Assign tasks from your iPhone or Android email application

GroupCamp has recently announced the task dropbox feature which allows you to add a task in an online project simply by forwarding or copying the dropbox email address to your email. The task is automatically added to the Tasks application, it is assigned to the person in the To: field if that person is a member of your project and any attached files are automatically added to the Files application in your project.

This blog post will focus on how to make the most of the task dropbox feature when you are on the go and only have your email app on your smartphone.

Saving the task dropbox address in the Contacts app of your iPhone or Android Smartphone

The first step when using the Tasks dropbox is to share that dropbox email address with all project members and make sure that it is saved in your contacts including the address book on your iPhone or Android smartphone. The screenshot below shows how you can share the dropbox address with all team members.

When you receive your email on your smartphone the contact is attached as a vcf filename which is the common extension for the VCard format. The screenshot below shows the email as received by the iOS Mail application on an iPhone:

Adding the task dropbox address in your smartphone address book (Contacts App)

By clicking on the vcf file above, the screen below will pop up on an iPhone and you can either make a contact out the file or add it to an existing contact. Since you can define a task dropbox addresses for each project, you can define a generic GroupCamp Task Dropbox contact which will have multiple email addresses depending on the project. In that particular case when opening the vcf file, click on ‘Add to an existing contact’.

In the contacts app this is how the GroupCamp Task dropbox will look like once multiple email addresses have been added:

Assign a tasks from the email app of your smartphone

Once the dropbox email addresses are set, assigning tasks from your email is pure magic. Below is an example of an email requiring action on your part. Simply forward the email to the relevant person in your project and in the Cc or Bcc field add the relevant task dropbox address in your email by searching for 'tasks dropbox". 

You can also add in the Cc field other project members who need to be followers on that task.

Because the person in the To: field is also a project member the task is automatically created in the project and followers can be notified and therefore see that their email has been processed. Below is what the added looks like in the project (the task is assigned and the follower has been added)

We hope this helps you as much as it does for the GroupCamp team in improving the way we handle our projects.