The dashboard at a glance
Everything about NextUp that is not on your home screen starts here. The first time you open the app, three short steps come first (a welcome, calendar access, and how to put a widget on your home screen; a fourth, for Google Tasks, with Pro). After that the app always opens on the dashboard, on its Widgets tab.
The Widgets tab, on the free plan
- The wordmark and its line, Your day at a glance.
- Two tabs: Widgets and Notifications. Tap one, or swipe sideways. A red dot beside Notifications means your reminders are on but something is blocking them.
- + opens Add widget; the share icon opens Share NextUp. Both appear once you have a widget.
- The carousel: your widgets, one page each, drawn as they are on your home screen.
- The card of the widget on show: its name, its kind and size, and Configure.
- One banner, when there is something to say. On the free plan it is Unlock Pro. The others are about a payment or a permission.
- Calendars & tasks: Calendars and Google Tasks, the two things your widgets read.
- App: Language, Theme, One-handed reach, and How to, which opens this guide.
- The footer: three links and the version.
Set here once, for every widget
The rows under the carousel belong to the app, not to one widget. Change one and every widget, and every sheet they open, follows.
| Set on the dashboard, for the whole app | Set in each widget's own screen |
|---|---|
| Open events in, Open tasks in, Calendars shown, Week starts on, your Google Tasks accounts, Language, Theme, One-handed reach | Which calendars and task accounts the widget shows, what it lists and how (Widget settings), and its whole look (Style settings) |
Your widgets
The carousel shows each widget as it is on your home screen right now. Swipe it sideways, or tap a neighbour peeking in at the edge. The last page, a round Add widget, is always there. The card under the carousel belongs to the page on show.
- A tap on the page, on the card or on Configure opens that widget's screen on its Settings tab. Widget settings and Style settings describe its two tabs.
- The name is Widget 1, Widget 2 and so on until you change it. The pencil beside it renames the widget PRO.
- The line under the name says the kind and the size the widget has on your home screen now, for example Agenda · 390×410.
- A Pro widget on the free plan shows a PRO mark where Configure would be. A tap opens a preview of it with your own calendar, and from there the purchase.
There is no remove button for a widget that is on your home screen. Remove it there, the way your launcher removes any widget (usually a long press, then drag it away), and it leaves the carousel too.
The cog brings you here
The cog on a widget opens the dashboard already turned to that widget's page, with its card and Configure under it.
One set of settings, or one each
| Free FREE | Pro PRO | |
|---|---|---|
| Settings and style | One shared set. Change it from any widget and all of them change. | Each widget keeps its own calendars, content and look. |
| A new widget | Looks like the others at once. | Starts as a copy of the widget you placed most recently, then goes its own way. |
| Names | Widget 1, Widget 2… | Yours to change, with the pencil. |
On the free plan the dashboard says so under the card: Settings apply to all your widgets.
Add a widget
You can add a widget without leaving the app.
The Add widget sheet
The four kinds, in the sheet's order, and the size each lands at, in home-screen cells:
- Agenda FREE 4×2
- NextUp PRO 3×2
- Week PRO 4×3
- Month PRO 4×3
Every kind can be resized afterwards, and its size picks its layout: what each size shows.
1. Tap + beside the tabs, or the round + on the carousel's last page.
2. Pick a kind. The sheet closes and hands over to your launcher.
3. Confirm in your launcher's own dialog. Most let you add the widget where there is room, or drag it to a spot.
The widget shows on your home screen, takes the next number, and joins the carousel. The dialog in step 3 belongs to your launcher, so its words and buttons differ from phone to phone.
If your launcher can't add it for you
Some launchers don't offer that dialog. NextUp then shows the steps to do by hand, under the title Add NextUp to your home screen. They are the same three the dashboard lists when it reads No widget placed:
- Long-press your home screen.
- Tap Widgets, then find NextUp in the list.
- Drag the widget onto your home screen.
This route always works, and it is also how you add a widget without opening the app.
A Pro kind on the free plan
Picking NextUp, Week or Month without Pro opens this sheet instead of the launcher's dialog. Nothing is added yet.
- The preview at the top is that widget drawn with your own calendar, so you see what you would get.
- See Pro opens the purchase screen, with a slide for each Pro feature.
- Add the Agenda widget adds the free widget instead.
The same sheet opens when you tap a locked Pro widget on your home screen.
Widgets not on the home screen
After you restore a backup onto a new phone, or reinstall NextUp, the app remembers the widgets you had, but your home screen may not have them any more. Each one waits in the carousel, marked Not on home screen, with everything you set up still in it.
- Its page is dimmed and a tap on it opens nothing: there is no widget to configure until it is back on the home screen.
- Place opens your launcher's dialog, as adding a widget does. The widget that lands is this one, with its name, its number, its settings and its look.
- Remove asks Remove widget? and then deletes it from the list for good. Use it for a widget you don't want back.
What a backup brings back
NextUp is part of your phone's own Android backup. There is no backup button in the app, and nothing to switch on.
| On the new phone | Comes back? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The app's options: language, theme, where events and tasks open | Yes | Nothing |
| Each widget's settings, look and name | Yes | Tap Place on each widget that is not on your home screen |
| Your notification rules | Yes | Open the Notifications tab: it says so if a permission is missing on this phone |
| NextUp Pro | Not in the backup | It returns from Google Play by itself, on the account that bought it. If it doesn't, tap Restore purchase on the purchase screen |
| Google Tasks accounts | No | Connect them again. Your widgets still remember which accounts they showed |
Calendars
NextUp reads the calendars that are already on your phone: Google, Outlook, Samsung or any other account your phone syncs. It adds no account of its own. The Calendars row says how many there are and where a tapped event opens. Tap it and it unfolds in place to three settings and the list, shown here unfolded.
