ActiveCollab Annual Updates: 2021

Another year has gone by, giving us a chance to wrap up all the accomplishments and progress we've made. We like to inform you every month, through our monthly recaps, what we've been working on, how it's progressing, and what we plan to focus on next. It's only fair for our customers to be in the loop of ActiveCollab's upgrades and changes! This post will be reviewing all the major releases throughout 2021. Here's a quick overview:

Activity navigation

Since January, it's possible to shuffle through your account's activity more easily as all the actions are grouped by day, week, and month. Now that we're on this subject, we can remind you that you can keep track of every task created and comment posted in your ActiveCollab. If you need an overview of a single project's movement, go to Project > Activity.

New @mention options

For us, this feature has been in use every day, and we couldn't imagine living without it now! Before, you could only mention one person at a time on tasks, notes, and discussions. So, when you needed to tag an entire team of seven people, it was a tiresome business.

Now, you can use the options:

@Task/Discussion/Note or @Here to notify all the subscribers
@Project or @Everyone for all those invited to a project
@Leader or @Assignee, where you'll also see if the person is available on that day
@team-name to mention an entire team

February brought us another cool feature. Viewing your projects in the List or Column view? Need to change some element of a task quickly? Find the three-dot menu and edit the task list, assignee, due date, label, or estimate in a jiffy. You can also mark a task as a high priority, turn it into a recurring task, duplicate or delete it.

Browser notifications

When you're involved in many projects and collaborating with lots of people, being updated at all times is paramount. We tend to get lost in arrays of tabs in our browser, making it easy to miss out on ActiveCollab notifications. That's why in March, we've enabled browser notifications to alert you whenever something new happens.

Task dependencies improvements

Many customers have told us how useful task dependencies are to them, especially when clients put them on a tight schedule. If you tie several tasks together so that one follows another, moving the start or due date of just one assignment can have a ripple effect that delays a project's finish line by a month!

The Timeline, a.k.a. the Gantt view, allows you to easily connect the dots between tasks. But when you use the List or Column view, it gets a bit trickier. Open a task, and create a dependency. You'll see that the list is nicely sorted (thus easier to navigate) and that you can add a new task right there and then!

In-app Chat

The greatest addition to ActiveCollab since Workload entered the Early Access Program in April and has been developing continuously ever since. Read all the details of this feature here. Let's go through the basics of what's been added in these nine months.

One-on-one and team conversations
Editing and deleting messages
Muting conversations
Sound notifications
Who's typing indicator
Unread messages indicator
Conversations with custom groups
File attachments
New conversations shortcut
Reactions to messages
Unread messages email reminder
@mentioning individuals and entire teams
Marking messages as unread
Creating a task out of chat messages

Default Client visibility

We understand including clients in your ActiveCollab account is no picnic. And when you do manage to lure them in, some things are for your teams' eyes only. The box "Hidden from clients" can sometimes be left unchecked by mistake, so we've made it possible to set a default value. This way, the chance for internal information or communication to come out is reduced to a minimum.

Reminder notification

Reminders are the personal assistants most of us don't have. They come in handy, especially if you're the type who forgets what they needed the moment they walk through a door. Before May, the reminders would only alert through emails. Now, they pop up in your notification bell on the morning of your choice!

New mobile app

In June, we released the most sought-after feature by our customers. Finally, collaboration is possible even when you're on the go. Since the release, the app has come closer and closer to its web twin. Other than the constant tweaking and enhancing, here's what's been added to the mobile app:

Managing your projects and tasks
Leaving comments and reactions
Participating in discussions
Opening external links in the in-app browser
Viewing the People page (assignments and availability)
Company-wide days off
Reminders
Chatting in-app

Workload in the past

The main concept behind Workload is for it to be a planning tool which means you could only keep an eye on upcoming assignments and work distribution. As our customers started using it, they let us know they missed an overview of previous weeks. So, in July, we've made it possible to view Workload up to two months in the past.

UI attachments

Attaching a file to tasks and comments is one of the main ingredients of keeping all the communication and collaboration in one place. Knowing that we significantly improved how you can upload files in ActiveCollab. The system now communicates in a better manner the upload status, and the UI has been enhanced.

Projects page overhaul

In September, we rolled out a new header on the Projects page. Templates, active and completed projects are neatly tucked into tabs, making them more accessible. Also, the filter allows you to select multiple options within a criterion (example: filter by two categories, three labels, and one project lead).

Grouping and sorting have also been improved in October, and now, finding and managing your projects should be easier than ever.

Sorting completed projects

The revamp of the Projects page led to sprucing up the "Completed projects" tab. If you're struggling with storage space, you can sort the projects you've already finished by how "heavy" they are and delete those you don't need in the system anymore. If you're searching for a specific project, perhaps sorting by completion date might help you find it.

My Work Timesheet

The latest change to the app is adding time records by editing a day's total tracked time through the Timesheet in My Work. This box was read-only before November. This way, you can make sure your time records are accurate for each day and easily review and edit them in one place.

Looking forward to 2022!

It's hard to believe all these features didn't exist this time last year! It feels like they've always been there, which is perhaps the best testimony of our dedication to making ActiveCollab grow while maintaining the simplicity and design you love.

We're looking forward to 2022 and our plans for it. They include folders for files, full-screen Chat, and rewriting the entire app to the latest technology, making it faster and creating space for even more features and enhancements.

As for the mobile app, we're striving toward translating the entire web app to mobile, so you can collaborate seamlessly between devices.

The ActiveCollab Team wishes you happy holidays and a very joyous New Year!