ASO AgencyProductivity · US iPhone listing
Does their ASO suck?
Listing creative score · first three captured iPhone screenshots
7/10Good. The product proof earns it.
Things 3 has useful work to show. It introduces itself with navigation and an award instead. The daily plan and drag-and-drop rescheduling are stronger selling material than a list of places to tap. Put the useful part in charge.
Gab’s verdict · 7/10Gabriel Machuret
One storefront, one language and a dated capture. This is an independent editorial audit, not a client case study.
Gab’s take · Five criteria. Two points each.
The calendar, tasks and drag-and-drop interaction are genuinely useful evidence. A tidy interface can earn its place here. I would bring the useful action forward before the trophy starts its acceptance speech. Navigation and an award waste the first impression, while small paragraphs make useful detail work too hard. Lead with the combined calendar and task view, enlarge the rescheduling gesture and give each frame one short benefit. Good interaction design deserves better advertising.
The planner navigation and goals context make the organising job identifiable. The later calendar example expresses the practical benefit more clearly.
Calendar tasks and drag-and-drop show genuine, specific product behaviour.
Small multi-line headings and full screens dilute the useful detail.
Today and Upcoming create a coherent planning progression.
The scheduling interaction distinguishes the product more convincingly than its award claim.
0: not earned · 1: useful but incomplete · 2: clearly demonstrated. Judged on the dated opening creative; public metadata provides context. These points assess creative execution, not private conversion or ranking performance. Read the scoring criteria · See all ten verdict levels
Inspect the numbered original, read the problem, then compare the proposed fix. The publisher’s creative stays unchanged.
What the visitor sees → what I’d change
Look at the original: The opening introduces the app through its navigation and an award-winning to-do proposition.
Why I’m flagging it: The opening sells the app's filing system before showing a useful day.
Lead with today's events and tasks; move the navigation inventory later.
What the visitor sees → what I’d change
Look at the original: Appointments and tasks appear together with supporting project labels.
Why I’m flagging it: A useful daily view sits beneath several lines of explanatory text.
Use one bold daily-planning benefit and enlarge the calendar-to-task relationship.
What the visitor sees → what I’d change
Look at the original: The headline describes rescheduling and the artwork depicts dragging a task between dated groups.
Why I’m flagging it: A lifted task explains rescheduling, but the full-screen crop makes it easy to miss.
Zoom into the actual drag between dates and label the resulting change clearly.
Proposed copy for discussion. These are not current listing fields or tested winners.
Observed listing
Organize your life
Proposed alternative
To-do lists & daily planning
Name 8/30 · Subtitle 28/30 charactersKeep the familiar short brand and replace the broad life-organisation subtitle with the task and planning jobs visibly supported by the creative.
The tradeoff: This removes the wider life-organisation promise and leaves reminders and projects implicit. It should be tested against actual query relevance, not treated as a guaranteed discoverability improvement.
Read the sequence from top to bottom on mobile, left to right on desktop. These are message-layout sketches, not screens from Things 3 or tested results.
Proposed headline
Put this in the frame: The verified Today view with events, tasks and This Evening, using example entries.
Why it earns the space: Start with a useful daily outcome expressed as an interface.
Proposed headline
Put this in the frame: A real project containing a small actionable task, with its area context.
Why it earns the space: Show how the larger structure supports today rather than showing every container at once.
Proposed headline
Put this in the frame: A rescheduling example with planned date and deadline correctly distinguished.
Why it earns the space: Explain flexibility without implying that moving a task silently changes its deadline.
The test: Does showing Today before navigation improve paid-app purchase conversion and daily-planning comprehension? The sketch gives the designer a direction; the actual product and access conditions decide what can ship.
Bring the listing. I’ll help you decide what to keep, what to fix and what to test.
Observed competitor metadata
Task manager & Reminders
Todoist explicitly names a to-do list and calendar, with task-manager and reminder terms.
The lesson: Things has a less descriptive title. Clear category language could help a newcomer understand it without imitating Todoist’s feature breadth.
Observed competitor metadata
Task remind, planner,countdown
TickTick names a to-do list and calendar with reminder, planner and countdown language.
The lesson: Its metadata covers many jobs. Things can differentiate through a specific, calm planning workflow rather than another feature inventory.
Observed competitor metadata
Capture Tasks & Set Reminders
Microsoft To Do leads with capturing tasks and setting reminders.
