Technical issues to blame for slow migration of features from Wunderlist to Microsoft To-Do

Early last year, Microsoft launched its new To-Do app, announcing plans to eventually retire Wunderlist, which the company acquired in 2015, at the same time. Microsoft didn't provide an exact timeline for Wunderlist's retirement, but the company did confirm it would occur once it had "incorporated the best of Wunderlist into To-Do." To-Do hasn't evolved much since then, leaving users frustrated. However, recent comments from Wunderlist founder Christian Reber, first reported by Dr Windows, have given some insight into what's holding things up.

According to Reber, who is no longer with Microsoft, the original goal was to have Microsoft To-Do ready within one year. However, the team has run into issues porting Wunderlist's API from Amazon Web Services to Azure, throwing a wrench in the works. "Wunderlist's API runs on AWS, and should then be ported to Azure," Reber says. "But that was extremely expensive, so everything had to be rewritten (also for Exchange/Office integration). But it's easier said than done, so it takes so long."

Reber also noted that the process "was not a pleasant experience," but wished the To-Do team success.

It's still not entirely clear when the full breadth of Wunderlist features Microsoft wants to port over to To-Do will be integrated, but the company has recently made some of its plans a little more concrete. In February, several features, such as Cortana integration and list sharing, were confirmed to be in the works on the Microsoft To-Do UserVoice page. However, for now at least, Wunderlist arguably remains the better option.