Most of the app suggestions I make as of late are inclined to revolve round Android. It’s the platform I carry in my pocket, in spite of everything, and it’s been the first focus of my writing for one thing like 7,347 years now.But whereas there’s definitely one thing to be mentioned for locating the very best apps for one particular taste of gadget you depend on, the fact is that almost all of us don’t restrict our work to a single platform or sort of expertise. We have our private telephones of alternative, certain, however we additionally use a pc. Some of us might need one laptop within the workplace at one other at house — or possibly even a number of computer systems in each places. And that’s to say nothing of the tablets and all of the gadgets our colleagues, mates, and household use that have to play properly with every thing we do, too.You don’t work on solely a single sort of gadget as of late, in different phrases, and your apps shouldn’t, both. Companies like Apple might wish to fake that everybody can reside solely inside their fastidiously managed universe, however right here in the true world, it’s rather more sensible to select packages that work equally effectively in every single place — whether or not you merely need to keep away from limiting your self to a single locked-down ecosystem otherwise you simply acknowledge that everybody else in your life doesn’t essentially make the identical selections you do.With that in thoughts, I believed it’d be useful to begin a group of the very best cross-platform productiveness instruments — distinctive apps for getting stuff executed that work on any sort of gadget and make it simple to maneuver from one platform to a different (or to collaborate with anybody on any platform) with out lacking a beat.This record will completely develop and evolve over time.The finest cross-platform app for job administrationTodoistTopping off our cross-platform assortment is a top-rate duties app that really exemplifies how cross-platform compatibility ought to be executed. Todoist is without doubt one of the strongest and complete job managers round. It offers you a sturdy set of choices for including, monitoring, and truly ensuring you accomplish any and all sorts of duties — with pure language enter, easy due dates, a precedence rating system, and virtually every thing else you may need in such a setup.It’s thoughtfully designed to deal with each work and private duties, too, with assist for separate workspaces and superior collaboration instruments if it’s good to share or assign duties with both work or household contacts. [ Related: How to use Todoist for team task management ]But simply as vital as any of that, Todoist works equally effectively regardless of the place you’re working. The service has native apps for Android and iOS in addition to Windows, macOS, and even Linux. It’s accessible on the internet in addition to by way of a browser-associated progressive internet app that may present a native-app-like expertise on ChromeOS or some other platform the place a standard app set up won’t be your first alternative. JR Raphael / IDG
Todoist, seen right here in its progressive internet app type, is each constant and absolutely featured anyplace you employ it. (Click any picture on this story to enlarge it.)
Todoist even takes issues up a step from there with browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge and native apps for the Apple Watch and Google’s Wear OS platform (!).If any app deserves a spot on this record, for each its general high quality and its dedication to working in every single place it’s good to be, Todoist is for sure it. The service is free in its base type with an elective $48-a-year Pro plan that removes quite a lot of limitations and a $72-per-user-per-year marketing strategy that provides a bunch of additional staff options into the combo.The finest cross-platform app for note-taking, planning, and groupNotionWe’ve received no scarcity of spectacular note-taking choices to select from as of late, however nothing fairly matches the richness, versatility, and energy a service known as Notion offers.Notion is sort of a digital pocket book on steroids. It offers you a versatile canvas for creating every thing from easy private memos to multilayered collaborative paperwork and staff references. You may even save hyperlinks from the online into it and create your individual on-demand library — with your individual private variations of pages which can be offline-friendly and in a position to be marked up, highlighted, or edited as you see match. JR Raphael/IDG
Notion’s flexibility lets you create any sort of canvas conceivable for no matter type of group you want.
At my rising tech useful resource group The Intelligence, we depend on Notion for intensive mission planning in addition to for sustaining broad roadmaps and concepts for the longer term. We maintain all kinds of shared firm reference supplies there, too, and I personally use it for quite a lot of non-public info-organizing as effectively — every thing from mapping out my day by day and weekly targets to storing fascinating web sites for future reference and even sustaining information round companions and contractors. Notion works splendidly on each Android and iOS, and the service affords native apps for Windows and macOS in addition to browser-based clipping extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. All different platforms are serviced successfully by way of the Notion web site, which is quick, intuitive, and each bit as simple to make use of as any of the native choices.Notion is free for the fundamentals and $96 per consumer per 12 months for a extra fully-featured (and fewer limitation-involving) Plus plan. There’s additionally a $180-per-user-per-year Business plan with further safety layers and superior staff choices.The finest cross-platform app for course of administration and automationTrelloWhereas Notion excels at big-picture planning and group, Trello is terrific at taking up particular processes and supplying you with a power-packed framework for monitoring your day-to-day goings-on and including in a wholesome dose of automation to make issues even simpler.Trello revolves largely round a board-style interface, with columns that maintain particular person playing cards representing duties, concepts, or anything that could be related for what you are promoting wants. I exploit it for every thing from planning concepts for future articles to mapping out every week’s newsletters and even holding monitor of invoices. JR Raphael / IDG
Trello, seen right here in its Windows app type, offers an ideal framework for course of administration.