The lesson: Capture is a concrete competing job. Explain how a captured task becomes part of today’s plan, without making unverified collaboration or ecosystem comparisons.
Intent candidates grounded in the listing—not fabricated search-volume or difficulty scores.
Visitor’s job: Organise personal tasks and finish the next useful action.
Evidence: The first screenshot calls Things a to-do app and displays task containers.
Decision: Consider explicit category language in the subtitle; verify relevant search queries and competing intents first.
Visitor’s job: Choose work for today around calendar events.
Evidence: The Today and Upcoming stills show the planning use case.
Decision: Use planning language that does not imply a complete calendar replacement or automatic time blocking.
Visitor’s job: Break a larger responsibility into manageable tasks.
Evidence: Family and Work areas contain named projects in the opening.
Decision: Show a supported project-to-task example; avoid assuming team assignment or dependency automation.
The unseen keyword field may already cover some of these terms. Build an evidence-backed keyword shortlist before making a metadata change.
Three 2019–2024 accounts were selected for scheduling clarity, simplicity and task-entry learning. One includes an explicit improvement in the reviewer’s understanding, which is preserved. These are historical experiences, not a current usability benchmark. The separate account speculating about cloud infrastructure was not used to establish the sync architecture.
Sample: 3 selected accounts from 8 displayed reviews. Dates: 29 March 2019–11 December 2024. No sentiment percentage is calculated.
31 December 2019 · 5/5 stars
“schedule date”
A December 2019 reviewer valued scheduling tasks separately from due dates and preferred fewer customisation distractions.
What I’d investigate: Test whether newcomers understand those separate concepts. This historical preference is not proof of a productivity improvement.
Listing review source · Review ID 534119449411 December 2024 · 4/5 stars
“flow of the app”
A December 2024 reviewer liked the simple flow and requested dependencies across tasks and areas.
What I’d investigate: Keep the distinction between existing project organisation and a requested dependency system; a request does not establish current feature availability.
Listing review source · Review ID 1205190643429 March 2019 · 2/5 stars
“work your way up”
A March 2019 reviewer initially found task entry cumbersome, then added an update describing a more workable order for setting task details.
What I’d investigate: Retain the update instead of presenting only the complaint. Investigate current entry comprehension without adopting the old trial, badge or reminder expectations as today’s specification.
Listing review source · Review ID 3942656921A displayed review can be old, unusually positive or internally inconsistent with its star rating. These accounts suggest questions; they do not establish current defects or typical customer experience. Use the Review Research Desk to keep evidence and interpretation separate.
The opening sells the app's filing system before showing a useful day.
Deliverable: Lead with today's events and tasks; move the navigation inventory later.
Creative brief and current-product checkA useful daily view sits beneath several lines of explanatory text.
Deliverable: Use one bold daily-planning benefit and enlarge the calendar-to-task relationship.
Creative brief and current-product checkA lifted task explains rescheduling, but the full-screen crop makes it easy to miss.
Deliverable: Zoom into the actual drag between dates and label the resulting change clearly.
Creative brief and current-product checkDoes showing Today before navigation improve paid-app purchase conversion and daily-planning comprehension?
Check Apple’s current product page optimization guidance and custom product page guidance before configuring a test. Write your experiment brief.
1–3: thumbs down · 4–6: thumbs up and down · 7–10: thumbs up
The basics need a serious rethink.
Too many obvious things have been left unfinished.
There is a useful product here. The listing needs to show it.
Some basics work, but the opening wastes attention and under-explains the benefit.
There is usable creative here, but too much of the sales argument is left to the visitor.
Real strengths, undermined by meaningful gaps in the opening story or execution.
A clear, useful demonstration with specific refinements still needed.
The main promise is clear and supported. Refinement matters more than reinvention.
Clear positioning, thoughtful choices and very few loose ends.
An unusually clear, convincing storefront worth learning from.
An editorial verdict on the captured storefront, not a measured ASO score or an assessment of an agency’s private work.
No private analytics, search-rank dataset or internal keyword field was supplied. Review quotations are short excerpts; explanations are our summaries. App names and screenshots belong to their respective owners. We are not affiliated with Things 3. Read our editorial methodology.
Your app. Your priorities.
Send your listing, market and the problem you want to solve. I’ll explain the scope and fee before work starts. Your budget should buy decisions, not a longer PDF.
Build a relevant keyword shortlist, plan your screenshot sequence or get help with the creative decisions.
