Auto-Prioritize with Apple Intelligence
Setting priorities by hand is quick for five tasks and tedious for fifty. Auto-Prioritize takes a selection of tasks and gives each one a priority of None, Low, Medium, or High, worked out on your iPhone or iPad with Apple Intelligence. The whole run arrives as a single change, so one undo puts every priority back the way it was.
What You Need
Auto-Prioritize needs an iPhone or iPad running iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 with Apple Intelligence turned on.
On a device that cannot run Apple Intelligence, the command is not shown. If Apple Intelligence is switched off, or is still downloading and getting ready, 2Do explains what to do when you tap it.
It is available on iPhone and iPad. 2Do for Mac does not have it yet.
Running It
- Tap Batch Editing at the trailing end of the bar above your tasks, or touch and hold a task's checkmark and drag down the column.
- Select the tasks you want prioritized.
- Tap Priority in the drawer at the bottom of the screen.
- Choose Auto-Prioritize, the first item in the menu.
With a hardware keyboard, press ⇧⌘P while batch editing is on and pick Auto-Prioritize, which sits first in the picker. For everything else the drawer can do, see Batch Editing.
While 2Do works, a card shows how far along it is and carries a Cancel button. Cancel and nothing changes. The result is applied as one change, so a single undo puts every priority back and a redo applies them again. See Undo and Redo.
What It Reads and What It Writes
For each selected task, Auto-Prioritize looks at:
- The title and notes.
- The start date and due date, including whether the task is overdue.
- The list the task belongs to.
- Its tags.
- The priority it already has.
It writes one thing: the priority. Stars, dates, notes, titles, tags, and lists are left exactly as they were, and completed tasks are skipped. A selected project or checklist counts as one item, and its sub-tasks keep their own priorities unless you selected them as well. If some tasks could not be prioritized, or the run could not finish, 2Do ends with a short summary saying so.
Notes count as part of the task's description. Text in a note that tries to give instructions to an assistant is ignored.
Priorities You Already Set
Auto-Prioritize adds a priority where one is missing and raises a priority where the task warrants it:
- A task with no priority gets one when its wording or its dates give a reason for one. A routine, undated item with nothing riding on it stays at None.
- A priority you set yourself is not lowered. The one exception is an undated task whose own wording marks it as a someday idea or an optional wish, which can be set back to None.
- A task that comes back unchanged already had a priority that fits. That is a normal result, not a failure.
How Tasks Come Out
Two things carry the most weight: what the task says will happen if it slips, and when it is due. The examples below all start with no priority set.
| Task | Priority |
|---|---|
| "Renew car insurance before the policy lapses", due tomorrow | High |
| "Pay the credit card bill today to avoid the late fee", due today | High |
| "File tax return to avoid financial penalties", no date | Medium or higher |
| Anything due today or tomorrow | Medium or higher |
| Anything tagged urgent | Medium or higher |
| "Buy milk", no date | None |
| "Fold the laundry", no date | None |
| "Maybe learn Italian someday" | None |
High comes from a near date, meaning overdue, today, or tomorrow, together with a serious consequence stated in the task or a clearly important obligation. A serious consequence can also reach High with no date at all, when the task itself says time is short. A near date on its own, or a near date with only a minor inconvenience behind it, gives Medium. A routine errand with no date and nothing riding on it stays at None.
After a run, sort the list by Priority to see the result at a glance. See Stars and Priorities.
When to Use It
- After a brain dump. Capture everything into your Inbox without stopping to weigh it up, then select the lot and let Auto-Prioritize work out which items matter. See Quick Add.
- During a weekly review. Select this week's tasks in Today or a Smart List and get a second read on which of them are the important ones.
- After an import. A list brought over from another app usually arrives with no priorities at all, so there is nothing to sort by. One pass gives every task a priority you can sort by.
- After breaking a project into steps. Write the steps first, then select them and let their wording and dates set the levels.
Everything Happens on Your Device
2Do uses Apple's on-device Foundation Models, the same models behind Apple Intelligence. Your task titles, notes, dates, lists, and tags are read on your iPhone or iPad, and nothing about them is sent to 2Do, to Apple's servers, or to anyone else. There is no account to create and no service to subscribe to.
Running on the device also keeps it fast. A screenful of tasks takes a few seconds, and a larger selection takes a little longer.
If Something Is Missing
- Auto-Prioritize is not in the Priority menu. The device is not running iOS 26 or iPadOS 26, or it cannot run Apple Intelligence. 2Do hides the command instead of offering something that cannot work.
- You get a message instead of a run. Apple Intelligence is switched off, or is still downloading and getting ready. Turn it on in iOS Settings, then give it time to finish before trying again.