end encryption. Allo also offers an effortless system for making posts that delete themselves automatically, similar to Snapchat.

If the person you want to chat with doesn't have Allo, the app will send them a SMS text message for free. That's handy, and helps make Allo more accessible. But the SMS messages, which include a nudge for the recipient to download Allo, come from what appears to be a randomly selected number. I've found recipients to be bewildered, rather than grateful, to get these messages.

Allo's most unique feature is the Google Assistant. Like Siri or Cortana, it's a digital assistant designed to integrate Google's search results directly into your conversations. If, while chatting with your friend, you decide that you'd like to see a movie tonight, a colorful Google Assistant icon appears offering nearby showtimes. Tap it, and cards expand revealing your options.

You can talk directly to the Google Assistant in any conversation using the @Google command. It's pretty good at parsing instructions and requests, and can even be used to clarify search results. By saying "@google closer," I narrowed a search field of restaurants from .3 miles to .2 miles, for example. You can also chat directly with the Google Assistant in a dedicated channel.

Allo on iPhone
For the most part, the Allo iPhone experience is identical to that on the Android app. One thing iPhone users can't do that Android users can is draw on pictures before sending them via the app. It's a very odd omission, and one I hope Google rectifies soon.

The Google Assistant can help you find a movie, but if you actually want to buy tickets, you'll have to do it from Chrome. If Allo had launched back when it was announced at Google I/O in May, it would have been much more impressive, but the default messaging experience on Apple just feels more capable, since it doesn't force you to leave Messages and open another app.

Just last week, I tested the new iOS 10, which includes a completely overhauled version of the default Messages app. It now includes stickers, animated effects, and third-party app integrations. This last point is critical, since you can now access apps like Fandango from within Messages. Siri, too, is able to use third-party apps to carry out tasks. Booking tickets with Fandango or sending money via Venmo are handled within the app.

The Allo Assistant's ability to divine when it's appropriate to respond is, to me, more important than what it can actually do. Unfortunately, my experience was rather uneven. I said "I want to get lunch" during a test conversation with another Allo user, and the Assistant appeared but when I asked the same question a few hours later the Assistant was silent. Siri and Messages apps are always there, and always available.

And while I like Allo's sticker offerings, Facebook Messenger has far more, and far more tools built in to the experience. Telegram has a completely open sticker marketplace, where anyone can host stickers they create.

On the issue of security and Allo, some experts have said that Allo should have end-to-end encryption turned on by default (and not only in Incognito Mode). But Google is not alone in its approach. Facebook Messenger has a secure chat mode, similar to Allo's Incognito mode, that uses the Signal protocol to encrypt messages end-to-end. Others have pointed out that Google stores your Allo chats on its servers. The idea is to use them to better return search results and tweak other tools. Only when you delete conversations in Allo will Google remove them from its servers.

Any missives sent through the Messages app from iPhone to iPhone (or to another Mac) use Apple's iMessage system. This encrypts all messages end-to-end by default, and has done such a good job that the FBI has been complaining about it for years. The Signal app also offers end-to-end encryption on the iPhone, and it works cross platform, too.

Allo a No-Go?
Allo is full of potential. It has an excellent design, with spiffy selection of fun features. It also offers easy sign up, encrypted private messaging, and free SMS messaging. The Google Assistant shows off the power of machine learning, as well as a new paradigm for engaging with the services and information available on the Web.

Despite all that, Allo doesn't seem compelling enough to get people to sign up for yet another messaging service. Its free SMS messages are difficult for recipients to parse. And its central feature, the Google Assistant, is currently little more than dressed-up search results, and not much easier to use than Google Now. Third-party app integration is critical, and right now that's just not part of what the Google Assistant does. Finally, Allo has to compete against Google's own widely used Hangouts, which is tied directly to Google user's accounts and supports video and SMS messaging. The Android version gets a slightly higher score for its photo drawing feature, and because Allo just can't compete with iOS 10 Messages. For now, I'll continue to use Messages on my iPhone, Editors' Choice winner Facebook Messenger, and Telegram when I need to communicate outside of SMS.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig (for Android)

By Max Eddy

The customer is always right, even when he's a crazy monarch with the worst ideas about architecture, as is the case in Castles of Mad King Ludwig. This Android game simplifies the mechanics of the original tile-matching board game, letting you focus on having fun, but its lackluster graphics and awkward design detract from the experience.

Castles of Mad King Ludwig is available in Google Play, and it can be played on either Android tablets or phones, and there's an iOS version, too. In my testing, I used the Google Pixel C. The game is moderately expensive at $6.99, but digital versions of board games are often higher than those of other Android games. The physical version of Castles costs $40, so $7 isn't bad.

