Workflow already looked like an Apple product. Now it is one

Apple takes the plunge and buys a task-automation app it has long admired.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent

Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.

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Katie Collins

March 23, 2017 6:59 a.m. PT

Workflow's look and feel won it an Apple Design Award.
Workflow

Apple snapped up popular app Workflow on Wednesday, making it free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad users.

Apple confirmed the Workflow acquisition to TechCrunch. Apple and Workflow didn't respond to CNET's requests for comment.

Workflow, a task-automation app that previously cost $2.99, is lauded for its mad customization skills and bills itself as a way of getting more done using fewer taps. Its colorful drag-and-drop interface lets you to connect features of your favorite apps together, allowing for a kind of interoperability between apps that Apple historically hasn't been so hot on.

Apple is a known fan of the app, giving it an Apple Design Award in 2015 and naming it one of the App Store's best apps that same year. CNET's own have also been known to tinker with Workflow to simplify their tech-heavy lives.

An existing iPhone "Today View" widget and a dedicated Apple Watch app mean Workflow is already integrated into the iOS ecosystem. In classic Apple style, the app is also known for simple set-up and design. It also promotes accessibility features designed to help people with disabilities.

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