Siri + OmniFocus [Siri support added in OmniFocus for iPhone v1.13]
 

I just thought I'd drop a note of a new handy discovery I've made. Please excuse me if I'm the last to figure it out. I've been playing more and more with Siri on the iPhone since Apple purchased it a while back. Recently I discovered I could easily have Siri send a reminder to OmniFocus via the mail interface. This works very well when I'm driving or in a hurry and need to record something. I just tell Siri to remind me blah blah blah, and a few minutes later 'blah blah blah' is sitting in my inbox waiting for me to deal with it.

Nice idea. Sadly US only for Siri Assistant.

I do this now with Dragon Dictation; it's not all voice control but much better than typing the whole thing. iOS 5 might make the Siri way available to all.

Siri + OmniFocus
 

Hi: has there been any thought by Omni regarding the integration of Siri do use OmniFocus? I'd love to be able to ask Siri "What's the next thing I have to do today?" and get a valid answer back from mining OmniFocus, potentially differentiated based on context/perspective.

Thanks!

We certainly watched the announcement yesterday. I can't speak to our future plans, though.

I'd love to see Siri integration for OmniFocus (of course if it's possible). I wonder if there's a way to override it to use OmniFocus instead of their new Reminders app. That would be money!

[QUOTE=Lizard;102501]We certainly watched the announcement yesterday. I can't speak to our future plans, though.[/QUOTE]

A week from now I'll ask Siri "How will you integrate with Omnifocus?"...I'll let everyone know what s/he says... ;-)

Added a few votes for Siri integration (if it were to be made available for third-party developers) to our database. I'd encourage anyone else who'd like to see that email us [URL="mailto:omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com"]here[/URL].

I would absolutely love Siri integration for Omnifocus. If nothing else being able to simply add new tasks into your inbox would be incredibly useful.

Hmm... what would Siri do when you ask it "what's today's forecast?"

Does it show you the weather or your OmniFocus Forecast?

[QUOTE=blewis;102608]Hmm... what would Siri do when you ask it "what's today's forecast?"

Does it show you the weather or your OmniFocus Forecast?[/QUOTE]

Cloudy with a heavy chance of Mother-in-law around five o'clock.

Just a thought out of the box. Is there an API for the build in reminders app? Reading new tasks of the reminders APP and getting them in the OF inbox would be enough Siri integration for me at the moment. This would allow to get a new task in by simply speaking it to Siri. That would help a lot.

I've used the Siri app and I will most definitely be using reminders in the meantime (for the quick todos) until Apple allows Siri to be integrated with 3rd party apps. I've used Voice control before in other phones and they all seem kinda gimmicky and it's easier to just type on the phone instead. But Siri seems to be the first mainstream voice control technology that will work naturally with real world use.

The app should be integrated for adding items using the email function. As one forced to use Windows at work, I have to do that often anyway. I know that it is not what we are looking for, but given time, I believe that we will see it.

At a minimum, I would hope it would be easy to send a fast email by voice that could be routed to OF's inbox. I don't care so much about Siri telling me what to do next, but I would absolutely love the ability to rattle off quick todo's on the fly by voice.

Ok, this sounds really cool:

"To give you an idea of how convenient Siri is, it takes about three seconds to create a reminder with a voice command, as opposed to the 10 seconds it takes me to manually type an event into a to-do list or calendar entry. . . .

You would think that dictating commands to a phone would look awkward in public, but Apple thought of a trick to make this less weird. By default, if you hold the iPhone up to your ear, Siri is activated, so it looks like you’re talking to someone on the phone rather than talking to the phone itself. Clever, huh?"

[url]http://www.wired.com/reviews/2011/10/iphone4s/[/url]

I suspect it'll take a few years to get there, but in principle it sounds like there's no reason why the entire data-input process (get the task wording, stick it into the right project, create a folder for it, set the context, etc.) couldn't be done by simply talking to the phone.

But in the meantime, talking into my phone for 3 seconds to create a reminder sounds pretty good.

As far as I know, there's no third-party access to Siri yet.

That said, we might be able to hack something together with the Omni Sync Server. Theoretically, you could use Siri to dictate/send an email your account on the server, which then adds the item to your database on that end.

Your various devices wouldn't know about the item until they next synced, but if all you need is to capture something you don't want to forget, it might be enough. I'll file the feature request. I am not an engineer, so I really have no idea how feasible this actually is. Take it with a bigger grain of salt than usual I usually prescribe. :-)

reminder sync
 

Hi, until you can get siri up and running with Omnifocus, is there a way to sync iOS 5 reminders to omnifocus?

Script to pull reminders from ical and send to omnifocus
 

Hi all -

It would be really cool to get Siri to add tasks to omnifocus. Since that won't happen till Apple releases APIs, I wrote an applescript to pull all new reminders from iCal (which gets all of the reminders, synced over iCloud) and adds them to your omnifocus inbox. If you have a computer with ical and omnifocus running, then you can add a task to the reminders app on the phone via Siri, which will sync via iCloud back to your mac, which then gets imported into omnifocus via this script, which I have running every minute via launched. You could probably do it less often... I haven't found that it burns too many cycles on my 3 year old macbook pro. You can set the interval to whatever you want (in seconds) in the launched plist below.

The applescript adds a note to your reminder after it send it to omnifocus, so you don't get duplicates. It leaves the todo in the reminders section of ical as well, instead of deleting it, because I figured it would be nice to have it pop up automatically on the phone later. You could just as easily delete them after transferring them into omnifocus, but then you don't get the cool location and date reminding of the iOS reminders app. I couldn't figure out any way to get at the location information in the particular todos from iCal. Perhaps apple will update the ical applescript dictionary to allow that in the future.

Also, I set the due date in the reminder to the start date in omnifocus. Since I rely heavily on start dates instead of due dates to keep things organized, seemed to make sense. Plus it's in the spirit of the 'Remind me to get the mail tomorrow' spirit of the iOS reminders app.

