AirSend Overview (logo zooming - When it comes to the world of productivity apps, we often throw out the term all-in-one rather loosely, but in today's video, I'm revisiting AirSend. I wanna show you five reasons why you should take a second look or a first look at AirSend to help you be more efficient.
Hello, everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And yes, I've actually reviewed AirSend before here on the channel, but I've used it a little bit more over the last few months, and they have added some new features that I wanted to share with you.
Now, firstly, just a very quick overview of the AirSend layout. On the left-hand side, we have our different channels, which could represent different projects, maybe different departments or different groups of people that we are working with here.
They make it really quick and easy for you to jump in between these channels as you go about your workday. Here in the middle part of our interface is where we are going to be communicating, but also receiving updates from our colleagues as well.
A little bit more on that later. And then on the right-hand side, we've got a section which is really helping us to condense, but giving us quick access to things like all of our tasks, which AirSend refers to as Actions.
We can refer to all of our files, which relates to this channel. It even gives us a Wiki. So if we want to highlight or update something that everyone can see and everyone can access, we can do that here as well.
Built-In Video Meeting
The first feature that I want to highlight in today's video has to do with starting a video meeting. How much time do you waste sending out links, like a Zoom link or Microsoft Teams link? And then you gotta get the right password and invite the right people.
Well, if you're already working with them right here, if I go up here and look at the other members of this channel, see that Steve is online right now. So why don't I just start a video call right now? And we can start to collaborate in real time.
And just like you would with any other video meeting software, I can choose to share my screen, or I can share a particular application window as well. I don't have to go anywhere else, I can do it right here from within AirSend so that we can stay on topic.
And remember, you can do this any time that you wish. So as long as someone else is online and working at the same time, you can initiate this video call meeting.
Reference Tasks Directly in Comment Section
Now, the other thing that I like here is the interaction between your tasks, which AirSend refers to as actions. And we've got our action list here on the left-hand side, with the way that we are communicating with others here.
Now, you're already gonna be very familiar with using the at symbol to find the person that you want to speak with. So if I wanna talk to Steve, I can just use that at symbol and I can make sure that he gets a notification directly.
But what if I want to reference a particular project or action? Hey, Steve, let's talk about this project. Okay, and then at this point what I can do is I can use the hashtag symbol.
And what that's gonna do is bring up all of my actions that you see here on the right-hand side. So maybe I wanna talk about this designed new landing pages, I can do so, I can hit Enter and hit Send.
And so now, he knows exactly what I'm talking about. Not only is he being notified because I've addressed him directly, but he knows exactly this project that we're talking about as well.
And the great thing is, is if I come over here to this new landing page, for example, and if I want to look at the action details, I get a complete history of that conversation.
So, no matter where this is mentioned, back and forth between my different colleagues, I can see that conversation history here as well.
Adding Sub-Tasks and Filtering Actions
Now, the other thing that I love about the new actions here within AirSend is that we now have true sub-tasks, right? Because your projects consist of a lot of smaller tasks that are going to accumulate to that bigger task.
So here I've got something called the New Homepage Logo and I can expand this and I can see the other sub-tasks, which are listed down below. And I've got different people assigned to those sub-tasks.
It's really easy for us to add new sub-tasks as well. Let's get started. Let's review, let's find out where we went wrong. All the things that you would typically find in a typical project management scenario.
So I can quickly and easily add these things. I can assign people, if I wanna assign myself, for example, in this particular case, I can do so. And I can have that all here within my Actions setting.
See Tasks in Kanban Board View
Another great feature that AirSend has added here within the Actions section is the ability to View Board. Now, by selecting this option, we get more of a Kanban style view of all of our tasks.
And this is especially helpful when we're talking about those sub-tasks. Here is that action item I created just a moment ago. And now I can see all of my sub-tasks down below, compared to some of my other tasks or projects which do not have any sub-tasks.
Now, I can sort this by a couple of different ways, but the other great thing about this view here is that I can view it across all of my channel. So if I need a to-do list or a task list for all of the things that I'm working on, I can view them, and sort them and interact with them right here.
