Google launches a work-tracking tool and Airtable rival, Tables

Instead of simply tracking notes and tasks associated with a project in various documents that have to manually updated by team members, Tables bots help do things like scheduling recurring email reminders when tasks are overdue, messaging a chat room when new form submissions are received, moving tasks to other peoples work queues, or updating tasks when statuses are changed.

Ive been in the technology industry for a long time, including 10 years at Google, explains Tables GM, Tim Gleason, in an announcement about the new service.

Tables, instead, aims to take on some of those extra manual processes like collecting data from different sources, collating it together, pasting into another document, then handing it off, for example. That makes it a better choice for those who are already invested in using Googles ecosystem, like Googles online documents, contacts and more.

To get started with Tables, you can import data from Google Sheets , share data with your Google Groups, and assign tasks to people found in your Google Contacts.

The bots handle automated actions, while the data itself can be presented in different ways, like grid views, record lists, kanban boards and maps.

Ahead of its public debut, Tables has been in testing with thousands of active users who are tracking work and collaborating with team members, Google says.

This plan also includes support for larger attachments, more actions, and advanced history, sharing, forms, automation, and views.

Original article