Set the calendar name on the second line of the applescript to whichever calendar you sync reminders to from your iPhone.

To get launched working running, add the code I have below for omni_siri.plist to your LaunchAgents folder in your user Library and execute
[CODE]launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/omni_siri.plist[/CODE]
at the terminal. It should also autoload on startup from then on.

Tell Siri "Remind me to get the mail tomorrow", and soon you will have a new inbox item in omnifocus (on your computer and back on your phone, the next time you open omnifocus on your iOS) with the text "Get the mail" and a start date of tomorrow. Cool!

Best,
naupaka

Here's the applescript.

[CODE]
tell application "iCal"
set myRemindersIDS to todo of calendar "Reminders"
repeat with theTodo in myRemindersIDS
tell theTodo
set todo_summary to (get summary of theTodo)
set todo_due to (get due date of theTodo)
set todo_description to (get description of theTodo)
if "transferred" is not in todo_description then
tell application "OmniFocus"
set theDoc to first document
tell theDoc
make new inbox task with properties {name:todo_summary, start date:todo_due}
end tell
end tell
tell application "iCal"
set description of theTodo to "transferred"
end tell
end if
end tell
end repeat
end tell

tell application "OmniFocus"
synchronize default document
end tell
[/CODE]

Here's omni_siri.plist for launchd.

[CODE]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.myOmniSiri</string>
<key>LowPriorityIO</key>
<true/>
<key>Program</key>
<string>/usr/bin/osascript</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>osascript</string>
<string>/full/path/to/your/scripts/reminders_to_omnifocus.scpt</string>
</array>
<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>60</integer>
</dict>
</plist>
[/CODE]

I am a newbie to applescript, would you have a place where I could read on how to include this script in terminal?

Followup
 

Here's a good discussion on using launchd for timing applescripts:
[url]http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=21367[/url]

For the applescript, paste the code into the AppleScript Editor app on you mac, and save it someplace where its location won't change. Also be sure to change the calendar name in the script to whichever calendar you use.

It will only work with OS X 10.7.2 and iOS 5, and you have to have iCloud set up on your mac and your iPhone.

hth,
naupaka

Full Siri integration isn't necessary. What is important is to integrate with Reminders, which can be used as a 'pre-inbox' or as a separate tracking tool like your Calendar. If you think about it there is a need for such a tool, already in one day I'm using Reminders this way.
[LIST=1][*][B]Reminders[/B] This is the hopper. Ideally it would be the OF Inbox, but it can serve as a pre-inbox. A lot of stuff goes in there (quick one offs), if it's important or bigger it can make it to the more formal OF database.
[*][B]Calendar[/B] Hard landscape important events.
[*][B]OmniFocus[/B] More important longer term project tracking etc.[/LIST]

naupaka has an interesting approach which I'll investigate.

Again - I don't think Siri integration should be the focus right now, Reminders fits a tasking niche that OmniFocus needs to work with, just as it does for iCal.

I agree that the optimal situation would be an OF integration with Reminders so could chat with Siri as normal, but have items from Reminders show up in the Inbox or elsewhere to be processed into our workflow. Siri is a wonderful capture tool, but Reminders is not a great task manager.

Siri+SMS+OmniFocus Mac+Apple Mail solution
 

I used OmniFocus on the Mac and the email rule setting along with an address book entry to make it easy for Siri to create OmniFocus items. Now I can say something like this to Siri:

"Tell Omnifocus Pick Up Books At Library"

And it works.

Here's what I did:

1. In OmniFocus on the Mac, use the OmniFocus Preferences to turn on a Mail rule, allowing for the from address in emails sent through the AT&T SMS gateway (in the form [email]2125551212@mms.att.net[/email])

2. Double check the new email rule in the Mail Preferences

3. Create a contact with the first name "Omni" and last name "Focus" (it had a hard time when I created a contact with the name "omnifocus". Set the email address for that contact to be [email]youremail+omnifocus@yourprovider.com[/email]

Thus, when you say "tell omnifocus" to Siri, it'll create a text message to send to that address, which in turn, when received, will trigger the mail rule to create an omnifocus item. It's a little bit convoluted, but doesn't require AppleScript hacking and works well for me so far.

Hopefully, the geniuses at Omni Group will come up with a more elegant and general solution soon, but in the mean time this will do.

p.s. If you don't want to use SMS, you could also say to Siri: "Email Omnifocus..." but this requires an extra step to fill out the email message body.

Would love SIRI integration but also love the workarounds!
 

I would love to go straight to omnifocus.

That said, I love the fact that roughly 72 hours after launch there are already two fleshed out work arounds in this forum!

See omnifocus really does make you more productive!

Looks like the Remember the Milk folks have figured out a path to replace the reminder app with their app via a calDav integration. See http://blog.rememberthemilk.com/2011/10/we-taught-siri-to-add-tasks-to-remember-the-milk/ and http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/19/teach-siri-to-interact-with-rememberthemilk/

Could the same thing be done w/ Omnifocus?

RTM has Siri integration. They have a video of it and it looks like it works great.

I checked out the RTM integration, and they did it by setting up a CALDAV calendar that intercepts one of the reminder lists. It's a very elegant setup I have to admit. My main Mac lost it's hard drive which has me in a hindered state right now too so I guess it looked even more elegant as it didn't require local scripting.

This is the closest I've come to moving away in some time. The biggest challenge I have in my workflow is capture, and Siri has that nailed.

I was very impressed both by the feature and even more by the speed with which they were able to implement it, get out instructions for use, and publicize it. I was moved to give them another look, but concluded to stay with OF for now, in the belief that it'll come here soon enough. Still, major coup for them - I read about on a popular Apple blog website and I've got to think a lot of people with new iPhones are giving them a look.

