Touchdown App Being Phased Out by Symantec

July 16, 2017

The Android and iPhone app Touchdown has been officially sunsetted by Symantec. More information here:

https://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/touchdown-eol-notice?list_context_id=84201&list_context_type=sc_forum

Years ago I highly encouraged Android users to get the Touchdown app to manage MYN tasks when mobile. About a year ago I switched my recommendation to Nine for Android.  Why the switch? The Symantec Touchdown management seemed a bit flaky about their new Android Touchdown version that was in testing for over a year. Feature support was unclear. Release timetable completely unclear. So I steered folks to Nine which had all the needed features for MYN users and a strong support team.

Also, two years ago Touchdown came out with an iOS version, and it was an option for iPhone MYN users for email (handled categories and converted emails to tasks), but the task module was not quite right. I have always recommended TaskTask for iOS tasks instead, and still do. You might combine that with Preside for email (has categories–tags–and converts emails to tasks).

Too bad about Touchdown. The decline started when Symantec bought them out several years ago. They slowly transferred the entire original developer team onto other projects, and the passion for the product seemed to wane. Goes to show that sometimes the best app developers are the small companies who can be nimble and responsive.

Michael

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13 Responses to Touchdown App Being Phased Out by Symantec

  1. Thank you for sharing your article the content was great and informative keep on sharing

  2. Melody Oshiro says:

    Thank you for this information, Michael. For iOS you recommend Preside for mail and TaskTask for Tasks; you do not recommend the iOS Outlook App; so what calendar do you recommend to go along with Preside and TaskTask for iOS?

  3. Michael Linenberger says:

    Thanks Melody. I continue to use the native Calendar app that ships with iOS. It works for me! But you might consider the Outlook app just for that purpose, to use its calendar. Michael

  4. Edward Well says:

    Michael,
    Thank you for this information. I have been using TouchDown on my Androids for years and had no idea that Symantec phased it out. I realized that today when nothing was working with that app. Nine is working perfect!

  5. Andy S. says:

    I, too, knew nothing about this until today, when my password would not be accepted by the exchange server.. In the past, when I had issues, I’d remove and reinstall, then reload my backup. Imagine my surprise (horror?) when I went to the Play Store to find TD gone! Fortunately, I had an APK saved, and it appears that I’m back in business. One note: Simply restoring my previous backup resulted in the contacts and calendar being blank. The info was there (if I searched for a contact, it appeared), but the list view was empty. I had to reinstall from scratch. FWIW, Nine couldn’t get through the setup, citing “An unknown error has occurred.”

    • Masood Khan says:

      Andy

      I had the same issue. Touchdown was deleted and now not in the Play Store. How did you restore? What is APK? Any help appreciated. Thx.

  6. Scott Loudenback says:

    Just started using MYN and love it. Also started Preside on my iPhone. I love the ability to convert email to task in Preside, and I also seem to be able to edit, mark complete, and do many other things within Preside. Not sure I understand why I also would need Task Task? What am I missing by just using Preside?

    • Michael Linenberger says:

      Hi Scott. Yes, Preside is good. I haven’t tried its Tasks module for a while, so maybe you can tell me: are you able to set up the MYN view in Preside Tasks? That’s what we would need to really use its Tasks module with MYN. Specifically, you would need to, all in one tasks view, Group by priority, Sort within groups by start date (older start dates lower), Filter out completed tasks, and Filter out tasks with a start date in the future. Let me know if you are able to do that in Preside tasks module. Thanks, Michael

      • Scott says:

        Potential good news….looks like Preside tasks can be configured for MYN. It doesn’t look like I can post screenshots here, but it now has the ability to group by priority, then sort groups by start date (recent at top/bottom are both available), and under filters there are options for both completed status and start dates (including filter for all tasks with future start date. Still need to play around, but all the options are there!

  7. Aniruddha says:

    Hi, Michael, thanks for the reference to Nine for Android today. I revisited the app and set it up as you suggest. I also revisited Preside for my iPad, as a consequence, and got a huge surprise. It now supports converting emails to tasks within both Toodledo and Office 365. You are able to view and edit tasks plus set up 1MTD and MYN views. Preside is a multi dimensional, flexible and configurable system which with additional these features means I can now use MYN workflows on all my devices. I reckon you will be impressed by its capabilities. I’d like to hear your opinion.

    • Michael Linenberger says:

      Thanks Aniruddha. I haven’t looked at Preside for a while. Written about it a bit before in our blogs but due to your note I looked at it again today. I knew it converted emails to tasks in Exchange, but not Toodledo, so that’s great! And I today discovered the way to set up MYN task views. Not sure if that’s a new feature or if I missed it before. SO, I am going to create a Preside video to add to the MYN video course. Thanks again for the note!
      Michael

  8. Scott L says:

    I’ve been spending a LOT of time this week playing with Preside, Task Task, ToDo, and Outlook for iOS TRYING to find the best solution for MYN. I would love to hear other opinions! So far, I like Outlook iOS the best for email and the Teams and Calendar integration seems to be the best…but email Tasks can only go to ToDo, which Michael suggests is not good for MYN. I like Preside as well…and the Tasks seem to fully support MYN now…but the Calendar is pretty wonky and nowhere near as good as Outlook iOS. What mix of Apps works for you for the full MYN solution??

  9. Ivan Drucker says:

    Thanks for introducting me to Preside. I’m not aware of any other iOS client, including Outlook, that lets you filter by contact category. Excellent app.

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