Four weeks since the last drop, and about sixty things landed. The one we are most pleased with is the smallest to describe: you can just ask for something now, in your own words.
Ask in your own words
Asking for something used to mean picking from a list somebody else wrote, or leaving the app and asking there. No one talks like that, real asks are specific, and usually a little vulnerable. A dropdown flattens both of those out of existence.
Now Taskees type the Ask. Up to five hundred characters, whatever it is, in whatever words fit. There is no template, no category, no picking the closest option from a list that never quite has the right one on it.
It lands pinned at the top of the Inbox on the other side, above everything else, and it stays pinned until it gets an answer. Nothing about it is easy to lose. Taskers answer Grant or Decline, with an optional note attached, and the note field says exactly what it needs to say: a word or two goes a long way. Declining without a note is right there as its own deliberate choice, because sometimes that is the answer.
The reply does not arrive as a notification you scroll past on the way to something else. It takes the whole screen. Permission, please, and then the verdict, with nothing else competing for the moment. That pause between asking and knowing is the entire point, and it deserved better than a toast notification.
Every ask keeps its state too, so Waiting, Granted, Declined, Canceled and Expired are all visible rather than dissolving into an ambiguous silence.
Everything in one Inbox
Chat was in one place. Answers to permission requests were somewhere else. Reactions sat on the task itself. Activity had its own feed. Four places to check to find out what happened while you were gone.
One Inbox now. Filter it to All, Chat, Asks, Reactions, or Activity, and the filter you pick is the one you get back next time. Anything waiting on you pins to the top instead of scrolling away under everything else.
Solo Mode stopped being the demo version
A solo workspace used to be the app with the good parts taken out. Power-ups were off. Tasks could not require proof, so nothing held you to anything. Agreements existed but you could not sign one, because signing took two people. And the setup checklist could never be finished, because step one was invite a partner.
That is all fixed. Power-ups work. Tasks can require a photo or a note before they close, and the requirement is enforced the same way it is in a partnership, with free dynamics getting one proof-required task a week and Pro lifting the cap. There are fast completion controls for the tasks that do not need ceremony. Agreements can be signed and finished with one signature. The setup checklist completes on its own terms, no invitation required.
The wheels work too. Reward and punishment wheels armed on solo tasks actually spin now, including the ones that queue overnight when a task gets missed. That was quietly broken, and it made the whole economy feel decorative.
Pairing no longer bulldozes what you built
If you started solo and then found a partner, connecting used to be a leap of faith. Your solo workspace and everything in it went somewhere and you found out afterward.
Now you choose. After you connect, you decide whether to keep the solo space separate or bring everything along into the partnership. Nothing is deleted either way, and the merge no longer falls over if both sides already keep Limits or Desires lists.
Vacation Mode
Taking a week off used to mean choosing between two bad options: come back to a wall of demerits and a dead streak, or delete your tasks and rebuild them later. Most people picked a third option, which was kind of lying, oops.
Vacation Mode pauses demerits, streak pressure, automatic consequences, and reminders. Tasks and points stay available, so anyone who wants to keep going still can, and points already earned stay earned. Turning it back off is gentle on purpose: pressure resumes with the next task day, so the day you flip the switch stays protected.
This one is still in the Pro beta lane rather than out to everyone. If you are Pro and want it now, tap your partner at the top of the screen, open the gear on their card, and switch Beta features on.
The Wheel got a manager, and a slot in the Shop
A wheel used to be write-once. Load it wrong and your only move was building a new one.
Now saved wheels can be edited. Change the items, flip mystery mode on or off, and delete the wheels that are no longer attached to anything. Deleting a reward warns you first if that deletion would empty a wheel currently armed on a live task, instead of quietly gutting it.
There is also a Wheel Spin in the Item Shop now, configurable to reward or punishment outcomes, for anyone who wants to buy their way into a little chaos.
Quests stopped staring at you
The Contract asked you to write your terms and then showed you an empty box, which is the fastest way to make somebody close an app.
Clause prompts and examples now sit in the field until you start writing in your own words. Today’s workbook question renders directly on the quest card instead of hiding a tap away. The explanation for the step you are on stays put behind an info bubble rather than vanishing the moment you start the task. And when you finish, the daily anchor eases off with a morning taper instead of dropping you straight into overdue reminders on day eight.
And a long list of things that just work now
Chat, which is a Pro feature, got line breaks. Enter starts a new line instead of firing off half a thought, and the composer stops sliding out of view when the Android keyboard opens. You can link an existing note from inside the task editor while you are creating or editing. Habit progress shows up alongside your other stats, and only if you have habits.
Spanish is complete. Seven more email templates got translated, subjects included, and the plural placeholders that were leaking raw into every locale are gone.
Magic login links open the app now instead of stranding you in a separate browser session. Signup stopped rejecting valid .re addresses. On Android, the camera picker stopped crashing when the app resumes, the completion wheel opens, and blog links stay in the browser where they belong instead of hijacking into the app.
In raids, The Whisper’s portrait now changes as it takes damage, and the Chorus of Clarity stopped filling the feed with Soft Embrace messages about hits it never softened.
The economy plays fair. A grace period bought before midnight now stops that night’s punishments and demerits, which is the entire point of buying one. Lightning demerits land on time instead of tens of minutes late. Task Kit search survives opening a kit. Wheel outcomes go to the person who completed the task. And Pro users stopped losing the Create a Journal prompt the moment they upgraded.
Plus a long sweep of crashes and timeouts cleared out behind the scenes.
That is the drop. Questions, feedback, or your thoughts on any of it: hello@subtasksapp.com. We read everything.
- Rob & Meghan