[QUOTE=blackketter;102968]I used OmniFocus on the Mac and the email rule setting along with an address book entry to make it easy for Siri to create OmniFocus items. Now I can say something like this to Siri:

"Tell Omnifocus Pick Up Books At Library"

And it works.

Here's what I did:

1. In OmniFocus on the Mac, use the OmniFocus Preferences to turn on a Mail rule, allowing for the from address in emails sent through the AT&T SMS gateway (in the form [email]2125551212@mms.att.net[/email])

2. Double check the new email rule in the Mail Preferences

3. Create a contact with the first name "Omni" and last name "Focus" (it had a hard time when I created a contact with the name "omnifocus". Set the email address for that contact to be [email]youremail+omnifocus@yourprovider.com[/email]

Thus, when you say "tell omnifocus" to Siri, it'll create a text message to send to that address, which in turn, when received, will trigger the mail rule to create an omnifocus item. It's a little bit convoluted, but doesn't require AppleScript hacking and works well for me so far.

Hopefully, the geniuses at Omni Group will come up with a more elegant and general solution soon, but in the mean time this will do.

p.s. If you don't want to use SMS, you could also say to Siri: "Email Omnifocus..." but this requires an extra step to fill out the email message body.[/QUOTE]


How would you set this up with Sprint? I have no idea how to use SMS gateway - to be honest i've never really heard of it (low technical knowledge). Any thoughts?

I had the same idea but decided that it would be more fun to pretend I have a personal assistant or butler! So I created a contact called "Alfred" (I don't know any real Alfred's) and gave him my email address with +omnifocus inserted before the @ symbol.
Works a treat!

what is the purpose of including "+omnifocus" in the email address for "Omni Focus"

[QUOTE=denno;103156]what is the purpose of including "+omnifocus" in the email address for "Omni Focus"[/QUOTE]

OmniFocus for Mac includes a feature that can add a Mail rule which looks for specially-formatted emails and copies the contents into your inbox.

If your mail server supports it, including that info in the subject line will flag the message as intended for OmniFocus without messing up the servers' ability to deliver the message to your account. (The other option is to tell the mail rule to look for a sequence of characters in the subject line.)

If you take a look at the "Processing Mail messages into actions" page in OmniFocus for Mac's help menu material, it runs through the feature in more detail. Hope this helps!

Thanks--I have a rule that looks for a subject line that starts with "--". Didn't know about the other method but I'm using Outlook for Mac so don't think that will work.


[QUOTE=Brian;103165]OmniFocus for Mac includes a feature that can add a Mail rule which looks for specially-formatted emails and copies the contents into your inbox.

If your mail server supports it, including that info in the subject line will flag the message as intended for OmniFocus without messing up the servers' ability to deliver the message to your account. (The other option is to tell the mail rule to look for a sequence of characters in the subject line.)

If you take a look at the "Processing Mail messages into actions" page in OmniFocus for Mac's help menu material, it runs through the feature in more detail. Hope this helps![/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=derekr;102558]Added a few votes for Siri integration (if it were to be made available for third-party developers) to our database.[/QUOTE]
Lack of formal third party invitations didn't stop RTM from fully integrating Siri.
[QUOTE=derekr;102558] I'd encourage anyone else who'd like to see that email us [URL="mailto:omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com"]here[/URL].[/QUOTE]
With [URL="http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/10/17iPhone-4S-First-Weekend-Sales-Top-Four-Million.html"]4 million 4S iPhones sold in the first three days[/URL], you don't need polls or emails to figure out that there is a huge need for integrating omnifocus with Siri as well as a huge business opportunity for Omni.

How reliable is Siri, though? I did not buy a 4s so far and I think I will just wait for the 5 next year when my contract needs renewal anyways. 4s just doesn't add anything I really need since I don't play games and hence am happy with my CPU.

What I wonder is, how perfect is siri's voice recognition? It is certainly one thing to dictate a text message informing somebody that you will arrive an hour late. It's another thing to dictate a task that might have an important due date. Can you 100% rely on Siri to recognise the due date correctly and not get you into major trouble?

Siri intregation
 

I would like to say
"Siri ADD buy apples to groceries CONTEXT in Omnifocus."
OR "Siri Omnifocus buy apples" and have it added to the inbox.

[QUOTE=Christian;103175]How reliable is Siri, though?... What I wonder is, how perfect is siri's voice recognition?[/QUOTE]
My initial observation is that Siri is very, very good at English VR.

[quote]Can you 100% rely on Siri to recognise the due date correctly and not get you into major trouble?[/quote]
I would be very content to have the ability to add tasks to the Inbox for later processing. I don't know if I would ever trust any VR system to add the metadata of project, context, start/due dates, etc. As you mention, there is too much at stake to risk a potential error in the process.

[QUOTE=Christian;103175]How reliable is Siri, though?[/QUOTE]

Easily reliable enough to capture an action or an idea when you're in a hurry and don't want to type. I've played with it a fair amount and it's quite accurate. (And I suspect it will get more accurate over time as people use and train the computers that run it).

As far as entering dates and whatnot, I usually batch process my inbox later anyway, and would never trust voice recognition with that kind of detail.

The method blackketter describes works brilliantly -- though it does require a Mac somewhere to be online and running Mail -- and subsequently syncing to your OF database. Kind of a lot of overhead, but it'll definitely do for now.

[QUOTE=blackketter;102968]I used OmniFocus on the Mac and the email rule setting along with an address book entry to make it easy for Siri to create OmniFocus items. Now I can say something like this to Siri:

"Tell Omnifocus Pick Up Books At Library"

And it works.