AirSend has also made it very easy for us to minimize the things that maybe are not relevant to us as well. So here at the top, we've got a few quick icons here. This first one is only gonna show my actions.
So I'm only going to see the things that I have assignments to because I don't wanna be cluttered down by everything that's staring back at me here in my face. I can also sort it a few different ways if I wanna sort it by what's due next, or what's been most overdue here, but I can also take a look at the things that have been completed.
And I like any type of productivity tool which will get rid of the things or hide the things that have been completed. And AirSend's gonna allow us to do that by default right here.
Quick File Access and Convert Files to Tasks
But let's stick with this right-hand section and move over to Files. Because another common question that I get on a regular basis is Scott, should I be using Google Drive? Should I be using Dropbox?
Where should we be managing all of the files that we're collaborating with? Well, wouldn't it be a lot easier if you didn't have to integrate with another tool, but actually access those files right here.
So, under Files, anything that you upload, anything that's been shared here within your AirSend community is gonna show up here. So if I look under my Press images, I've got a history of where these images are, and if I need to mention them, or if I need to call something out, all I need to do is click and drag it here into my communication pane.
So I can say, let's take a second look at this design, something to that effect. So now they know exactly what I'm talking about. They can access this image as well.
Now, if I want, I can also take this to the very next stage, and convert this into an action, because sometimes we do an awful lot of talking. Now, it's great that we have a full history here within AirSend, but what if I don't wanna just discuss this image?
I wanna make sure that someone does something about it. Well, here you can see there's this little lightning icon which refers to our Actions area. And if I select it, I can create this into an action.
So, let's say, let's call this one, REdesigned the blue logo. I can add some notes, I can add some other members, and let's include a due date as well to make sure that we get this done by the end of the month.
Now I can create that action. Everyone here within my channel can see that I've created this specific action here, and I can go directly to it as well. So I can update those details or I can see what other activity has been happening when it comes to that particular action.
So again, I don't have to be switching tabs, I don't have to be going in and out of different applications. I can manage my files, I can assign them tasks right here from within AirSend.
Advanced Search Results
Now, another area where AirSend has put a lot of new focus is on their search capabilities. Now it's true, over here in the Actions pane, we could search through our specific actions, but what if we're looking for a key word or a file and we wanna search across the entire channel?
Well, if we come up here to the very top, I can type in something like logo, for example. And what it's gonna do is not only bring back those results, but it's going to separate it out, so I can see the differences between the messages, the actions which contain the word logo and the files which contain that keyword as well.
Now, it also gives us the ability to select this Show All option, so we can view sort of the same results here, but we can see it in a bit of a different format. This is especially helpful if you have a lot of results for that particular keyword, but now I can zero in on exactly what I want.
Here's my REdesign the blue logo, and I can start to take action on it. So having a very robust search capability, which is not just searching your actions, not just searching the comments, but searching across the entire channel is so valuable to keep you on top of your tasks.
Now, the last feature I wanna highlight here within AirSend may seem rather small, but I think its significance is rather large. And that has to do with read receipts. How often have you been contributing on some type of communication platform, and you just don't know who has actually read or seen that piece of communication.
Well, AirSend has made sure to build that right in. Here you can see on my last few posts, I have this little seen by Steve Fisher, seen by Steve Fisher. So I don't have to be worrying if Steve has laid eyes on my comments here.
And if I scroll up a little bit further, I can also see the ones that have been seen by myself. So if anyone is calling me out, well, didn't you get that update, or didn't you see what I posted yesterday? At least AirSend is going to keep me honest.
So, something rather small, but something that can go a long way, give you some reassurance that people have seen what you are sharing. Now, if you'd like to learn more about AirSend, be sure to click the link in the description below so you can get started using all of these features and staying on just one screen within your browser.
Thank you so much for watching today's video. Be sure to give this video a thumbs up, and don't forget to subscribe right here to the Simpletivity Channel. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
