The OmniFocus team has been hard at work on OmniFocus 4, a major new version of OmniFocus for all supported platforms. Today, we are excited to provide a first look at the update currently in development for iPad and iPhone, and invite you to share feedback with us via the OmniFocus 4 TestFlight!
OmniFocus 4 introduces a brand new interface and brings many of the features which were previously only available in OmniFocus for Mac to OmniFocus on all devices. The new interface centers around a completely re-designed task outline, now optimized for iPad and iPhone.
We are thrilled by the power and flexibility this release brings to OmniFocus on iPad and iPhone, and can’t wait to hear about the impact this re-design and expanded feature set has on our customers’ OmniFocus workflows. (If you’d like to provide feedback prior to the release of OmniFocus 4, information about joining the OmniFocus 4 TestFlight waitlist is available below.)
OmniFocus 4 Highlights
New in OmniFocus 4 for iPad and iPhone:
- Focus: Focus mode is now supported on iPhone and iPad.
- Inspectors: Inspectors have been fully redesigned for OmniFocus 4.
- Navigation: The navigation view within a perspective has been fully redesigned. On iPad, the navigation sidebar can be fully collapsed to conserve screen space. On iPhone, opening a perspective navigates directly to the outline, and the navigation library can be accessed by tapping the perspective header.
- Outline:
- In-line Editing: Quickly edit an item’s title, notes, or any other attribute, all without leaving the outline.
- Layout Options: The new OmniFocus 4 outline defaults to a configurable fluid row layout, and an alternative column layout is available for those who prefer to keep item attributes aligned. In addition to customizing how rows lay out in the outline, display of item attributes can be re-ordered within the row or disabled entirely. Row layout options can be customized per-perspective in the View options, or app-wide in the Layout Settings.
- Keyboard Support: Keyboard navigation and shortcut support has been enhanced.
- Action Groups: Action groups can now be expanded or collapsed in the outline.
- Perspective List: The iPhone Perspective list and iPad Perspective sidebar have been fully redesigned. On iPad, the new Perspective sidebar is persistently visible for quick navigation between views, and can be expanded to display full perspective titles or minimized to only display perspective icons and maximize screen space.
- Quick Open: Quick Open is now supported on iPhone and iPad.
Like the recently-released OmniPlan 4 update, OmniFocus 4 will be a universal cross-platform purchase, available later this year via either a traditional license purchase or subscription. Customers who own any previous version of OmniFocus will be eligible for a 50% discount on upgrades to traditional licenses of OmniFocus 4, and customers who have very recently purchased a traditional OmniFocus 3 for Mac or iOS license will receive a free upgrade. Anyone who subscribes to OmniFocus will automatically receive access to version 4 when it is released.
Join the OmniFocus 4 TestFlight Waitlist
Interested in helping our team test OmniFocus 4 builds prior to the release of OmniFocus 4 later this year? Please join the OmniFocus 4 TestFlight waitlist!
When signing up for the OmniFocus 4 TestFlight waitlist, please keep the following things in mind:
- Our team’s primary goal when running a TestFlight is to gather feedback about in-progress feature development and track down bugs prior to release of the application. In order to effectively process the TestFlight feedback we receive, it is necessary for us to limit the number of TestFlight invitations we send out.
- OmniFocus 4 builds require iPadOS 14, iOS 14 and watchOS 7.
- TestFlight builds are pre-release software. Please be sure to have a backup of important data at the ready prior to installing or syncing with a TestFlight build.
- After installing a TestFlight build, the best way to share feedback with us is by emailing our Support team, or via the TestFlight “Share Beta Feedback” option. Learn more about best practices for reporting feedback here.
If you’d like to discuss OmniFocus 4 with other members of the community, please join the “OmniFocus 4” channel in Omni’s Slack workspace! TestFlight invitations will be sent chronologically by waitlist sign-up date as test pool capacity is available, and updates to the currently-invited date range will be shared to this Slack channel by the Omni team.
OmniFocus 4 TestFlight Development Status
OmniFocus 4 TestFlight builds are not yet feature-complete, and the OmniFocus 4 feature set listed above is still in active development. In addition to refinements of the features currently implemented in OmniFocus 4 TestFlight builds, the following areas are scheduled for improvement prior to the release of OmniFocus 4:
- Apple Watch: Home Screen Continuity slot has not yet been updated to support the new OmniFocus 4 outline, and may not accurately reflect the current iPhone view.
- Colors, Icons & Layout: Colors, icons, and app layout are still in flux and may change between TestFlight builds.
- Keyboard: Further keyboard navigation and shortcut functionality is planned.
- Nearby: The Nearby perspective is temporarily unavailable in current TestFlight builds.
- Quick Entry: The redesigned OmniFocus 4 Quick Entry experience has not yet been implemented.
Sync Compatibility: OmniFocus 4 TestFlight builds are sync compatible with the most recent releases of OmniFocus 3 for Mac and iOS, and can be installed alongside OmniFocus 3 on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. We believe that there is very low risk of data corruption in current OmniFocus 4 TestFlight builds, but as always we recommend that precautions are taken when syncing “real” data with a test build. Please back up your data regularly, and alert our Support team if you notice unexpected OmniFocus database behavior.
As the OmniFocus development team continues to make progress towards finalizing OmniFocus 4 for release, additional information about the status of OmniFocus 4 development will be available in the in-app Release Notes and the “What to Test” section of TestFlight.
We can’t wait to hear what you think of the progress we’ve made on OmniFocus 4 so far!
