Work management platform Asana has announced a suite of new features to help employees during the current hybrid work era. According to the company, 80 percent of employees keep their inbox and communication apps open when working, with most of them feeling pressured to multitask. This results in lower efficiency and people often miss deadlines or critical messages. It now promises improved productivity and lesser work distractions with the new features.
“We’ve designed a suite of new offerings purpose-built to align your attention with your intention. Featuring integrations with our newest Asana Partners, Vimeo and Clockwise, we’re removing distractions and making it easier to do the work that requires your full attention,” said Alex Hood, Chief Product Officer, Asana.
Asana adds video messaging feature
The most notable new addition to Asana is an asynchronous video messaging feature. Developed in partnership with video-hosting platform Vimeo, this tool eliminates the need for more video meetings while still offering the benefits of face-to-face communication. Employees can record videos of themselves and/or their Asana screens and share them with their colleagues or bosses. This way, they will be able to better convey the emotion and context about the work at hand, without the “tax of more meetings.”
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a thousand pictures,” said Hood.
The platform also automatically transcribes your speech. Your co-workers can search for and share those audio transcripts to help with the work. The video messaging feature will roll out to all Asana customers in the coming weeks.
“Asana stepped up their feature delivery based on how workers now want and expect to work. Their new Video Messaging asynchronous video conversations will be a gamechanger for some teams,” said Wayne Kurtzman, IDC Research Director for Communities and Collaboration.
Intelligent to-dos, smart calendar assistant, and more
In addition to the new video messaging feature, Asana has also “supercharged” My Tasks with the latest update. The company says it has made the feature more intelligent so it could automatically organize your tasks. Users can organize their work in “Kanban, list, and calendar versions of their personal tasks.”
With automation, the app will organize them based on the due date. If your task depends on the work of a teammate, it will let you know as soon as they complete their part of the work. Asana says this change is “inspired by the productivity best practices of high-performance teams.”
With the latest update, Asana is also integrating with Clockwise, the popular smart calendar assistant. It lets you schedule tasks directly from within the app. All you need to do is enter the amount of time needed to complete the task and when you want to work. Clockwise will then automatically reserve time on your calendar so you don’t miss the deadline. The scheduled task calendar event is also accessible in Google Calendar.
Lastly, Asana has also launched a desktop app for Windows and Mac. The company says the new app offers the full functionality of the web version and further allows employees to focus on the task at hand by blocking out unwanted notification sounds. You can download the Asana desktop app from asana.com/download.
