Your to-do list is not always about stuff you have to do. Much of the time, it's about stuff others have to do, but which affects you directly. Even a great to-do app like Wunderlist won't help then.

Fortunately, Beamtask [Broken URL Removed] is a free iPhone app that is designed to make it easy to add these items to someone else's to-do list.

What's Beamtask All About?

Beamtask is, at its core, a to-do list app where each task is assigned to a person. That person can be you, in which case it's your own to-do list. Or that person can be anyone in your life, whether a co-worker or a family member, in which case it's their to-do list.

Beamtask-for-iPhone-Main-screen

This to-do list is divided into two: inbox and sent items. The inbox is where all the things assigned to you show up, while the sent items lists every assignment you have given out.

Our To Do List is a similar collaborative task manager, but the big difference here is that Beamtask is not a "shared" to-do list. It's about assigning tasks to people, not a collective responsibility.

For Beamtask Users Only

Now, it's essential for both parties to have the app installed and sign up with an email address. This email address is what will be used as the Beamtask ID. So when you want to assign a task to me, for example, you'd need to send the task to the email address I used to sign up, and it will show up in my list. If the email used is not registered on Beamtask, however, you will see an error message that looks like this:

Beamtask-for-iPhone-Sending-Failed-user-not-registered

Sending A Task

Hit the plus icon and you are ready to create a new task. The first step is to choose whether it's for yourself or for someone else. If it's meant for someone else, then you need to type in their email ID in the "To" field. You only need to do this manually the first time, as contacts you delegate tasks to are automatically added to your Beamtask contacts list.

Next, write a description of the task in 100 characters. This feature is essential to the minimalistic outlook of Beamtask, short descriptions mean you don't need to tap on anything to view more details about it. You also have the option of assigning an alarm for the task, by specifying a date and time.

Beamtask-for-iPhone-Create-task-set-alarm

Once a task is sent, it can either be accepted or rejected by the other person. That's right, you can't force someone else to have a task added to their list! One failing of Beamtask is that if a task is rejected, you don't get a notification about it, but only get to see a big red cross in your list. So if your list is populated with many items, it's going to be easy to miss someone rejecting a task.

Editing & Completing A Task

In case you want to change a task's wording, Beamtask does not help you out. Hopefully it's a feature that can be fixed in the future because I guarantee there will be times when you want to update a task without having to create a new one.

Beamtask-for-iPhone-Complete-Task

However, the app does let you edit the alarm you set, just in case you want to adjust a deadline. Once a task is finished, tap the circle and it will be marked with a green check, so you are ready to forget about it. In case you want to clean up your list, swipe right on any item and you will be prompted to delete it.

Only On iPhone, And Not For Lists

It should be noted that there is a difference between a shared to-do list app and a shared grocery app. The 100 character-limitation of Beamtask makes it ideal to be used to assign tasks. But there are other apps to make shared lists on the iPhone.

The single-platform nature of Beamtask and the fact that it needs the other person to be using the app limits its usage a bit. You need two iPhone users right now, although that's set to change soon with the Android version. Regardless, it's still one of the easiest ways of delegating tasks to a team of people using nothing but your iPhone.

Download: Beamtask for iOS (free)

Image credit: Courtney Dirks