So today we're finally unveiling the new mobile app for iPhone and Android. Nearly a year in the making, longer than we ever anticipated. But the outcome is a step change in usability, booking a day off work has just got even easier!
I’ll give you a quick run down of the highlights, which include:
A new design, navigation, wallchart, calendar, book forms, summary, settings, take/upload your profile photo, and dark mode.
Soaring mobile use
Over the past few years we’ve seen mobile app use soar, over 50% of you now use Timetastic on a mobile. More people work remotely, flexibly, and book your holidays at any time of day, not just when you’re sat at a computer.
We're also focusing hard on the 80% of Timetastic users that are company employees (i.e. they are not managers, approvers or admin users) who just need a quick way to book some time off work, and and easy way to see how much allowance they’ve got left. If you've got a decent sized team then a small saving for each person mounts up to something significant, that's all time they can be spending on more productive work.
New Wallchart
When you sign in you’ll land on the Wallchart as usual. You’ll find the new design style immediatly obvious.
You've got a department selector at the top right and you can scroll forward and back using a swipe gesture. Double tap a day if you want to book it off, or click the blue + button at the bottom.
You'll also spot the simplified tabbed navigation, down at the bottom of the screen, so you can click between your Wallchart, Calendar and Time off summary.
Which brings us nicely to that new screen "Time off", this is all new 🎉
New: Time off summary
A lot of you tell us how good the visibility is with Timetastic, so you can see how much time off you've had and how much allowance you've got left. This was all a bit hidden in the previous mobile app, and it's nice to give it a dedicated page, and its own style, standing proud front-and-centre.
Need to know if you've got a few days left for a long weekend?
Need to know when you used all your holiday allowance?
No problem, fire up the app and tap "Time off".
New: Inbox
Some extra help for your managers here too. If you’re a manager, approving leave for others, then you’ll find your ‘Inbox’ in the main menu, where you can see any requests that are hanging around in need of your attention.
Just tap each request to take a look at it, then approve or decline.
Booking a day off
You’ll see the book form is redesigned in line with Apple’s human interface guidelines. Same with date pickers, selection controls and settings pages. Everything should now feel familiar, easier to use.
Double tap on a date in the Wallchart or Calendar to open the book form and you can work through the fields in a familiar way. It's literally a matter of 5 or 6 finger taps now to book a day off work.
Dark mode!
Yes, yes, yes, dark mode is finally here 💥
So many of you have asked about a dark mode for Timetastic. So yes, it's finally here in the mobile app, easy on the eyes. We've followed Apple's guidance on this one, you won't find any toggle switches in Timetastic to switch between dark and light mode. Dark mode simply follows your phone's existing appearance settings.
What else?
- Take and upload your profile photo
- Integrate your calendar or setup a calendar subscription
- Edit your profile details and preferences
- Contact support directly through the app
- Make a Group Booking or Lock Dates
What’s next?
Our commitment to the mobile app is now huge. Where is it used to be seen as an extension of the desktop version, it's now just as, if not more important. We've another two developers starting in the next few months and it’s fair to say they’ll spend a good chunk of their time working on the mobile app, to drive that slick, user friendly app that you've grown to expect from Timetastic.
There are some web view pages in the settings section to tackle, we’ve got all the workspace settings to deal with. We’ll make it faster, smoother, and you'll see a steady flow of design and usability improvements.
That’s enough for now
I could waffle on for ages but I’ll resist.
I'll say a quick thanks to those customers who got involved in beta testing and gave us all their valuable feedback, it’s genuinely a better app because of your involvement.
Please go and download it, or update it from the relevant app store.
If you spot any issues or problems then please ping us an email and let us know - include your device and iOS/Android version if you can.
And of course if you love the update then we'd appreciate a review in the app store, tell us what you like most about Timetastic!