Reminders used to be such a battery hog that I got rid off it on the last iOS version and switched to third party.
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iOS 17 Reminders App Can Automatically Sort Your Groceries Into Categories
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Everything on my shopping list would probably get moved to the "You shouldn't be eating that" and the "Do you really need that?" lists.
I do exactly this with my wife and it works great. I too was curious how long it would take for a checked off item to disappear from the other persons lists and it usually takes a few seconds.
While that would be cool it would also be totally untenable. You would have to have the stores literally update a database every time they change an endcap or shuffle displays.
You know they do that anyway, right?
How else would their own app know where in the store things are? Those displays are not even remotely random, they plan exactly where in the store everything goes. Every reshuffle is carefully designed to make it more likely for you to buy things, it's not just some random store employee moving stuff around. They've got a database that maps those shelves to the inch.
True, and a lot of stores intentionally move stuff around so that its harder to find, so you stay in the store longer (Walmart), but it could be crowd sourced, and once enough data is collected switch from Category list to Isle list. It would be a hard problem to solve.
I wonder how the will impact Apps like Grocery (which has been a lifesaver for me since I have taken over Grocery duties). Import recipes from the web right into the app, separates the items out from the instructions, remembers the order in which you buy items and reorganizes your list based on that. With new "categories" will this interfere with my list order?
Can you designate a list a Grocery list?
When creating a list in the Reminders app in iOS 17, you can select a "Groceries" list option that will cause your iPhone to automatically organize every food item added into categories for easier shopping.
Grocery items like produce, milk, and breads are automatically organized under different headers as you add them to your shopping list. Fruits and vegetables, for example, get organized under "Produce," while oatmeal and cereal go under "Breads & Cereals."
Categories include Produce, Breads & Cereals, Frozen Foods, Snacks & Candy, Meat, Dairy, Eggs & Cheese, Bakery, Baking Items, Household Items, Personal Care & Health, and Wine, Beer & Spirits.
Categories are customizable and you can add your own sections, or rearrange the order that sections are shown in the list.
If the iPhone doesn't recognize where an item should go, it remains uncategorized. It does recognize specific brands and types of food like "Sour Patch Kids," but some items like tofu are questionably categorized (Dairy, Eggs & Cheese).
While sections are turned on by default for the Grocery list option, any Reminder list that you create in iOS 17 can have sections added to it. You'll need to manually add sections and organize items into them, but the option exists for better list management.
There is a new column view that lets you see the sections you've created side-by-side, and this is in addition to the standard list view.
With interactive widgets in iOS 17, a reminder can be checked off directly from a widget without having to open the app, which is a convenient change. Other new additions include options to receive early reminders up to six months before a reminder becomes due, and tools for creating reminders from suggestions.
Article Link: iOS 17 Reminders App Can Automatically Sort Your Groceries Into Categories
We use multiple lists for groceries based on stores. So there is a Costco list and General Shopping list. It would be nice if you could tell Reminders this list named X is a grocery list.
It's a timesaver, but I'm sure Apple didn't invent the approach. The recipe app Paprika does the same for its grocery list, and others have mentioned other apps that also use store categories to organize grocery lists. So, no, this is not something "only Apple can do".
I made the same leap from Omnifocus to Things, but I still find Reminders UI a bit klunky compared to Things.
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I feel like Things is probably gonna be better for you. From what I can tell, Reminders has no support for repeating things with the flexibility Things has (repeat after completion, for example).
The only reasons I open Reminders myself are for location-based alerts, and for collaborating on a list with someone else. I also use Reminders for our grocery list because the HomePod Mini in our kitchen works best that way.
I actually loved Things. I liked it over OmniFocus quite a lot... Things def gives you a lot of room if you are putting a lot of "notes" in your to-dos (which I do). But if I may say, I just never grew to love the way things is organized. Like, groups and folders don't really look right to me, or work right. I also have come to be a very Siri-centric user, when out and about. And I don't like the way redundancy with Siri is handled in Things. Conversely, many of the issues I have had with Reminders have been addressed in the last two cycles, and now there are even some features (like folder icon modification) that don't appear at all in Things. I noticed I had begun using Reminders for emails, and with Siri, more and more. And then it just became obvious that I was going with the solution that was better for me, and working more efficiently.
That's really interesting. I use it literally all day and have never seen much of a battery hit. Can you say more about how you were using it?
I noticed that too. But then I thought about where almond milk is stored in my local grocers. And ... yep, it's usually right there in the dairy section.
Interesting. I've got a lot of muscle memory built up with Things, but I may fiddle around with Reminders a bit more just to see how it's working for me these days.
Omnifocus, I used forever, but I found I was spending too much time tweaking the system itself. Nowadays I use it for work, which is a bit more complex and maybe better suited to that "GTD" approach.
Groceries mainly in Reminders because Apple Watch user can check items out easily.
My wife used to do this. Jot everything down in paper. Then she went to supermarket & forgot that paper. Ouch ….
The act of writing it down usually helps me to remember even if I don't have the list with me.
I use reminders because I can bring up the list on my watch and tick off items while shopping. I can also use Siri to add items to my list as as soon as I think of them, because my phone/watch is with me all the time.
Why should Apple sherlock all kinds of features from third parties? They’re killing of third party notes app, reminder and todo apps, journaling apps, … left and right.
This is how it's been for decades now. The term "sherlock" comes from Apple doing this fully twenty years ago. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