Google Calendar to rely on Tasks instead of Assistant-based reminders going forward

According to a new APK Insights report by 9to5Google, Google could be moving away from Assistant for reminders inside of its Calendar app. Instead, it’s looking like it could be replaced by the official Google Tasks system – you know, that app that we all thought the company forgot about, but suddenly started getting lots of attention as of late? The app that just got the ability to add stars for important items? Yeah, that one.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Google is moving away from Assistant for other things too, like location reminders, and so on, or perhaps it’s just because Tasks itself has such an incredibly wide and varied user base across Enterprise, education and personal spheres that it finally realized after all of my complainings about Google Tasks in Chat that it needs to put the work in to make it worthwhile.

Either way, 9to5 uncovered a string in the Google Calendar for Android app (version 2022.24.0.x) that states “Reminders are now tasks”.

Use Tasks to get notified about your to-dos and keep track of them wherever you are in Google Workspace.

9to5Google

Additionally, Calendar will inform users that “All your reminders are still available in Google Keep”, and will instead direct them (and you) to create a task directly in Calendar using the floating action button, while simultaneously migrating all of your existing Assistant-based reminders in Calendar to Tasks for consistency.

In the future, I imagine that the finger icon with the string around it (a universal icon for reminders) will disappear, leaving us with a simple Tasks icon – something that’s already present. Currently, you have the ability to create both, where tasks are more intentional while reminders seem to be more passive or casual. I guess so long as this ends up rolling out officially, be prepared to treat them as one and the same!