Focus To-Do: Pomodoro & Tasks reviews
What users love and hate · 500 reviews analyzed · ★ 4.2
A minimalist Pomodoro timer with tasks and stats that students adore for focus, yet increasingly run into a paywall even on the most basic features.
What users love
Distraction-free minimalism — a lifesaver for the ADHD mind
Loved for a clean interface without useless animations or clutter: exactly what you need and nothing more. People specifically value the no-ads, no-bloat feel that doesn't keep you in the app longer than needed.
Without useless animations or more thing to clutter ADHD mind.
minimal, no bloat, absolutely bang on app
I've tried a lot of pomodoros but this one stuck, its simple and it works
Indispensable for students: tracks study hours and holds focus
The core audience is students building discipline for exams. The app helps visualize study hours, beat procrastination and actually get things finished.
Focus To-Do helps me break my study sessions into manageable time blocks
Saved my grade. went from a C- student to almost straight A's.
it helps to visualise my progress and stop my procrastination and i actually get things done
Groups, leaderboards and Forest gamify study through competition
Study groups show who's working now and how many hours they've racked up, while the ranking and the Forest tree motivate those who work better under pressure and like to outpace others.
Its Great For People Who Work Better Under Pressure and Have The Ambition to Surpass Others
Ranking system to compare your progress with others (motivational)
its use of gamification, such as the Forest feature, to provide motivation
Seamless sync across phone, PC and the Chrome extension
For those who paid, cross-platform is a big plus: phone, desktop, iPad and the Chrome extension sync almost instantly, and the PC version is free if you have Pro.
can easily sync between chrome extension and app. zero ads.
PC version is for free if you have Pro plan for the Android!
available on desktop, mobile, and ipad
What users hate
Basic features moved behind a paywall — even setting the Pomodoro length
Users are furious: setting session length, repeating tasks and creating a project now require premium. Many stress these features used to be free and were then taken away.
Custom time of pomodoro is a Premium feature. Unacceptable
Almost everything requires premium. Even things as simple as creating a new project or changing the length of the pomodoro
why is the simplest thing like setting the time under a paywall?
Sync is paid, and that loss costs people their logged hours
The sorest point: sync is locked behind premium, so work on the phone never reaches the PC and groups show 0 minutes. People literally lose a week's progress.
I just lost this week's hours just because I used it on my phone
it doesn't sync so you're leaved with 0 minutes!!
IDK why every basic feature is locked, Even Syncing.
The timer stops in the background and when the screen is off
The app's core job — counting time — breaks: the timer shuts off in the background, freezes mid-session and won't run with the screen off, even when background is allowed in settings.
after a couple of minutes it turns off automatically in the background
the timer also doesn't work while the screen is off
Suddenly the time stopped at 66 min and I was not able to do anything
Watch support flops: install fails and constant phone tethering
People who picked the app specifically for the watch are let down: install fails on Galaxy Watch, and on Pixel Watch the timer constantly demands a phone connection and throws warnings every few seconds.
Can't install on my Galaxy Watch 5. Always fails
the timer frequently stops with a notification saying the phone app needs more permission
I'm not even sure why it needs to connect to the phone app every five seconds
Logged hours vanish or get counted wrong
The data is unreliable: updates wipe out groups and months of logged hours, and groups show 20–29 hours instead of the real 4–5, getting people accused of being bots.
all the hours I had recorded during the last four months disappeared
people were asking me that am i a bot or what!!
it is start to missing the times and double it every time and found the total hours being wrong
Paid — but premium doesn't activate, and support stays silent
A serious trust problem: payments aren't recognized, feature access doesn't unlock, and support emails go unanswered — even for people who've written for years.
the app isn't recognising the payment. The customer care isn't responding to emails
I paid for premium and still don't have access to the features
I am using for 2 years but no response from developers
Forest's nice touch stumbles: suns must be tapped one by one
The Forest gamification is liked, but a small thing grates: to make the tree grow you have to tap every sun individually — people are begging for a 'collect all' button.
it'd be nice if there was a 'Collect All' button in the Forest instead of tapping every individual sun
wish i could collect suns all in one go or something
i click on them for my plant to grow but it just doesn't grow
The loud ticking in fullscreen mode can't be turned off
An irritating detail: fullscreen mode defaults to a ticking countdown, and the timer's clicking sound can't be switched off — you can only drop the volume to zero.
why is there a loud ticking in fullscreen mode even if i turn off any white noise?
the clicking sound of the timer can't be turned off, only the volume can be made zero
once a timer is started it defaults to a ticking countdown which needs to be closed out of
Too complex for newcomers and no way to export your data
Some find the app overcomplicated — 'almost a course' just to time things. Plus it's a closed system: data can't be downloaded or exported, which is a red flag for many.
I almost had to take a course on just how to get this app to time things properly
there is no way to download or export your data so you are dealing with a closed system
too complicated - SOUNDS incredible!