A Little History
In 1864, King Ludwig II ascended to the throne of Bavaria, only to die under mysterious circumstances in 1886. The story of the years in between is one of secret desires, political plots, accusations of madness, and staggering works of fanciful architecture. The last of these have proved to be Ludwig's most enduring legacy, in the form of fairy-tale castles across the Bavarian countryside.

You may already be familiar with some of his more famous creations. Neuschwanstein Castle is easily the most recognizable, with its turrets soaring above a massive building squatting precariously atop a mountain. It's appeared in films, countless photographs, and its influence can be seen in another fantastical fairyland: Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle.

These are the elements of Castles of Mad King Ludwig, a board game that challenges you to build the best, most ostentatious castle under the direction of your royal patron. At your disposal are a variety of differently shaped tiles representing rooms. Each room costs a certain amount of gold and is worth a certain amount of points. Some rooms get bonuses for being next to other kinds of rooms, and completing a room—that is, connecting other room tiles to each of its doorways—earns you additional boons. Completing a hallway, for example, earns you another hallway.

Things are a little more complicated than that, however. Each player begins the game with secret cards that will earn them additional points at the game's end. I might have a card that gets me two points for every bedroom I build, which means my castle will likely be a very sleepy place. Or three points for every Garden card, which will entice me more towards the horticultural tiles.

The complexity is compounded by requests from the mad king himself. Depending on the number of players, you receive a certain number of royal orders. These are additional rewards, given at the game's end to whoever meets the conditions. As his royal moniker implies, the mad king's requirements don't always make sense. One request may reward the player who builds the most underground rooms, while another request might reward the most unfinished rooms in a castle.

The Mad King's Android App
The digital adaptation of Castles stays very true to the original. It's not quite as slavish an adaptation as Star Realms, but the orientation of key features and the experience of placing tiles has an enjoyable manual feel to it.

Available tiles appear across the top. Tap one to see an enlarged version that reproduces the art of the original game exactly. I love the whimsical rooms in the game, like the Fungus Room or the Secret Lair, all of which are preserved in the Android app.

Unfortunately, the board game designers seem to have been more artistically adept than the team that created the app. The castle-themed interface feels clunky and looks very dated. If you can recall the lifeless animation and flat colors of early Flash cartoons, you'll recognize the look of this app. It also overuses a particular brick pattern in menus, which is so ugly and so filled with lines that details are get lost when tiles are set against it.

The blandness of Castles is particularly disappointing when there are so many other excellent adaptations of board games. Small World 2, for example, preserves the visuals and __play of the original, and it looks great, too.

Play is much like that of the app version of Carcassonne. You tap and drag tiles from the top of the screen and fit them together on a faux-wood table below. Rule-abiding tile orientations are marked with a green halo around the tile, and illegal ones with red. You can reposition and rotate to your heart's content before passing __play to the next player.

The combination of different rooms, fitting them together, and the various score modifiers mean each game will be different. They also mean that the physical version of the game is packed with fiddly little pieces that need to be arranged just so each time you want to play. Not so with the Android app, which takes care of that for you.

The game is also devilishly difficult to score. Points are earned immediately after a tile is placed, and they need to be frequently recalculated. Various bonuses, such as that for the completion of rooms, add to your score and also trigger additional boons. Completing a bedroom, for instance, lets you pick which rooms will be available next turn. It's easy to forget or mess up any of these elements, but the Android app keeps track of everything. The current score, and castle, of each player is always visible. When you place a tile, the app shows the score breakdown for that move before you accept it. The physical version of Carcassonne is also extremely difficult to score and its iPhone version takes care of the work; I like that Castles learns some of the lessons from that app.

The downside is that the app hides some important information. The physical board game includes a handy card for each player that describes what you receive for completing each kind of room. To find this in the Android app requires going through two different menu screens. This really annoys me, and I don't understand why the designers didn't place this critically important information within easy reach.

I like that the app completely automates the tricky and tediously explained Master Builder aspect of the game. This role is passed from player to player each round. The Master Builder goes last that round, but decides the prices of available tiles. While the app makes this role far easier to execute, it's also easy to miss. Several times I thought I was taking a turn when actually I was changing prices. Whoops!

Welcome to My Palatial Home
The app lets you play by yourself against one to three computer players, or with any combination of four human and computer players. You take turns by passing the Android device back and forth among players. Other games with this mode, such as Lords of Waterdeep, require that each player sit through a recap of the previous turns, but not this one. I actually like that the app keeps the game brisk.

That said, I dislike that players can't look at the same screen at the same time, lest they spy each other's secret cards. Part of the fun of a board game is watching what the other player does. You can divine some element of their strategy, and maybe even learn something about the game. It's also just more interesting than staring at the back of a tablet while they take their turn. The most interaction you can have in-game is tapping to view the castles of other players after they've taken their turns.