Here's what I did:

1. In OmniFocus on the Mac, use the OmniFocus Preferences to turn on a Mail rule, allowing for the from address in emails sent through the AT&T SMS gateway (in the form [email]2125551212@mms.att.net[/email])

2. Double check the new email rule in the Mail Preferences

3. Create a contact with the first name "Omni" and last name "Focus" (it had a hard time when I created a contact with the name "omnifocus". Set the email address for that contact to be [email]youremail+omnifocus@yourprovider.com[/email]

Thus, when you say "tell omnifocus" to Siri, it'll create a text message to send to that address, which in turn, when received, will trigger the mail rule to create an omnifocus item. It's a little bit convoluted, but doesn't require AppleScript hacking and works well for me so far.

Hopefully, the geniuses at Omni Group will come up with a more elegant and general solution soon, but in the mean time this will do.

p.s. If you don't want to use SMS, you could also say to Siri: "Email Omnifocus..." but this requires an extra step to fill out the email message body.[/QUOTE]

I'm either doing something wrong here (quite possible) or your instructions are missing a vital piece that's obvious to a more experienced user. Here's my experience with this so far:

1.) OK. Done.

2.) OK. Done.

3.) OK. Done. (New Omnifocus now has an email address of [email]Eric.Montgomery+omnifocus@yahoo.com[/email])

4.) When I send a text to "Omni Focus" (through Siri or manually) I get an error back saying that [email]Eric.Montgomery+omnifocus@yahoo.com[/email] doesn't exist (which it doesn't). So the rule is useless at this point.

What am I missing?

Nothing that a better email provider wouldn't fix! Yahoo doesn't support the +<stuff> option in delivery to yahoo addresses (and they are lousy in other ways, too, in my experience). Gmail works much better.

Gmail definitely allows +omnifocus, but I did a _lot_ of testing this week (so far) regarding Mail activating/not activating the applescript attached to the mail rule, and it doesn't always seem to work. When I send from Gmail's web interface to [email]derek+omnifocus@gmail.com[/email] (not real address, of course), it works! When I send from Mail.app to [email]derek+omnifocus@gmail.com[/email], it doesn't.

The applescript doesn't even get called, so it looks like it might be a problem isolated entirely within Mail.

Work in progress..

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;103340]Nothing that a better email provider wouldn't fix! Yahoo doesn't support the +<stuff> option in delivery to yahoo addresses (and they are lousy in other ways, too, in my experience). Gmail works much better.[/QUOTE]

AH HA! Ok. I've switched it to my lesser used gmail account and it worked like a champ. I hate gmail with a passion and rarely use it for more than a junk filter.

THANKS!

Well, it worked the first time anyway. AT&T suddenly seems unable to send a test message to an email account. Figures.

aaaaannnnd now it's working again. :)

Note that you don't have to use the gmail account for anything else — in fact, it might be better if you don't have anything else configured to download messages from it, to eliminate the chance of the message being marked read before the mail rule gets run (which would make it not run when Mail did finally process the message).

[QUOTE=derekr;102558]Added a few votes for Siri integration (if it were to be made available for third-party developers) to our database. I'd encourage anyone else who'd like to see that email us [URL="mailto:omnifocus-iphone@omnigroup.com"]here[/URL].[/QUOTE]

+1 for Siri Integration

Omniinmo

Doesn't seem to work when the iphone uses iMessage service to send to an email address. I tried sending myself a text from my email account and then replying back using sms and it worked fine. Not sure how to force it to use sms? Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks, Jan

Regarding the above, when I went to my iPad I noticed the messages I sent to my gmail acct from my phone were picked up by iMessage on my iPad. That gmail acct is also my apple id so thats why but I'm not sure how to fix this problem now.

Beautiful
 

Thanks blackketter, I changed mine to just email and not using SMS, and this works like a charm. I had to configure my email server to understand my email address as "pete+omnifocus@" and have that email get delivered to "pete@", and it works just fine.

For those that weren't clear by the instructions, I did this:

1) Turn on the mail rule in OF, checking for +omnifocus in the email
2) Setup my email server to make sure emails sent to "pete+omnifocus@" made it to my email address called "pete@". Note that gmail users probably don't have to worry about this, since +anything on your email address gets auto-delivered to your gmail box.
3) Setup an address book entry for "Omni Focus", with the email address as "pete+omnifocus@"
4) Launch Siri, and say "Email Omni Focus"
5) Grin madly!

Welcome Siri to OmniFocus! Buh bye Evernote! I finally don't need you...



[QUOTE=blackketter;102968]I used OmniFocus on the Mac and the email rule setting along with an address book entry to make it easy for Siri to create OmniFocus items. Now I can say something like this to Siri:

"Tell Omnifocus Pick Up Books At Library"

And it works.

Here's what I did:

1. In OmniFocus on the Mac, use the OmniFocus Preferences to turn on a Mail rule, allowing for the from address in emails sent through the AT&T SMS gateway (in the form [email]2125551212@mms.att.net[/email])

2. Double check the new email rule in the Mail Preferences

3. Create a contact with the first name "Omni" and last name "Focus" (it had a hard time when I created a contact with the name "omnifocus". Set the email address for that contact to be [email]youremail+omnifocus@yourprovider.com[/email]

Thus, when you say "tell omnifocus" to Siri, it'll create a text message to send to that address, which in turn, when received, will trigger the mail rule to create an omnifocus item. It's a little bit convoluted, but doesn't require AppleScript hacking and works well for me so far.

Hopefully, the geniuses at Omni Group will come up with a more elegant and general solution soon, but in the mean time this will do.

p.s. If you don't want to use SMS, you could also say to Siri: "Email Omnifocus..." but this requires an extra step to fill out the email message body.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=petro;103398]Thanks blackketter, I changed mine to just email and not using SMS, and this works like a charm. I had to configure my email server to understand my email address as "pete+omnifocus@" and have that email get delivered to "pete@", and it works just fine.

