The latest product release brings some exciting new features to Rock. In this release you can find a quick rundown of the new features that you can find in Rock.

So... What's new?

Space Search [Web]

Space search is now available on web and desktop! Find conversations, tasks, labels, notes by searching for specific keywords or other search terms in each space.

How to get started?

1. Access Space Search in the top right corner of every space (see above).
2. Search any word or sentence you want to find back. The feature will look for information in tasks, notes, files, messages and comments.
3. Narrow your search if needed to tasks, notes, files, messages or comments.
4. Look at all instances and directly access what you were looking for!

Search will remember your past queries and will retrieve all instances where something you've searched for has appeared in the history of the space.

Rock Bots, Integrations, and Webhooks [PRO Space Feature]

It is now possible to connect Rock to Github, Rollbar, Zapier, and a bunch of other apps through webhooks. Set up bots that can automatically create tasks, messages, or notes on Rock on your behalf so you stay up to date with the latest changes in your other apps. To set up your very own bots, follow these steps:

1. If you're on a Pro account, go to a space you want to add a new bot to.
2. Select space details (top right on web & desktop) and press the blue + button next to "Integrations"
3. Follow the steps to add your first bot to Rock

Reply in thread

Keep conversations in one place by replying directly in a thread! You will be able to easily keep up with all messages and respond right away. Add reactions, @mentions, polls and more within the thread just like in regular messages.

Updates to mobile

Some minor changes and bug fixes have also been introduced to the mobile version of Rock. You can now:

• Select emojis as avatars for spaces
• Delete comments on tasks and notes
• Improved text editing experience
• Other bug fixes and improvements to Rock

Questions about this product release?

Reach out to us in the Rock Customer Support space. We support most major languages and try to respond as soon as we can.

With Rock, we're on a mission to empower anyone to work from anywhere. As we've always operated as a distributed first company we are no strangers to remote work.In the last 12 months, it's been interesting to see people's reactions about remote work change from "What do you mean you don't have an office?" to once the pandemic hit, "Wow, it's great to not have to commute!" to finally where most people are now: "Ugh, I don't even know when the day begins and when it ends!".

Clearly remote work is not working for everyone

Our team is spread across 10 countries and 7 timezones and -- even though there are always things that we can improve -- the pandemic hasn't really changed anything for us work-wise.

‍How did we do this? In addition to using our own product, we also learned a lot from companies like Gitlab, Automattic, Zapier & InVision that have been distributed first for a very long time. After spending countless hours going through some of their best practices, these are the things they do to make remote work work for them:

1) START FROM A PLACE OF TRUST

"Assume your team is working and trying their best regardless if they are sitting right next to you or they are working from home." Aadil Mamujee. Head of Product, Automattic

Trust the people on your team to be able to work autonomously and when it comes down to written communication, always assume positive intent.

2) DOCUMENT EVERYTHING

Create a handbook that captures how your team does things and make this easily accessible to everybody. When the entire team is distributed it becomes crucial to document everything so nobody feels like they missed out on an important conversation or meeting.

3) ASYNCHRONOUS BY DEFAULT

Instead of relying on synchronous communication like real-time messaging or video calls make it easy to share information independent of time. Asynchronous communication doesn't require someone's attention right away so they can stay focused & productive.

4) SAVE MEETINGS FOR THE IMPORTANT STUFF

Face-to-face meeting time is one of the most precious commodities you have, so reserve this time for the more complex topics that aren't as easily discussed asynchronously. If you do end up meeting, make sure you make the best use of this time by providing an agenda in advance and sharing meeting notes afterwards.

5) FOCUS ON OUTCOMES, NOT HOURS

Longer hours and being online all the time is not equal to being productive. Instead, look at the quality and quantity of work measured against clearly communicated objectives.

6) MINIMIZE YOUR TOOL STACK

“Aim to funnel communication into as few places as possible to reduce silos and fragmentation.” Darren Murph, Head of Remote at Gitlab.

Simplify things for your team by minimizing the number of collaboration tools being used. This avoids confusion, prevents gaps in communication, and makes it easier to find things.

7) RECOGNIZE GOOD WORK

Make the extra effort to recognize work that people on the team have done. This could be anything from a “Thank You” message to the entire team to a simple ? once somebody completes something.

So what do you do with all of this? Like any new habit, some of these might be harder than others especially if not everybody fully commits to remote work or if the tools currently being used were built for a more synchronous, always-on environment. If you do end up adopting these -- remote work will become more of a joy, work will happen in a state of flow and you will get precious time back in your day.

If you're interested in what we're doing to empower anyone to work from anywhere, follow us on LinkedIn and try out Rock today.

Delivering results for clients is crucial to freelancing. Whether you’re brand new to freelancing or a seasoned pro, without client satisfaction, you might as well pack it up and go home. Showing clients that they can count on you to be capable and efficient means that they’ll turn to you for future projects.

Balancing your clients and projects is what will determine your success as a freelancer. Having the right freelancing tools is a big part of being able to deliver for clients.