The cooperative game Forbidden Island, for all that it's tablet version is problematic, can be placed in the center of a table and seen by all. I prefer how Lords of Waterdeep handles secret information; hiding it until it needs to be seen.

Alternatively, you can play in Campaign mode. In this mode, you play against computer players across a map of Bavaria. You encounter different scenarios and arrangements of pieces, each a puzzle to be completed. This is a surprisingly robust single-player campaign, and something I haven't seen in other board game adaptations.

Don't get your hopes up about playing against your would-be architect friends in distant lands, however. Castles is a decidedly off-line experience, and includes no online multiplayer or no LAN multiplayer modes. That's a real shame, because one of the attractions of digital board game apps is being able to play with friends who are far away.

Also missing is the Secrets expansion pack. Only the core game is available, at least for now. The excellent iOS version of Carcassonne has done a great job of bringing out that game's numerous expansions. But for a truly dynamic experience, you'll have to look outside board game adaptations and explore the fully digital Hearthstone. This digital card game is constantly being tweaked by developers at Blizzard and offers numerous ways to play—nearly all of which are free.

Brick by Brick
Castles of Mad King Ludwig is a wonderful real-world game, and its Android app equivalent does an excellent job of capturing the complex, endlessly variable gameplay of the original. It greatly simplifies scoring the game and makes sure you get each reward you earn. Perhaps best of all, it's a fraction of the size and cost of the physical version, and you'll never lose the pieces. But the app fails at, well, being an app. It lacks a multiplayer mode, and it hides critically important information. Perhaps worst of all, it's a real eyesore.

Fans of the original Castles will have no trouble dishing out $7 for the Android version, and it's a welcome addition to any digital board game night. But if you're just learning the game, you're better off sticking with the original.

Safe downloads and expert advice Candy Crush Saga for Windows 10 facebook pc free

Candy Crush Saga is a super-sweet match-three game. Tiffi and Mr Toffee need your help!

How to play Candy Crush

Candy Crush Saga is a puzzle game where brightly colored candy takes the starring role. Your task is to link a minimum of three candies, vertically or horizontally, so that they will disappear from the game grid.

Successfully doing this will allow you to accumulate points, which will give you access to new levels. It's a well-structured game and the difficultly level is well calibrated, so you'll get just the right degree of a challenge.

Don't get crushed

When you're playing Candy Crush, it's important not to get stressed by the time limits. If you do, you're likely to hit a bomb at a crucial point, losing the game completely. Keep cool, and solve the puzzle before the time runs out!

Sweet graphics

Candy Crush Saga, as you might expect, is bright, colorful and cute. That said, we think the graphics and sound are second-rate - it looks cheap and gameplay is jumpy and ragged, which is completely unnecessary and a real pity.

Does popularity equal quality?

Candy Crush is an overwhelmingly popular game. It's quite likely lots of your friends are playing and sharing their progress on Facebook, so we can't blame you for wanting a go.

However, we think Candy Crush Saga is a whole lot of hype over nothing. The gameplay is cliched and overdone, the graphics are poor and the whole game looks second rate. If you're looking for good puzzle games for Windows or a cute timewaster, you can do much better.

Notes

Clicking the Download link will take you to a page on the Windows Store, from where you can download and install the game.

Any.do (for iPhone)

By Jill Duffy

Having a to-do-list app on your mobile phone is essential. Wherever you are, you should be able to see what needs to get done, and you should get appropriate reminders of these tasks, too. Any.do is an elegant and reliable app with a decent free version but better stuff in its paid Pro version (which is what I reviewed). It ranks high among to-do list apps due to its stunning interface and signature feature, the Any.do Moment, which I'll explain below. Any.do doesn't just keep track of your tasks. It also helps you get better at managing them, something only the best productivity apps can do. It's a great to-do app, especially for personal use, but it doesn't quite rival Editors' Choice Todoist. They are similar, but Todoist offers a little more.

Here I describe and analyze Any.do's iPhone app. My review of Any.do's Web service goes into more detail about Any.do's broader capabilities.

Pricing
Any.do is free to use, although a paid Pro subscription unlocks extra features. It's available as an iPhone app, and also on Android, the Web, and Chrome. Free users can only share one task, and they have limited options for recurring tasks. Free users also don't get location-based reminders.

A Pro account, which costs $5 per month or $45 per year, gives you more features. Note that, Any.do currently offers its service for just $2.99 per month or $26.88 per year, discounts that have been in place for more than a year. Pro subscribers can upload files and attach them to their tasks, set location-based reminders, and add complicated recurring tasks and reminders, such as a task being due every first Friday of the month. They also get more color options to customize the look of the app, and VIP support.

