August 20, 2026 · 6 min read

How to star or favorite a task in Google Tasks on iPhone

If you have searched “star Google Tasks,” “favorite Google Tasks,” or “mark important in Google Tasks,” you are looking for a short list of what cannot slip. On iPhone, the stock Google Tasks app does not give you a clean favorites system.

What “star” usually means

In apps like Microsoft To Do or many email clients, a star (or flag) means: keep this visible, even when the list is long. People want that for calls they must return, forms that expire, or the one errand that blocks everything else.

Google Tasks is built around lists, titles, notes, due dates, and manual order. Those tools help, but they are not the same as a dedicated favorites lane you can open in one tap.

What stock Google Tasks offers on iPhone

On iPhone, the official Google Tasks app does not present a clear star-and-filter workflow the way To Do’s starred list does. You can still surface important work with habits:

Put must-do items at the top of a list (drag to reorder).
Give hard deadlines a date and time so they show up in Google Calendar when Tasks is enabled.
Use a short “Focus” or “Now” list and move only active items into it.
Keep one personal list for high-signal tasks and leave project noise elsewhere.

That works until the “Now” list becomes another dumping ground, or you forget which list held the starred item. Reordering also does not create a cross-list view of everything you marked important.

Stars, priorities, and what Google does not model

Searches for starring often overlap with “Google Tasks priorities.” Stock Tasks has no P1 through P4 field and no durable auto-sort by urgency. Manual order and due dates are the ranking tools you get.

Some Google surfaces elsewhere may show importance-style cues, but the public Tasks data model that third-party apps sync against does not give you a first-class, reliable starred flag the way a native favorites feature would. Treat stock iPhone Tasks as list-plus-due-date, not as a starred inbox.

If your real need is ranking every task by priority levels, a different system may fit better. If your need is a short, ordered “do not miss these” set while staying in Google Tasks, that is a favorites problem.

Workarounds people try

Common patterns:

A dedicated “Starred” list you maintain by hand. Clear, but easy to forget to move items in and out.
Emoji or words in the title (`*` or `VIP`). Searchable, ugly, and noisy in Gmail’s Tasks panel.
Due dates on everything important. Helpful for Calendar, weak for undated “keep visible” items.
Duplicating critical tasks into Apple Reminders with flags. Two systems to update.

None of those give you ordered favorites that travel with the task and stay easy to review on iPhone.

What works better if Google is your source of truth

Keep Google Tasks as the backbone if you live in Gmail and Calendar. Add a client that treats favorites as a first-class lane on iPhone.

ETasks is a native Google Tasks app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch with two-way sync (or local use with no Google account). It includes ordered favorites so you can mark what matters and review that set without inventing a second list system. Favorite metadata for Google-connected tasks can travel via notes markers so state round-trips through Google; alerts and delivery still happen in ETasks on your Apple devices.

You still see the same tasks in Gmail and Google Calendar. You just stop relying on title hacks and a fragile “Now” list to pretend you have stars.

For a wider side-by-side of Google Tasks, Apple Reminders, and ETasks (including favorites), see compare.html.

Quick answers

Can you star a task in Google Tasks on iPhone? Not as a clean, first-class favorites feature in the stock app. Use order, due dates, or a hand-built focus list instead.

Does Google Tasks have favorites like Microsoft To Do? No. Stock Tasks on iPhone is not built around a starred list.

Is starring the same as priorities? Related idea, different tool. Priorities rank many items; favorites keep a short must-see set.

Will starring in another app sync to Google Tasks? Only if that app writes compatible task data. ETasks can keep favorite state with Google-connected tasks via notes markers; Google’s own apps will not turn that into a native star UI.

When is ETasks the fit? When tasks should stay in Google Tasks, but you want ordered favorites (and a fuller native iPhone shell) without leaving Gmail and Calendar.