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You don’t have to reach for a date picker or a tag menu to set up a task. Type it the way you’d say it, and Sonto reads the details out of the name — the schedule, a time, the project or area, the tags — and applies them for you, leaving a clean title behind. For example, type:
Sonto creates a task called Prepare deck, scheduled for tomorrow, blocked on your calendar from 3:00 to 4:30 pm, filed in your Work project, and tagged urgent. As you type, each detail it recognises turns into a coloured pill so you can see exactly what it picked up.
Typing a task with project, tag, date, time, and duration highlighted as coloured pills

Typing a task with its details inline

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Where it works

Natural language input is part of the task name field, wherever you can edit it:
  • When you add a new task.
  • When you rename an existing one.
  • In the Focus view.
  • In the Edit in Panel floating editor on Mac.

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Projects and areas — #

Type # to file a task in a project or area. A list of your projects and areas appears as you type; keep typing to narrow it, then pick one. Multi-word names work, so #Side Project matches just fine.
The project and area suggestion list shown after typing a hash

Choosing a project or area as you type

A task lives in one place, so if you type more than one #, the last one wins. Only projects and areas you’ve already created will match.

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Tags — @

Type @ to add a tag. You can add as many as you like, and Sonto ignores duplicates. If you type a tag that doesn’t exist yet, choose Add ”…” from the list and Sonto creates it on the spot.

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Dates

Write when a task should happen and Sonto schedules it — either on a specific day or across a whole week. A week means sometime this week, not a fixed day yet. A month on its own (october) lands on the 1st of that month.
Sonto only schedules dates in the future. Phrases like yesterday or 2 weeks ago are left as plain text in the name, so nothing gets scheduled into the past by accident.

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Times

Add a time and the task becomes a calendar time block.
A typed time turning a task into a calendar time block

A typed time becomes a calendar time block

A typed time only creates a calendar event when you’ve given Sonto access to your calendars. Without it, the task is still scheduled for the right day — there’s just no event on your calendar.

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Durations

Add a length to set how long the time block runs. Use it alongside a time.

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How it behaves

A few rules keep things predictable:
  • Future only — past dates are never applied; they stay as plain text.
  • Last one wins, tags add up — for the date and the project or area, the most recent one you type is the one Sonto uses; tags are the exception and accumulate.
  • Your name stays clean — every detail Sonto recognises is lifted out of the title. (If removing everything would leave the task with no name, Sonto keeps the text instead.)
  • Plain numbers stay put — Sonto only treats something as a time when it’s sure (3pm, 9:30), so Read chapter 12 keeps its number.
  • Change your mind easily — press Backspace at the edge of a pill to turn it back into ordinary text without deleting it.

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Works in your language

Natural language input follows your device’s language. Dates and times are understood in English, Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese; other languages fall back to English. So koop melk morgen schedules “buy milk” for tomorrow on a Dutch system, just as buy milk tomorrow does in English.

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Availability

Natural language input works on both Mac and iPhone & iPad, in the same task name field. On iPhone, the keyboard opens automatically for a brand-new task; for an existing one, tap it to start editing.

Tasks

Everything a task can hold, and how to work with it.

Tags

Define your own labels and filter your views by them.

Calendar

How typed times become time blocks on your calendar.

Focus

The name field understands natural language here too.