Offline access on Android

We recently celebrated the Asana Android app’s first birthday by introducing some new features, including narwhals. Today marks another big day for the Asana app on Android: offline access is here. Android is the first of Asana’s two mobile platforms to let you work offline, and offline is on the short-term roadmap for iOS users too.

Android users: you can now perform most Asana actions on your device, wherever your work takes you and your team.

“Let’s take this offline”

Download the latest version of the Android app, and the next time you find yourself on a plane, train, or otherwise without an internet connection, you can keep on top of your work without interruption. Create tasks for yourself or your teammates as you think of things, so you won’t forget later. Check your notifications, comment on tasks and conversations, change due dates or assignees, and complete tasks on the go.

What you can do offline

Here’s a full list of actions you can perform offline:

• Create tasks, conversations, or projects

• Assign tasks

• Set due dates

• Add or remove followers

• Add or remove tags

• Add or remove tasks from projects

• Complete tasks

• Delete tasks

• Heart tasks, conversations, or notifications

• Add or delete comments

• Invite teammates

• Archive or unarchive your inbox

What happens when you perform an action offline?

Here’s what will happen when you use the Android app offline:

1. You’ll see a light grey cloud icon next to any task or comment that has not been synced, which means they are currently only visible to you. When you are online again these changes will sync and your entire team will be able to see the updated tasks, projects, or conversations.

2. A tally at the bottom of the app counts the actions you’ve performed offline.

3. When you get back online, the pending number will count down until all your updates are live in Asana. And of course the grey clouds will disappear from your now synced items.

See the clouds with the little Xs? That’s how you can tell what’s pending sync. The grey banner at the bottom tallies up the actions pending.

While offline, if you open a project or list you’ve never loaded in the app before, the tasks and conversations won’t load. But you can add tasks to that project while you’re offline.

We’re really excited about this launch. We know how important offline access is to all our customers. This update is part of our goal to enable all Asana users to work uninterrupted, even when they are without internet access. We hope our Android users  offline access as much as we do. Please let us know what you think!  

Oh, and one more thing…

Creating quick lists in the Android app just got easier, too. An Add a task… prompt now appears at the top of any list in the app. Add a task, tap your device’s enter button, then start typing your next task. Quickly jot down a bunch of to-dos in a project, or add a few reminders to yourself in your My Tasks list. (Yes, this also works offline!)

Happy Androiding, on or off line!

We all know that internet connectivity can be sporadic, but just because you’re on the go, it doesn’t mean your work has to come to a complete stop. We hope our Android users get even more done with offline access, and iOS users can expect an update soon.