The new version of Gmail is spreading rapidly and the new interface has some great features. Add-ons like Trello and Asana add great new features to Gmail but which one is best and what do they do?
Trello and Asana are two excellent organisers and managers that help you to keep on top of both work and personal projects by breaking them down into manageable tasks. They are much more than to-do lists but they are not full project managers and they offer a bit of both. They also have great collaboration features for working with others such as co-workers, customers, friends or relatives.
The two services take a very different approach to project and task management. Although ultimately, they both do almost the same job, the user interface is completely different and people tend to prefer one to the other.
Whether you use the Trello Gmail add-on or the Asana one probably depends more on which service you are currently using than which add-on is best. Both add-ons have pros and cons, and neither of them is perfect, but it is early days still and they will both no doubt improve.
What are Gmail add-ons?
Gmail acquired the ability to use add-ons not long ago and, in some ways, they are like browser extensions. They add extra features and functions, but they only work in Gmail and only interact with emails.
Gmail extensions are designed to provide a link between your email and external services, so you can access Trello or Asana for example, from within Gmail without having to open a new tab, log in to the service and find the function you need. It is there in Gmail next to your emails.
Install Trello and Asana in Gmail
Finding add-ons for Gmail is straightforward and all you need to do is to click the gear icon in the top right corner and select Get add-ons.
Trello and Asana are both very popular addons with over half a million users each and so they appear near the start. Click the tile and then click the Install button in the window that pops up.
In case you were wondering how to remove add-ons once they have been installed, just return to the add-ons browser and add-ons that have been installed have a three-dots menu. Click the Remove option.
How to use Gmail add-ons
The way that Gmail add-ons work and what they can do is confusing to some people because they only appear in certain situations and they can only perform certain actions.
There is a toolbar with icons at the right side of the Gmail window, but only the top three show all the time. These provide access to Google Calendar, Google Keep and Google Tasks.
Add-ons that you install appear only when an email is opened and they are below the thin divider line. This is because these add-ons only interact with email content and they do not do anything in the inbox and so are hidden.
Trello and Asana icons appear on opening an email and clicking them opens a panel on the right.
These are not full apps and if you are expecting all the features of Trello or Asana you will be disappointed. They simply enable you to create new tasks from email content without having to leave Gmail. They are task creators.
Trello creates a new card with the email content as the description and the email subject as the title. You can choose the board and the list within the board to add it to. It copies a whole email conversation, which is useful, and it is also possible to set a due date for when the task should be completed by.
The main problem I have with it, is it does not support links. Any links in the email are ignored and only plain text is copied. If a link is needed you must right click it in the email and copy the URL, then click in the Trello sidebar and paste it in (the name and description can be edited). This is irritating.
Asana is different and when the icon on the right is clicked, it opens this sidebar with two options. To add the email as a task, click Create New Task.
The task name is taken from the email subject and it can be edited if necessary, and an optional task description can be entered. A due date can be set and there are options to add the email to the task. The email is added as a comment attached to the task and it grabs a whole conversation and includes links too. This is much better than Trello’s plain text.
The task can be made public to all members of the team, if you share Asana in a company with several people, or just yourself.
In addition to creating tasks, you can also search for them and searching for * (star or asterisk) produces a list of all tasks. This makes the Asana add-on useful for checking tasks from within Gmail without opening a new tab and logging into Asana.
Trello vs Asana winner is…
I prefer the way that Trello works, the full app that is, and it enables boards to be created with lists of tasks and ideas that you can easily shuffle around, but the Asana Gmail add-on is more powerful and has more features. The Trello add-on would be better if it copied links as well as text, but even then I think Asana would still be the winner.
Your choice of add-on depends on which project and work organiser you prefer and how hard it would be to switch. If you are new to both, you need to try them both because they are very different.
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