Improved update and approval request emails now generally available

Lekshmi Unnithan · 01/13/23

Hi Community,

You now have access to the new and improved update and approval request emails!

The new update and approval request emails are more effective because they are easily scannable, provide more context to the reader, and better clarify the actions to be taken. This will help users complete Smartsheet update and approval requests faster and more accurately. Please note: With this change, we will only show sheet links to email recipients that have access to the sheet. Other recipients will not see the link.

This new update is available to licensed users on all plan types.

Learn more about update requests and approval requests in Smartsheet.

You can also stay informed by Subscribe to receive product release updates for curated news of recently released product capabilities and enhancements for the platform of your choosing, delivered to your inbox. As new releases occur, you will receive a daily email with news of what's released. (Emails will only send daily, Monday-Friday, as new releases are available).

Cheers,

Allegra Silcox and Lekshmi Unnithan

Senior Product Marketing Managers

Product Screenshots:

Lekshmi Unnithan · 04/11/23

Hello Community,

It was brought to our attention that the sheet name and workflow ID associated with the update or approval requests were removed with this change. We have added the sheet name and workflow ID back to the footer of the email.

Thanks,

The Smartsheet team

Chad Burkhardt · 01/13/23

Love the new look, however the old email format showed all of the rows on an update request. The new email lists the first ~15 rows and then states "+ [x] more fields".

For our processes we really like seeing all of the fields in the email.

Laurie F H · 01/17/23

I concur with Chad above. We used to get the info needed at a glance from the email, now we have to open. More steps is going in the wrong direction, imho.

Kandee Evans · 01/17/23

I prefer to be able to select more than 15 fields that are shown in the email. Please change it back to allow for all of the fields that are selected

Sylvia_bilh · 01/19/23

Can the "Open Request" button please be changed so it's more visible? It's blue text on blue background so the button isn't obvious anymore.

Can it be changed back to the other format? I think the last format was actually better

beckyb27 · 01/19/23

Definitely need all the fields we select to be shown in the email. The point of the these are to get a response from staff without them going into the sheet for multiple reasons- seeing data they do not need to see etc.

Please update!!

MMiles · 01/19/23

"The new update and approval request emails are more effective because they are easily scannable, provide more context to the reader, and better clarify the actions to be taken."

How does this enhancement make scanning the email easier? Why would you want to scan an email that has missing context?

How does this new enhancement provide more context to the reader or better clarify the actions to be taken if it is limited to 15 fields? Sometimes the requested update is not a simply answer and may need further research. This improvement now forces the recipient to open the request to get the full context creating an extra step when it was not necessary in the past.

Michael Buchanan · 01/19/23

I really preferred the footer in the emails which explained exactly why the person was receiving the email, that is it had the automation rule name and the name of the Smartsheet being referenced. Just saying sent through the magic of Smartsheets is too vague.

Here is the new footer:

Here is the old footer

Is there any to modify the automation to show the old style footer?

Caroline Blevins · 01/19/23

Our update request workflows have been in place for 3 years working perfectly until this change. We need to be able to display all rows in the email - our most important and actionable information is now hidden. And, we know that click through rates from emails are low so I’m not sure how this is meant to be an effective change. Please change the update requests back to the old format or provide a setting to allow us to show all rows! We would like to see this change ASAP. Thank you

Mike Wilday · 01/20/23

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/357863#Comment_357863

I agree with Michael's statement here. Context is KING. Knowing why. I got an update or sent an update is crucial to helping the user understand why they were contacted. I do imagine that they could add context to the message that is sent.

Samantha Ouk · 01/23/23

Please revert this back. We need the 15+ fields to be made available to us in the email notifications. How can this "better clarify the actions to be taken" when we're missing key fields that help us quickly decide on the fly.

Lorraine Stevens · 01/27/23

I agree with the above comments. This appears to be a step back in providing seamless context for our email recipients. Please reply with recommendations on how we can revert to the previous format asap.

RebSchr · 01/31/23

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/357863#Comment_357863

I am experiencing the same thing of the missing context on the Quick Update notifications. Several of my sheets have multiple workflows for different purposes. I use this information to trouble shoot notifications that a user may receive. I had to modify a few of my workflows to include a workflow identifier in the message to know which workflow it was (some are very similar and trigger for specific reasons).

PhilD · 02/01/23

This change has ruined a number of update functions we utilize. When will the patch to revert back to the old method be available. Seems like a switch in the workflow for condensed / non condensed would solve this. However a major change like this without the option should have never taken place. This ruins the ability to quickly copy info in an email and forward information. This is a step backward in ease of use and it seems like no thought went into it.

Adrian Mandile CHESS · 02/06/23

Hi @Lekshmi Unnithan,

I agree with a lot of the comments above – product release updates shouldn't take us backwards!

With the new 'through the magic of Smartsheet' footer, we have lost the context for the automated notification, and a valuable clue when testing many automations in a Sheet. Please bring it back, or at least allow us a checkbox in the Automation settings to include the Automation Name in the notification or not.

Jaime Elizabeth · 02/06/23

I agree with all the comments above. PLEASE revert this back to the old format, or at the very least, if someone selects "All Fields" in the workflow settings, it should show all the fields.

I also didn't notice the footer change and missing context referenced above but agree it should be added back!

Improved update and approval request emails now generally available

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