Google Keep, discarded: A smart new source for Android location reminders

Google giveth — and Google taketh away.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned as Android-adoring animals over the years, it’s that you can’t ever fully count on Google to stick with something forever. The company pivots, rebrands, and eradicates apps and options as often as I eat waffles (which, conveniently enough, seems to be roughly once every few months). And sometimes, that means something genuinely useful that you rely on and appreciate suddenly ceases to exist.

That’s precisely what’s on the brink of happening with the Android Google Keep app and its long-helpful location-based reminder system.

‘Twas a time, y’see, when you could simply ask our dear old Google Assistant to set such a reminder for ye — to pop up a reminder, in other words, when you arrived at a specific place (an address, a business, even a city whilst traveling). But as Google started dissembling Assistant in favor of Gemini, it stripped that option away.

And now, the lingering ability to ask Keep to set you a similar sort of location-centric memo? Forget about it. It’s about to be tossed aside as well.

But don’t lose hope — ’cause as I like to say roughly as frequently as I eat waffles, here in the land o’ Android, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

And you’d better believe that even with Keep about to get annoyingly less useful, we’ve got another great option standing by and ready to fill that void.

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Google’s Android reminder regression

First things first, for context: Google’s been in the midst of revamping its approach to reminders for something like 7,000 years now.

The latest pivot, following roughly 40 gazillion previous pivots, is shifting the underlying mechanism for reminders away from the not-long-for-this-world Google Assistant system and instead into Google Tasks — which exists somewhat awkwardly alongside Google Keep, despite both services offering ways to create lists and organize tasks. (Ah, crap — Google’s gonna kill one of those things off eventually, too, isn’t it?!)

As part of that progression, the company’s migrating any reminders set within Keep to Tasks. You’ll still be able to create reminders for notes in Keep, but such reminders will actually be stored in Tasks — and synced over to Calendar, too, from there — with a link to the original Keep note as part of the reminder.

And that means the helpful but unfortunately now-Keep-centric option to create a reminder around a physical location will be going away entirely, since Tasks for some reason doesn’t support that ability.

As the sharp-eyed gumshoes over at 9to5Google noticed, Le Googé recently updated its official help document about the transition to note that you’ll no longer be able to create or receive location-based reminders once the change is finished and all of your Keep-created reminders are moved over to Tasks. (Man, my head hurts.) This switch will supposedly happen sometime “in the second half of 2025,” so the clock is swiftly ticking.

Now, with that in mind, I’ve got an easy answer for ya — one that’ll be a swift ‘n’ simple transition of your own and that’ll keep your location-based reminder-setting ability alive.

Android location reminders, revitalized

The tool you need for Android location reminders in a post-Keep-reminder world is an open-source, independently developed app called Tasks.org. 

Tasks.org is basically like a more fully featured and customizable version of Google Tasks — without the fickle nature of Google and its ever-shifting priorities behind it (perhaps the most appealing feature of all at this particular moment!). It even syncs with Google Tasks, if you want — or optionally with Microsoft To Do or its own standalone syncing setup.

And it couldn’t be much easier to use:

Just download the Tasks.org app on whatever Android device you’re using.

Think about which syncing path you prefer.

For most people and purposes on Android, sticking with the free and simple Google Tasks back-end will be the easiest option. It’ll make all your reminders in Tasks.org associated with your existing Google account and readily available anywhere you’re signed in — and it’ll automatically bring over all of your existing tasks from Google Tasks, too (and thus also Google Keep), to start.

Task.org offers a whole host of syncing options, many of which are free to use.JR Raphael, Foundry

Once you’ve made that selection and made your way to the main Tasks.org home screen, look for the prompt at the top of the screen to enable reminders.

Tap the word “Settings” and then confirm that you want to allow the app to send you notifications.

The simple notifications permissions is critical to Tasks being able to — well, y’know…notify you.JR Raphael, Foundry

Next, follow the prompt to allow the app to set alarms as well.

Another pertinent, low-level permission for your first-time setup.JR Raphael, Foundry

And — well, that’s about it.

You’ll now see any tasks that came over as part of the initial sync in front of you, and you can create new tasks right then and there, too.

And, critically, within any task you’re editing or creating, you can tap the “Add location” option to associate the reminder with a specific physical place.

Hey, a location-based reminder option — how about them apples?!JR Raphael, Foundry

The first time you do so, look closely for a small bell-with-an-arrow-through-it icon alongside the spot you selected. Tap that and follow the prompt to ensure the app has access to your location — both in the foreground, when it’s actively in use, and in the background, when it isn’t — or it won’t be able to detect when you’re at the location in question and thus won’t be able to notify you. You’ll only have to do that once.

The Tasks.org app needs ongoing access to your location, for (hopefully) obvious reasons.JR Raphael, Foundry

Then the really cool part comes in: By tapping that same bell icon, you can now instruct the app to trigger whatever reminder you’re looking at when you arrive at the location you’ve chosen — and/or when you’re leaving the location. That’s an extra pinch of flexibility that Keep and even Assistant never offered.

Get notified when you arrive and/or depart a place — yes, please!JR Raphael, Foundry

Hit the disk-shaped icon in the upper-left corner when you’re done, and your task will officially be saved and ready to alert you with whatever location-specific parameters you picked.

Android location reminders — restored. Hallelujah!JR Raphael, Foundry

Tasks.org has oodles of other interesting options beyond just the location-based reminders, and it’s well worth your while to explore it even further over time.

The app is free to use for its primary features — including all the location stuff! — with optional donations to support the developer, if you’re ever so inclined. Donations unlock some extra options and, of course, support the app’s development. But they absolutely aren’t required to use the app or take advantage of its core capabilities.

The app is also free from ads and doesn’t do anything with any of your data. Since it’s open source, anyone with the right know-how can even peek in at the underlying code to confirm it’s doing exactly what it claims and nothing more, which is a welcome bit of extra assurance to have.

Best of all, though? With this app handling your Android location reminders, you’ll never have to worry about Google changing its mind and deciding to phase it out or strip away certain elements in another few months — or whenever you next sit down to enjoy a nice warm waffle.

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