Due 3.0 Is My New App for Concurrent Timers

Due has been on the App Store for many years already, and it’s always been the king at being the most successful app to get tasks completed — once you set a due date and due time, Due pings you every minute until you’ve completed the task.

Due is, quite frankly, the most annoying app on the App Store — which is a good thing.

I’ve had an on-and-off relationship with Due over the years. I remember trying the app as my task list and GTD app merely as an experiment, but the constant reminders and lack of contexts led me to look elsewhere.

But for this week — and likely beyond — I’m returning to Due for an entirely different purpose: concurrent timers.

It’s summer time, which means it’s grilling season. I’ve cooked more meals on the barbecue in the last two weeks than I had for the prior six months of the year. And with grilling season comes the need to track cooking time for steak, potatoes, corn on the cob, brisket, asparagus, and peppers. Each require their own timer, or some really good back-of-the-envelope math to make sure you put everything on the grill at the right time.

When it comes to concurrent timers, Due makes creating them super easy: Simply hit the + button in the right corner under the Timers section, give your timer a description, and tap OK. As soon as you hit OK, your timer starts.

On the main timer screen, you can tap any of the pause buttons on the right side to pause your timer, or you can short swipe to the left to stop the timer altogether. To delete a timer, long swipe to the left.

Tapping a timer provides options to change the auto-snooze settings, change the alert sound, duplicate the timer, or stop the timer. Auto-snooze settings are interesting. By default, auto-snooze is turned off for a timer, but you can have Due remind you about your elapsed timer every minute as well.

I really like the variety of alert sounds available in Due. There’s a seemingly endless list of alert sounds, and you can change each timer alert to a different sound if you choose, allowing you to be notified of an elapsed timer just by the type of sound rather than having to look at your screen to find which one has elapsed.

Of course, there are a plethora of reminder features in Due as well. You can create tasks, customize alerts and sounds, and manage your task list all via swiping, just like in the timer view.

There are a wide range of timer apps available on the App Store, so there may very well be one out there better suited for my specific cooking needs. However, Due’s great design, simple user interface, and extra easy timer and reminder creation make it an instantly great option for concurrent timers.

I’m excited to up my grilling game with Due this summer.