For those that weren't clear by the instructions, I did this:

1) Turn on the mail rule in OF, checking for +omnifocus in the email
2) Setup my email server to make sure emails sent to "pete+omnifocus@" made it to my email address called "pete@". Note that gmail users probably don't have to worry about this, since +anything on your email address gets auto-delivered to your gmail box.
3) Setup an address book entry for "Omni Focus", with the email address as "pete+omnifocus@"
4) Launch Siri, and say "Email Omni Focus"
5) Grin madly!

Welcome Siri to OmniFocus! Buh bye Evernote! I finally don't need you...[/QUOTE]

I guess it bears pointing out that for this to work, you need a mac that you can dedicate to be on all the time, connected to the network, with Omnifocus and the mail application running.

So while its a nice interim solution to those who can maintain the above overhead, I would hesitate to say "problem solved".

Yes. The only thing i really want from Omnigroup is a web interface for omnifocus so I don't need to be running a separate mac all the time with omnifocus running to get tasks sent from email on my iPhone to my iPad and vice versa.

The great thing about evernote is that it's running all the time, everything shows up everywhere

I suspect that there may be business considerations here -- who would buy the flagship OF Mac if most of the same functionality was available through a web interface? Nothing wrong with that sort of thinking, as businesses have the right to earn money as best they can, and OF makes a good product. But eventually the market will move on, as it seems clear that web-based apps are the direction of the future.

[QUOTE=cellmatrix;103450]I guess it bears pointing out that for this to work, you need a mac that you can dedicate to be on all the time, connected to the network, with Omnifocus and the mail application running.

[/QUOTE]
It only has to be on and connected continuously if you want the functionality to work continuously. I find things I'm putting in my Inbox rarely need instant turnaround, and having the computer on and waiting isn't necessary — I can enter it directly or via [email]send-to-omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email] if I really need it in there Right Now. Otherwise, having the computer boot or wake up from sleep after some number of hours via the Energy Saver system preference would do the trick (assuming here that the issue is leaving something on and running is the issue, not that you don't have a Mac). Sometimes things that won't work in theory work fine in practice :-)

absolutely. Omni makes great products and I totally agree that they need to make these decision based on business concerns first and foremost. The market will dictate and that is an awesome thing!

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;103454]It only has to be on and connected continuously if you want the functionality to work continuously.[/QUOTE]

My mac is a lap top and I take it with me when I go - a situation that I suspect is very common. And when I am on the go, and I do have my lap top on, I am not always connected to the internet, unless I am at a starbucks or something. So if I send myself an email, I often wouldn't get a chance to check it on my laptop until long afterwards.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;103454] I find things I'm putting in my Inbox rarely need instant turnaround, and having the computer on and waiting isn't necessary — I can enter it directly or via [email]send-to-omnifocus@omnigroup.com[/email] if I really need it in there Right Now. [/QUOTE]

Many of the tasks I input DO need attention sooner rather than later. So with your solution, every time I think of a task, I will have to first determine when is it that I next plan to work on my lap top, specifically at a time when I plan to be in the presence of wifi, and then having determined that, I will have to decide do I need to do this task before or after that estimated time.... well thats a lot to think about. And then afterwards, I would worry what if I do not log into my lap top as soon as I had originally thought I would, then the task is not going to get worked on as soon as I had hoped it would.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;103454] Otherwise, having the computer boot or wake up from sleep after some number of hours via the Energy Saver system preference would do the trick (assuming here that the issue is leaving something on and running is the issue, not that you don't have a Mac). Sometimes things that won't work in theory work fine in practice :-)[/QUOTE]

One of the most important requirements of GTD is having a trusted system without worrying about things falling thru the cracks. So, while I appreciate this solution works for you, and I thank you for your suggestions, for me, I will likely be manually inputting tasks into omnifocus until a more definitive solution is reached.

[QUOTE=jhsidoc;103385]Doesn't seem to work when the iphone uses iMessage service to send to an email address. I tried sending myself a text from my email account and then replying back using sms and it worked fine. Not sure how to force it to use sms? Anyone got any ideas?

Thanks, Jan[/QUOTE]
Jan, I had the same problem at first. Make sure you add your phone's fake email address to the "Allowed from addresses" in the Mail tab of OF for Mac preferences. The fake email address is the one that Verizon or AT&T or Sprint creates for emails that start out as text messages from your phone. For example, [email]6175551234@vzwpix.com[/email] or [email]6175551234@mms.att.net[/email]. When I added that, my texts turned into emails, which turned into glorious in-box items like "buy milk."

Bonus tip: Siri has trouble understanding "Omni." Better to add a fake contact with a unique name. (Loving the "Alfred" suggestion.)

[QUOTE=cellmatrix;103457]My mac is a lap top and I take it with me when I go - a situation that I suspect is very common. And when I am on the go, and I do have my lap top on, I am not always connected to the internet, unless I am at a starbucks or something. So if I send myself an email, I often wouldn't get a chance to check it on my laptop until long afterwards.
[/quote]
As I said, it's only necessary to have it on continuously if you want it to work continuously. You feel this won't work for you, and that's fine. But I speak from years of practical experience not having ubiquitous internet access that such an approach can work, and feel that other readers of the thread ought to examine their own needs carefully rather than just taking it as gospel that an always-on Mac is a necessary component.

[quote]

Many of the tasks I input DO need attention sooner rather than later. So with your solution, every time I think of a task, I will have to first determine when is it that I next plan to work on my lap top, specifically at a time when I plan to be in the presence of wifi, and then having determined that, I will have to decide do I need to do this task before or after that estimated time.... well thats a lot to think about. And then afterwards, I would worry what if I do not log into my lap top as soon as I had originally thought I would, then the task is not going to get worked on as soon as I had hoped it would.
[/quote]
You're asking the wrong question. The question should be "do I need to work on this right away?" and if the answer is yes, you should enter and process it right away, even if that means doing it by hand instead of voice recognition.
[quote]

One of the most important requirements of GTD is having a trusted system without worrying about things falling thru the cracks. So, while I appreciate this solution works for you, and I thank you for your suggestions, for me, I will likely be manually inputting tasks into omnifocus until a more definitive solution is reached.[/QUOTE]
If you've put something in your inbox, unless you fail to process your inbox, it isn't going to fall through the cracks. The real issue here is when you process your inbox and move those actions into projects where they will be done. Your problem with a potential lack of internet access is no different than neglecting to process your inbox for a few days.