Todoist, our Editors' Choice in the to-do apps category, has similar restrictions on free accounts. Non-paying Todoist members get limited collaboration features (five people per project) and no location-based reminders. A Premium Todoist account costs $28.99 per year, nearly the same as Any.do's discounted price.

Wunderlist charges more for its Pro account, at $4.99 per month $49.99 per year, which is pricey. With a free Wunderlist account, you can assign up to 25 tasks to another person in each shared list. Remember the Milk has a Pro subscription for $39.99 per year. It also has some limited collaboration capabilities in its free version; you can share a list with only two other people.

Any.do is ideal as a personal to-do app, but small businesses might need something heftier. Asana is my favorite task-management and workflow management app for businesses. It costs a lot more, at about $100 per year per person, but you get much more than task lists. It might be overkill for personal use, but it's an Editors' Choice for communication and collaboration tools for small businesses. Asana also has a free version, which is good for teams with fewer than 15 people.

An App That Coaches You
Any.do is both elegant and tech-forward. The iPhone app makes good use of touch gestures, and it has a clean look. It includes time and date reminders, categories (sometimes called projects in other apps), and other basic tools you'd expect in a to-do-list app. Any.do's signature feature, however, is the Any.do Moment.

The Any.do Moment is basically a special type of recurring reminder. When it rings, the app walks you through all the tasks assigned to you for the day. The iPhone app shows you each task, one by one. As you see each task, options below it read Today, Later, Done, and Delete. Choose Today, and the app may ask you to commit to a time if you haven't already assigned one. If you choose Later, the app asks whether you'll do the task tomorrow, in two days, next week, or someday. Tap your answer, and the next task appears. You can schedule an Any.do Moment to happen whenever you want, although every weekday morning is a good default for most people.

What's special about the Any.do Moment is it essentially helps you create a good habit out of reviewing what's on your plate for the day. Your tasks are fresh in your brain. You're forced to actually consider each task before mentally snoozing it. Over time, you might even start to develop a better sense of how many tasks you can reasonably commit to in a day. You might even improve your time-management skills as a result. It's a very simple feature with powerful potential.

Free account holders get five Any.do Moments per month, meaning they can't do it every day and make a habit of it, which is the whole point. Pro users get an unlimited number of Any.do Moments.

Any.do iPhone App Features
The app is well designed and easy to navigate. You can view your to-dos and goals by category (such as personal, work, goals, and so on) or by due date. Dates can be specific, down to a five-minute interval, or general, like "tomorrow" and "someday." You can add a note to any task, attach documents from Dropbox, add an audio recording or voice memo, add subtasks, mark it with a star, and share it with someone. More on sharing in a moment.

A type-ahead function helps you input new tasks and goals quickly. Type "call" and the app suggests "Call back...," "Call mom," and several other options. With permission, Any.do can also tap into your Contacts list and suggest names of people as you start typing, too.

Location-based reminders let you set a reminder for a task for when you are arriving at or leaving a specified location. This capability is for Pro users only, and it works well if you have an exact address or type a location that already exists in Apple Maps. I had a harder time, though, with addresses that didn't show up correctly in Apple Maps. There is no ability to drop a pin on the location on the map (which is what I wanted to do), unless you're already in the spot. Still, once you have a few locations marked, the app saves them for quick reference next time. Overall, Any.do handles location reminders well enough.

Collaboration
The limited collaboration you get as a free Any.do user isn't bad, but it's worth explaining in some detail. Let's say I create a task and share it with Meg. Meg gets an email inviting her to the task. She clicks on the email, and Any.do creates an account for her. She sees the new task in her to-do list, and she sees that I am also on that task. Meg can mark the task as complete. She can mark subtasks as complete. She can add new subtasks, and I can do the same. I can also assign Meg to be the task "leader."

If Meg and I upgrade to Pro accounts, we can share entire lists or projects, meaning we both can write a bunch of tasks and automatically see them appear in our respective apps. We can assign one another tasks as well. When I swipe a shared task to mark it as done, Any.do asks whether it should also be marked complete in the collaborator's task list.

Any.do's Moment
Any.do is an attractive to-do list app for iPhone with a strong free version and a competitive price, if you go by its perpetual discount, at least. I like the Any.do Moment feature quite a bit, but the fact that you're limited to using it only five times per month on a free account defeats its purpose. You'll want a Pro account for full collaboration features and location-based reminders, too. The price for Pro is right, so long as the aforementioned discounts remain in place. At $45 per year list, it's on the high end.

That said, my favorite task manager, and our Editors' Choice, is still Todoist. It doesn't have anything like the Any.do Moment, but it does have excellent reports (for Premium users only) that quantify your productivity and let you see whether you're focusing on the right tasks, and that's just as valuable as seeing a reminder each morning to review all your to-dos.