Sorry, Another Inbox Thought

[Nils Geylen]

Working for real now in the (probably) final stages of the beta and so much is only now grabbing my attention...

Inbox! The Name...

• Inbox is a misnomer: no one can put items in your inbox, just you.
• That makes it an elevated to-do list.

It's Position...

• Inbox is Workspace level, so why not make it available on the Home?
• Or: make inbox Board level, with the Home feed showing All Inbox?

Mail-to-Board...

• We already had mail to board.
• Why not solidify that feature?

Colour

If we're going to use a single inbox across all boards, I'd love to have it switch color to my board background. Esthetics.

I'd just like a peek into some of the thinking behind the recent 'novelties' we're getting, but most seem terribly unfounded and whimsical.

[Isaac Trumbo]

I want to be able to add an Inbox item to a board as a new list, but only seem to get option to add to existing one. Is that normal?

[Victor Dronov]

Hi @Isaac Trumbo We do not have an option to move a card from Inbox to a brand new list. You'd need to create a new list (just double click anywhere on a board!) and drag-and-drop your card there.

[Isaac Trumbo]

I’ve been creating a new list each time and then adding the Inbox item, which works fine.

For future improvement, it would be great to have a one-click option (like “→”) while viewing a board with the Inbox open, which would just move it to a new list/column, making the process faster and more seamless.

[Victor Dronov]

Hi @Nils Geylen Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

Inbox name: I see your point. While it's indeed only you who adds new to-dos and notes to the Inbox, we try to convey that it is recommended as a list or container of the incoming new things to your Trello. Quickly add to Inbox - manually, from email, Slack or mobile app - triage and move to a desired board later, when you have time.

It is of course possible to add new to-dos directly to your boards, but it's just not as quick and straightforward. With Inbox you can do it literally in one click (e.g. with our new Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations, and more to come), without needing to specify detailed location. You can then always find new content you capture throughout your day in one place.

Inbox position: Inbox sits outside of any workspace, on a user level, as you pointed out. It allows to use it no matter which Workspaces you are a part of, and whether you stop being part of some Workspaces. You are absolutely right that it also belongs in Home, and at some point it will be there.

Mail-to-Board: We still have the mail-to-board feature, and we have similar features to quickly send things to your Inbox (just forward it to inbox@app.trello.com). Can you please elaborate - what do you mean by "solidifying"? I am interested to hear your thinking.

[Nils Geylen]

Hey @Victor Dronov, thanks for taking the time to follow up.
Much appreciated.

Solidifying, I mean "making what already exists better"...

For instance

• search: let us name our searches for ease-of-use?
• views: allow for sorting of other table columns than Due?
• labels: allow for a view with label operators like AND instead of the default OR...
• and indeed: maybe expand mail to board with some features--I dunno.

All kinds of basics really...
These are just what I can think of top-of-my-head.

I'd just love a bit of TLC there, instead of getting a non-elective check box on every card.
(Why even? Is every card a to-do? Not for us.)

That's what I meant with solidifying. Cheers!