You can also use OmniFocus' built-in audio recorder and the Quick Entry feature to get something immediately in your inbox without a lot of typing or any internet access (or a device that supports Siri, for that matter). Launch OmniFocus, tap the Quick Entry button, tap the record audio button, speak your piece, save it with an action name like "a" (it won't let you save without something in the field). Now it is in your inbox, the thought has been captured, and when you have a little more time you can give it a proper name, assign project, context, and dates, etc.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;103673]As I said, it's only necessary to have it on continuously if you want it to work continuously. You feel this won't work for you, and that's fine. But I speak from years of practical experience not having ubiquitous internet access that such an approach can work, and feel that other readers of the thread ought to examine their own needs carefully rather than just taking it as gospel that an always-on Mac is a necessary component.[/QUOTE]

I've actually been a user since kinkless GTD, so I do know most of the tricks here too. And sure I can get along without Siri integrated with omnifocus, been doing it for years.

But I'm just saying, having Siri well integrated with omnifocus would be [B]huge[/B], not only for me but for a great many of the other millions of iPhone 4S users out there.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;103673] You're asking the wrong question. The question should be "do I need to work on this right away?" and if the answer is yes, you should enter and process it right away, even if that means doing it by hand instead of voice recognition.

If you've put something in your inbox, unless you fail to process your inbox, it isn't going to fall through the cracks. The real issue here is when you process your inbox and move those actions into projects where they will be done. Your problem with a potential lack of internet access is no different than neglecting to process your inbox for a few days. [/QUOTE]

you don't need a laptop or wifi to process your inbox, you can do that on your iPhone.

[QUOTE=whpalmer4;103673]You can also use OmniFocus' built-in audio recorder and the Quick Entry feature to get something immediately in your inbox without a lot of typing or any internet access (or a device that supports Siri, for that matter). Launch OmniFocus, tap the Quick Entry button, tap the record audio button, speak your piece, save it with an action name like "a" (it won't let you save without something in the field). Now it is in your inbox, the thought has been captured, and when you have a little more time you can give it a proper name, assign project, context, and dates, etc.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the suggestions, and yes I have tried the built in audio recorder. Really tedious to use, you have to
1) tap once to launch omnifocus
2) tap again to launch quick entry
3) tap again carefully to hit the record button
4) tap again to assign it a holding name.
5) tap again to save.
6) go back to inbox, spend time listening to audio note
7) type in definitive title and task

versus

1) open siri
2) talk to it
3) look at inbox and confirm.

Looks like there is now a way to sync Siri with both Things and the Hit List through syncing with the ical reminders. Has anyone here gotten this to work with omnifocus?

[url]http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/11/08/siri-things-the-hit-list[/url]

Just saw this mentioned as a concept [url]http://goo.gl/viI0I[/url] but since Reminders and Calendars are different entities now and OF only syncs with Calendars and only those not on iCloud, as far as I can tell it does not work.

[QUOTE=pjb;103852]Just saw this mentioned as a concept [url]http://goo.gl/viI0I[/url] but since Reminders and Calendars are different entities now and OF only syncs with Calendars and only those not on iCloud, as far as I can tell it does not work.[/QUOTE]

sounds like omnigroup is behind on this compared to the other programs, unfortunately.

Siri for Inbox
 

I have no doubt that OF is already doing what it can to find some way to facilitate the use of Siri with OF. In the meantime, does anyone have any further thoughts on potential work-arounds that don't require OF for desktops or any complicated scripting solutions? Ie, solutions that work just on the iPhone itself?

Here are the best three options I can think of:

1. Use Reminders as an inbox. Getting something into Reminders with Siri could not be simpler. Assuming your phone is awake (and with no need even to enter your pass code) you just hold it to your ear like you were making a call and talk. For example, I've created a Reminders list called "Do," and all I have to say is "Add X to do" and then tap to confirm or confirm by voice and X will be added to the list. You can also say "Note X" and a new note will be created with X as the text. Unfortunately, the only way I know to get those items into OF is to later transfer than manually.

2. Use OFs auto-email service. You use Siri to send an email with a task to the OF address, and OF automatically sends you back an email with a link that you click to automatically add the task to OF. This seems to work ok, but it requires you to remember to go back into your emails to click the link. And if you have an email footer to your message, the footer gets stuck into the item notes, which can be a pain.

3. Use Siri to dictate your task. You can go into OF just like you were going to add a task by hand, but when the keyboard appears you can hold the phone to your ear and dictate the task and then tap save. This is faster for me than typing, but requires you to get into OF so it isn't really hands free.

I think each of these is an improvement over having to type things in, but they all have some level of friction attached to them. Does anyone have any other ideas?

[QUOTE=Stargazer;103453]I suspect that there may be business considerations here -- who would buy the flagship OF Mac if most of the same functionality was available through a web interface? Nothing wrong with that sort of thinking, as businesses have the right to earn money as best they can, and OF makes a good product. But eventually the market will move on, as it seems clear that web-based apps are the direction of the future.[/QUOTE]

I suspect, actually I'm sure, there are ways to add the web interface for paying users only. I'd suggest adding it to the Mac version, or buying in if you are a phone only user. This would sell more iPhone OF apps as PCs could see their data without picking up the phone.

But then they might just be looking to put the data on iCloud, and maybe iCloud will allow users to see (and edit) data.

OmniFocus for iPhone has just gone live with Siri reminders!