Calendars & tasks
On this phone
Open events in
NextUp System Google CalendarCalendars shown
Which events are shown when a tap on the widget opens the calendar
Widget’s own calendars All widgets’ calendarsWeek starts on
System default Monday Sunday Saturday| Setting | Choices | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Open events in | NextUp (default), System, or any calendar app installed on your phone | Where a tap on an event, a day or a new event goes: NextUp's sheets, or that app. Tap by tap. If the app you chose is uninstalled, taps return to NextUp. |
| Calendars shown | Widget’s own calendars (default), All widgets’ calendars | Which events the calendar lists when a widget opens it: those of the widget you tapped, or those of all your widgets together. The row shows it in a word, Own or All. |
| Week starts on | System default (default), Monday, Sunday, Saturday | The first day of the week in the calendar and on the Week and Month widgets. |
The list of calendars
Under On this phone the row lists every calendar NextUp can read, each with its colour. The list is there to check that a calendar has arrived. A calendar that is missing has to be added, or switched on, in your phone's calendar app or account settings first. Where calendars come from, at the end of the list, says the same in the app.
Choosing which calendars a widget shows is not here. It is in that widget's own Settings, so that one widget can show work and another the family.
If NextUp was never allowed to read your calendar, or the permission was taken away, a row reading Allow calendar access sits above Calendars. Tap it to grant the permission; nothing is uploaded, the events stay on your phone.
Google Tasks PRO
Connect a Google account and its tasks join your events on the widgets and in the calendar. On the free plan the row carries a PRO badge, and a tap shows what Pro includes.
Connect your first account
- Under Calendars & tasks, tap Google Tasks. The line under it reads Connect a Google Tasks account.
- Read Connect Google Tasks, which says what NextUp does with the access, and tap Continue.
- Pick the account in Google's own chooser, and allow access to your tasks on Google's screen.
- The row now shows the account's address, and its tasks appear on your widgets. To keep them off one widget, switch the account off under Google Tasks in that widget's Settings.
Keep work and personal tasks apart
- Tap the Google Tasks row to unfold it, then Connect another Google Tasks account.
- Tap the colour dot beside each address and give each account its own Account color. Its tasks wear that colour on your widgets.
- In each widget's Settings, choose which accounts that widget shows.
Google Tasks, unfolded
- The colour dot opens Account color: pick a swatch, or type a colour of your own.
- Reconnect appears only when Google asks for your consent again. One tap gives the access back. Until then that account's tasks can't be fetched.
- Remove disconnects the account, after asking. Its tasks stop showing until you connect it again.
- Connect another Google Tasks account adds one more.
- Open tasks in is where a tap on a task goes: NextUp (default), Google Tasks or Google Calendar, whichever of the two are installed.
Your tasks travel between your phone and Google only, and are kept on the phone. A task you edit in another app shows on a widget at its next refresh, or when you tap the widget's Refresh icon.
App options
The last card holds three options for the app itself, and the way to this guide. All of it is free.
Language
Language sets the language of the app, the widgets, the sheets and the reminders together. System, the default, follows your phone; under it are 26 languages, each written in its own name.
Theme
Theme is System (default), Light or Dark. System follows your phone's light or dark mode.
Theme is the app. Style is the widget. Theme only changes NextUp's own screens: the dashboard, the settings, the purchase screen. A widget's colours, and those of the sheets it opens, come from that widget's Style tab and never follow this row.
One-handed reach
On a tall phone, a sheet that opens at the bottom edge can still be a stretch. One-handed reach lifts the short sheets off their edge, towards your thumb. Each step is 5% of the screen's height, from Off (default) to 8.
One-handed reach
In the app, pick a sheet in the list, then set its step. Each of the four has its own:
| Sheet | What it is |
|---|---|
| Quick add, from the bottom | The two tiles a widget's + opens when its icons are at the bottom. |
| Quick add, from the top | The same tiles when the widget's icons are at the top. This one comes down from the top edge, so its stepper reads Lower. |
| Event sheet | What a tap on an event opens. |
| Task sheet | What a tap on a task opens. |
The forms, the task list and the full-screen sheets stay where they are. The dashboard's row reads On as soon as any of the four is lifted.
How to
How to opens this guide in a browser tab over the app. Back returns you to the dashboard as you left it. The guide is in English, whatever language the app is in.
Banners and the footer
Between the widgets and the settings there is room for one banner. It only shows when it has something to say, and when several apply you see the first in this order.
| Banner | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Allow exact alarms PRO | On Android 12, the permission that lets NextUp act at an exact minute is off. Without it Smart updates and the 10- and 15-minute refresh intervals fall back to the standard one, and reminders are held back. | Tap the banner and allow it in the Android screen that opens. |
| Payment pending | You bought Pro and Google is still confirming the payment. | Nothing. Pro unlocks by itself when the payment goes through. |
| Payment didn't go through | Google could not complete the payment. You were not charged. | Tap the banner to try again, or its × to set it aside. |
| Unlock Pro FREE | You are on the free plan. During a sale its line says so. | Tap it to see what Pro includes and its price. It is not shown while a locked Pro widget is on your home screen: that widget's card is the way in. |
Anything about reminders (a blocked notification permission, battery limits) is on the Notifications tab instead, announced here by the red dot beside its name.
The footer
- Report a bug starts an email to the developer in your email app, with the app version and your Android version filled in.
- Rate NextUp opens NextUp's page on Google Play.
- Privacy policy opens the policy.
- The version is the last line. Quote it when you report a bug.