For any method of board-oriented work — what’s generally generally known as a Kanban interface — it simply doesn’t get a lot better. And Trello’s now-native automation system lets you arrange all kinds of guidelines for processing playing cards and performing exterior actions primarily based on schedules or just about any sort of in-app actions. That makes the service’s productiveness potential virtually limitless, it doesn’t matter what different apps you could be utilizing.True to our cross-platform focus, Trello is on the market for Android, iOS, Windows, and macOS in addition to in a wonderful internet app for some other platform. Like the entire different instruments on this assortment to this point, it’s free at its base stage with choices for higher-level premium plans: $60 per consumer per 12 months for a Standard plan designed for small staff functions, $150 per consumer per 12 months for a extra sturdy Premium plan, and $210 a 12 months for an Enterprise plan with all of the high-level safety fixins.The finest cross-platform app for calendar administrationCronI’ve tried lots of calendar apps through the years, and nothing even comes near being as polished, highly effective, and nice to make use of on any platform because the merely named Cron.Cron began out unbiased and received purchased by Notion final 12 months, however mercifully, not a lot has modified. The app continues to exist as its personal standalone service with impressively lively improvement and largely simply the added alternative for some elective types of Notion integration.At its core, Cron is basically a a lot nicer approach to work together along with your present Google Calendar agenda. The service is anticipated to assist Outlook finally, however for now, it’s restricted to the Google customers amongst us.If that’s you, although, you’ll be delighted by the methods Cron improves your calendar-using expertise. From an array of superior shortcuts (together with an all-purpose Ctrl-Ok or Cmd-Ok hotkey on the desktop entrance, which lets you rapidly carry out any calendar-related motion with a pair fast key presses) to its infinitely improved agenda-viewing interfaces, Cron will critically make you resent going again to the common ol’ Calendar app or web site. JR Raphael / IDG
Cron is basically a greater interface for Google Calendar, and it really works nearly anyplace you could be working.
Its inclusion right here does embrace one mildly irksome asterisk: As of this second, the Cron Android app continues to be below improvement. But it’s supposedly coming — and at the same time as a devoted Android consumer, the remainder of Cron’s cross-platform presence is so good that it appears effectively value together with on this assortment (particularly since these of us on Android can work together seamlessly with the identical actual calendar information by way of the usual Google Calendar Android app or one other distinctive third-party Android calendar app within the meantime).Cron is, nevertheless, accessible on iOS in addition to Windows and macOS, and its native internet app handily fills the void on all different desktop platforms. And in the intervening time, not less than, it’s utterly free to make use of.The finest cross-platform app for electronic mailSuperhumanIf you spend your days wading by endless-seeming streams of emails, you gained’t discover a extra nice or productive electronic mail app for all of your gadgets than the aptly named Superhuman.Fair warning, although: You pays a value for the privilege. Superhuman prices a whopping 30 bucks a month — or $300 yearly, if you happen to pay for a 12 months at a time.Only you may determine if any app is value that price, however what I can inform you is that Superhuman is really a delight to make use of — and that holds true throughout the app’s native Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS apps in addition to its all-purpose Chrome-based incarnation (all of which can be found to obtain after you’ve signed up for the service).Superhuman achieves that elusive steadiness of a clear and minimal interface and an setting that’s filled with performance. It removes the entire muddle from the usual Gmail expertise whereas including in all kinds of helpful further touches — time-saving keyboard shortcuts that assist you to fly by your electronic mail backlog, context-providing panels that floor useful particulars about anybody who emails you, and contextual calendar information for simple on-the-fly occasion scheduling proper out of your inbox. JR Raphael / IDG
Superhuman is full of all kinds of considerate efficiency-enhancers, together with a extremely customizable system for organizing your inbox and a helpful command system for performing just about any motion anyplace with a couple of fast keystrokes.
It additionally contains a intelligent Split Inbox system that permits you to create quite a few sections on your inbox after which have emails mechanically sorted into them for optimum group — sort of like a more practical and customizable model of Gmail’s tabbed inbox association.Superhuman works with each Gmail and Outlook accounts, and if you happen to can justify the expense, it’ll flip your electronic mail into one thing you truly take pleasure in — regardless of the place you could be juggling it.The finest cross-platform app for staff communicationSlackThis final cross-platform app might be no large shock to see on this web page, however I’d be remiss to not point out it — as a result of wherever you go, on no matter sort of gadget you’re utilizing, Slack is all the time there and able to maintain you in contact with purchasers, colleagues, and some other creatures you’re employed with.It’s grow to be the de facto customary for office communication, and for good cause: It’s a easy and supremely efficient approach to chat individually, in teams, and even throughout completely different groups. It connects to most exterior providers with minimal effort, and everybody within the enterprise world is both already on all of it day or on the very least acquainted with its workings. JR Raphael/IDG
Slack excels at each group chats, left, and extra private sorts of communication, proper.
And Slack actually is in every single place. You can obtain the app for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, or Linux — or you should use the surprisingly succesful Slack internet app anyplace it’s good to be.Slack is free at its easiest stage, with an $87-per-user-per-year Pro plan and a $150-per-user-per-year Business+ plan for increased limits and additional choices.
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