We'll have the usual "v1.13 has been approved" post up soon, but yep; it's live. More info available [URL="http://www.omnigroup.com/blog/entry/omnifocus_is_now_on_speaking_terms/"]on our blog[/URL] for those interested, including videos showing how the feature functions. Enjoy, everyone!

Weird. As far as I can tell, I have it set up properly, but reminders via Siri keep on going only to the Reminders app and never come into OmniFocus.

having the same problem. can't get the reminders to go to the inbox on the iPhone

[QUOTE=Latest Omni Blog Entry]A couple of friendly productivity fiends took matters into their own hands and figured out that Siri could send emails to the OmniFocus inbox on their Macs.

We could have said “Yay, Siri and OmniFocus can work together” and gone back to our long-term projects. Instead, a couple engineers got to talking “You know, if we… and then the server… and…” “Wow, I think that would totally work![/QUOTE]

Exactly the reason of my posts above....... the previous workaround on this thread was a good start, but something more was needed ----> and I am glad that Omni listened.

Thanks Omni !!

[QUOTE=ken.w;104151]Weird. As far as I can tell, I have it set up properly, but reminders via Siri keep on going only to the Reminders app and never come into OmniFocus.[/QUOTE]

Siri puts things into Reminders; you'll have to sync your Reminders with iCloud and launch OmniFocus so it can capture them from iCloud. (We don't have access to the local Reminders database on the device.)

I’m seeing inconsistent behavior: My reminders for my “Home” context are coming into OmniFocus, but reminders for “Work” (configured the same way in OmniFocus) are not.

EDIT: Think I figured out what was causing this. My “Work” address in Contacts was set differently than the context reminder address in OmniFocus. Aligning them seems to have helped.

[QUOTE=drewwilliams;104160]I’m seeing inconsistent behavior: My reminders for my “Home” context are coming into OmniFocus, but reminders for “Work” (configured the same way in OmniFocus) are not.[/QUOTE]

Siri records its location-based reminders with a specific location, but not a radius: their location is just a single pin on the map, and they presumably always set their reminders geofence using the same radius (but they don't tell us what that might be).

We look up whatever location Siri has set in the reminder, and compare it with the locations of any contexts which you've configured with a matching reminder, i.e. one which has a small radius and which goes in the same direction (arriving or leaving). If the reminder location is within your context's location notification radius and the location direction (arriving or leaving) matches, OmniFocus should capture the task.

Hope this helps demystify the process a little!

Not seeing Siri Updates
 

I downloaded the 1.13 version of OF for iPhone and set up iCloud sync. My default calendar on the iPhone has been changed to "OmniFocus" and I added two reminders so far, both time based. They have both shown up on my iMac iCal, so I know they have synced to iCloud (i yi yi), but after 10-15 minutes I have yet to see them sync with OmniFocus. Any clue as to how often the iCloud OmniFocus sync occurs before I start thinking I have a problem here?

One of the reminders I added was moved from another calendar, the other I added via Siri.

***

Just an update, I tried closing the OmniFocus application (hard close it, not just get out of it), and that seemed to kick start it into synching with iCloud. Reminders all came through and deleted out of Reminders.

It's working here, but there's one interesting thing I've noticed that isn't necessarily documented...

OmniFocus for iPhone seems to give priority to a reminders list named "OmniFocus" so if you have created a reminders list with that name already, [i]only[/i] this list will be used, regardless of whatever you have your default list set to. So if you create your reminders in the default "Reminders" list, they won't get sucked into OmniFocus if you [i]also[/i] have a list named "OmniFocus." Note that you have to set your default [i]reminders list[/i] and not your default [i]calendar[/i] -- it's a different setting further down under the [i]Mail, Contacts, Calendars[/i] section.

For me that's a [i]good[/i] thing, as I prefer to still use the Reminders app for quick one-off alarm-style reminders that really don't need to go into OF. So I leave my default list as "Reminders" and OmniFocus happily ignores this since I also have an "OmniFocus" list. When I want to add something to my OF inbox, I can simply say to Siri "Add Task to OmniFocus" and it will add it to the "OmniFocus" list which will then by synced to the OF app the next time it starts up.

The only downside is that I can't use this to set due dates as there doesn't appear to be a way to use the secondary list phrasing along with a reminder date/time. However, in my case that's not a big deal as I'm mostly just concerned with quickly getting things into the OF inbox for further processing.

As an aside, it would be cool in a future version if OF could be configured to support multiple lists and perhaps assign them to projects/contexts. For example, I was (and still am) using a modification to the Applescript posted earlier in this thread that takes tasks from the "Grocery List" Reminders list and assigns them to the appropriate project and context in OF for my grocery list. This way I can say things like "Add Milk to Grocery List" to Siri and it will end up in my normal shopping list and appear when I get to the grocery store.

Good catch, JDH - we set things up that way so folks could do exactly what you describe. Just re-read the in-app help, and we mention both lists, but don't lay out the implications too clearly. I'll file a feature request to clarify that in the help, and file the request about mapping lists to contexts, too. Thanks!

If you want to add a timed item to a specific list, just say "Remind me to <thing to remember> in <name of list>." Siri will do that, then ask you for the time when you want to be reminded. Siri is sometimes a bit picky about what it thinks you meant, but we've gotten it to work often enough we know it's possible. :-)

Did anyone else notice that setting default list to "OmniFocus" seems to give much faster results than setting default list to "Reminders"?

[QUOTE=Brian;104168]Good catch, JDH - we set things up that way so folks could do exactly what you describe. Just re-read the in-app help, and we mention both lists, but don't lay out the implications too clearly. I'll file a feature request to clarify that in the help, and file the request about mapping lists to contexts, too. Thanks!

