Skip to content

Exploring interactive email actions

How can I take action on Tallyfy tasks directly from email?

Tallyfy continuously explores innovative ways to improve workflow management efficiency through advanced email integration.

Interactive email actions represent an exciting development area that lets users perform Tallyfy task actions directly within email clients without needing to switch contexts or navigate to different apps. This functionality uses technologies including Microsoft Actionable Messages for Outlook integration and Gmail Markup Actions for Gmail enhancement.

What are interactive email actions in Tallyfy?

Interactive email actions let you complete tasks, provide input, and make decisions directly within email messages without needing to navigate elsewhere.

Instead of traditional email links that redirect to web pages, interactive emails show embedded buttons, simplified forms, and confirmation prompts for immediate action completion within familiar email environments.

Microsoft Actionable Messages

Microsoft Actionable Messages enable developers to embed “Adaptive Cards” into emails sent to Outlook users. These cards can display information and allow users to perform actions such as:

  • Clicking an “Approve” or “Reject” button for a Tallyfy approval task.
  • Adding a quick comment to a task.
  • Marking a simple task as complete.

When you interact with an Actionable Message, Outlook securely sends your action back to the originating service (in this case, Tallyfy) to update the task. You can learn more about this technology on the Microsoft Learn platform ↗.

Gmail Markup Actions

Gmail utilizes schema.org markup (often using JSON-LD) embedded within an email’s HTML. This allows Gmail to render interactive elements for the user. Key types of actions include:

  • One-Click Actions: For straightforward actions like confirming a subscription or approving a request directly from the email.
  • Go-To Actions: For more complex scenarios, these provide a button that takes the user to a specific webpage.

Similar to Microsoft’s solution, when you perform an in-app action, Gmail sends this back to the service. For more details, you can visit the Google Developers documentation for Gmail Markup Actions ↗.

How could this benefit Tallyfy users?

Using these technologies could give you several advantages:

  • Better efficiency: Complete common tasks like approvals or quick updates much faster, without leaving your inbox.
  • Less context switching: Stay focused on your email workflow for quick actions, reducing disruption.
  • Better responsiveness: Act on notifications immediately, especially on mobile devices where navigating to a full web app might be less convenient.
  • Streamlined processes: For simple, repetitive actions, working directly in email can save significant time across many tasks.

Potential Tallyfy use cases

We see several ways interactive email actions could improve your Tallyfy experience:

  • One-click approvals/rejections: Receive an approval request email and click “Approve” or “Reject” directly in the message.
  • Marking tasks complete: For notification-style tasks or simple acknowledgments, a “Mark Complete” button in the email.
  • Adding quick comments: Reply to a task update with a comment submitted from within the email itself.
  • Simple form submissions: For tasks that need minimal input (like a single selection or short text response), this might be possible directly in the email.

What’s next?

Tallyfy is currently exploring the potential of these interactive email technologies. This isn’t a live feature right now, but it’s an area of future development we’re considering to improve your productivity. Implementation would depend on various factors, including strong security measures and ensuring a smooth user experience across different email clients that support these features.

We’re excited about the possibility of bringing such interactions to your Tallyfy emails and will share more info as our exploration progresses.

Integrations > Email and SMTP

Tallyfy provides comprehensive email integration through custom SMTP configuration Gmail add-on functionality automated notification management and interactive email actions development to streamline workflow communication and task management directly within existing email platforms.

Email > Gmail add-on

The Tallyfy Gmail Add-on enables users to create tasks launch processes and track status directly from their Gmail inbox while maintaining email context and reducing app switching.
Get in touch
About Tallyfy