If you want to add a timed item to a specific list, just say "Remind me to <thing to remember> in <name of list>." Siri will do that, then ask you for the time when you want to be reminded. Siri is sometimes a bit picky about what it thinks you meant, but we've gotten it to work often enough we know it's possible. :-)[/QUOTE]

First, thanks for adding this. Great feature!

But . . . whenever I say OmniFocus, Siri seems to think I'm asking about an "omni" hotel. I cannot get it to recognize the OF list. Any chance we could have the option to rename the list that OF syncs with to something more distinctive?

Edit: This is really strange, in a funny kind of way. I kept saying "Omnifocus" and Siri kept transcribing it as "Omni focus" and saying there was no such list. The space between words was throwing it off.

By complete accident, I discovered that Siri thinks the word is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, so that it rhymes with "Spartucus". Or sounds like "certificate". It's kind of hard to explain, actually. As if you were saying "om NIF a cus". Anyway, works like a charm.

[QUOTE=Ken Case;104157]Siri puts things into Reminders; you'll have to sync your Reminders with iCloud and launch OmniFocus so it can capture them from iCloud. (We don't have access to the local Reminders database on the device.)[/QUOTE]

Thanks, Ken. The problem was that I didn't have the option to set a default Reminders list until I created a new one. Now I have it and it works.

[QUOTE=Stargazer;104173]But . . . whenever I say OmniFocus, Siri seems to think I'm asking about an "omni" hotel. I cannot get it to recognize the OF list. Any chance we could have the option to rename the list that OF syncs with to something more distinctive?

Edit: This is really strange, in a funny kind of way. I kept saying "Omnifocus" and Siri kept transcribing it as "Omni focus" and saying there was no such list. The space between words was throwing it off.[/quote]
You can also work around this by creating an address book entry for "OmniFocus" in your contacts, being sure that OmniFocus is in the first or last name field (not the "Company" field). Siri will try to adjust spellings to what it finds in your address book, so by putting "OmniFocus" in there, Siri ends up getting it right most of the time.

None of this works at all. I have iCloud reminders enabled on my iPhone and have successfully connected from the OF preferences. Nevertheless, no reminder added to my reminders list is ever synced with OF. Have tried restarting the app and the phone, but nothing.

[QUOTE=Stargazer;104173]Edit: This is really strange, in a funny kind of way. I kept saying "Omnifocus" and Siri kept transcribing it as "Omni focus" and saying there was no such list. The space between words was throwing it off.

By complete accident, I discovered that Siri thinks the word is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable, so that it rhymes with "Spartucus". Or sounds like "certificate". It's kind of hard to explain, actually. As if you were saying "om NIF a cus".[/QUOTE]

Brilliant - I had been through this realization process myself a couple weeks ago, whilst dictating some Omnifocus-related notes to self, and Siri's pronunciation was cracking me up. It sounded like a mystery british adjective: "Quite omNIFicus of you, old chap."

Oddly, now, as I verify the Siri behavior before I post by saying "OMniFOcus" into the iPhone "Notes" app, it's spelling "Omnifocus" properly, & interpreting my "OmNIFicus" less accurately.

OK, got it working by creating an OmniFocus list. If the list is just called Reminders, as it is by default, it will not work!

[QUOTE=hardcoreUFO;104204]OK, got it working by creating an OmniFocus list. If the list is just called Reminders, as it is by default, it will not work![/QUOTE]

Working for me now, also.

My initial mistakes were:

1. named my list "Omnifocus" instead of "OmniFocus"

2. didn't understand that OmniFocus gets reminder info from iCloud _at app startup_

-Thanks for the Tips Thread, Lizard.

Also: Blast-fax kudos all around to Omni on this implementation. For all the cleverness of the email-based input methods, there was always just a bit too much operational overhead (for me, opinion only). Reminded me of the Kinkless days.

-Way to bring it, Omni-squad, this method is most omNIFicus.

steve

Amazing
 

This is so great and works so well..

Brings omnifocus to a whole new level for me!

Thanks!

[QUOTE=hardcoreUFO;104204]OK, got it working by creating an OmniFocus list. If the list is just called Reminders, as it is by default, it will not work![/QUOTE]

I think it will work if you delete the OmniFocus list now. I tried to define a default Reminders list on the iPhone, but there was no option. Once I manually created a new Reminders list, I had the option to set a default list. Now it all works. Weird.

I was having quite a time with mine, but I think that I found a solution. I had reminders set to sync with exchange. I shut this off, and in the process also recreated my reminders list, and it works.

I had attempted to recreate a reminder list before, with no success. I think that the exchange server did it.

Should be a nice feature! Thanks!

Tip - using Reminders in iCal on Mac
 

I really like the new integration with Siri / iCloud.

I use OF apps on iPhone and iPad but not on the Mac as yet. I have found it useful to to enter items using Reminders in iCal on my Mac. It's less distracting for me as I don't have to switch devices and it's not always convenient to use my voice (such as in an open office).

ANother possible Issues and resolution!
 

I just discovered that I had my settings>iCloud>account name set as [email]email@mac.com[/email] and my omnifocus>settings>iCloud_reminders>apple id as [email]email@me.com[/email]. When I made them the same it started working. It's the same account but apparently they need to be the exact same. Worked immediately!

Setting phonetic spelling for Omnifocus helps Siri
 

[QUOTE=jdh;104185]You can also work around this by creating an address book entry for "OmniFocus" in your contacts, being sure that OmniFocus is in the first or last name field (not the "Company" field). Siri will try to adjust spellings to what it finds in your address book, so by putting "OmniFocus" in there, Siri ends up getting it right most of the time.[/QUOTE]

And you can also set a phonetic spelling in the address book to further ensure Siri gets it right. I set my phonetic spelling to "omneefocus" and it gets it right every time.

See this link for instructions on setting phonetic spellings: [url]http://www.tipb.com/2011/10/20/daily-tip-add-phonetic-spelling-contact-ios/[/url]

Love it. Works great for me.