Since freelancing is different for everyone, you need to figure out what works best for you. Communication, organization, and collaboration are critical parts of successful and productive freelancing. When you evaluate your productivity, keep those three elements in mind.

Keep Up With Communication

To provide a good client experience and to market yourself to potential clients, you need good communication skills. Communication is a big part of making your current clients happy and working with new ones.

Keeping up with emails, chats, message threads, and virtual calls can be tricky these days. It’s frustrating to manage all the different ways people use to communicate. Even the main ways of communicating, like email, are hard to keep up with because they’re hard to organize.

It’s easy to leave a client or collaborator off an email string, or for an email to get buried in an inbox folder. Even if you stay on top of your inbox, email is only one tool out of the many you need to manage your projects.

Rock keeps all the freelancing tools you need in one place. You can send messages, add notes, set up a Zoom meeting, link your Google Drive, and manage your tasks without ever leaving Rock. Add your notes from calls or virtual meetings with clients to the designated project space in Rock.

That way, you or your client can reference them later. Your clients can check in on progress for a real-time update on the project with Rock’s built-in task boards.

If you’re a graphic designer, use Rock’s built-in task board to keep your client and collaborators updated on a project. Your client can comment on tasks to ask a question, provide feedback on designs, update deadlines, or send a quick chat—all in Rock.

With your communication centralized in one hub, you won’t have to search inboxes to reference or re-share information with clients. After you streamline communication, you won’t need to juggle so many different tools to keep up.

Get (And Stay) Organized

Staying organized at work helps you successfully manage your freelancing projects. It’s a key element of any work— especially freelancing— because organization makes it easier to adapt to different projects, deadlines, and clients.

No freelancing projects are the exact same. A client might ask you to work with another freelancer on a big project or on something that’s partially outside your skillset. Other times, you might be delivering a straightforward asset. Whatever the client needs, staying organized is key to your ability to deliver.

Make a working schedule and set routines so you can keep a healthy work-life balance. Making sure that you don’t bite off more than you can chew is another important part of staying organized. Taking on too many projects leads to serious stress and burnout.

It’s bad for you and bad for your freelancing clients who are counting on the quality of your work. You should also make sure to centralize your work as much as you can. When you freelance, you work with a lot of moving parts.

Centralizing your tools, projects, and communication in one place helps you manage your freelancing work. Most importantly, it reduces stress for you.Without a hub for your work, you’ll have to use a bunch of tools and platforms—like Slack, Trello, Figma, Google Drive, and email—to communicate and work.

That’s a lot to manage and you’ll have a tough time staying on top of things without an organizational method. This is especially true for freelancers since you’re always working with multiple clients and projects.

You can create a space in Rock for a specific project and invite anyone to join. This helps to streamline your work and communication, freeing you up to focus on what needs to get done. Create a space for each of your freelance projects so you can keep track of everything without ever switching to another app or tool.

If you’re a freelance copywriter, you can link your Google Drive folders to a space in Rock. Then your drafts are organized in the space that’s dedicated to that project. Once the folder is linked, your clients and any collaborators can easily review drafts and give you feedback.

Whether you need to jump on a quick Zoom call, assign a task, or send a chat—everything you need is in Rock. After you find an organizational approach that works, you can spend more of your working hours on your freelancing projects.

Streamline Your Collaborations

To keep a steady stream of projects moving, freelancers need to stay on their toes. It’s critical to have prospective projects and clients at all times. Working with your clients shouldn’t be a hassle (for you or them), whether you’re asking for a meeting or asking for feedback.

Since freelancers work with a wide variety of people, you often need a wide variety of tools. Some are open to everyone, like email. Others limit you to only the people in an organization or certain email addresses. You lose valuable time while navigating the growing number of tools, platforms, and apps.

To save time (and stress), centralize your collaborations and projects in one place as much as you can. That way, you’ll have to worry about less. You’ll also be able to spend less time switching between tools.If you’re a freelance web developer, you likely have to collaborate with a lot of people on projects.

With Rock, you don’t have to worry about someone being left out of the loop again since you can add clients, collaborators, or team members. Rock is open to everyone, just like email, but the project-based spaces keep your work more organized than an inbox. You can invite anyone to join your space.

After you add someone to a space in Rock, they’ll be able to access all of the linked files, folders, notes, and tasks in that space.You can customize workflows and spaces to fit the client and the project. This helps you keep everything in one place and streamline the way you work.

By centralizing your different clients and projects in one place, you save time and make your day-to-day work a lot easier.

Do Your Freelancing Your Way

With Rock, you can create as many spaces as you need for your freelancing project and invite anyone. Rock also gives you unlimited messages, tasks, Google Drive folders, and files for free. You need space to work and Rock doesn’t put any limits on you.

Since the pandemic began, our workdays have changed dramatically as we’ve shifted to remote work environments. While remote work comes with perks (work in your pajamas or sitting poolside), it’s also causing a lot of stress.

Many people have struggled to adapt to working in a different setting because their in-office workflows don't translate well to a remote work environment.

As a result, workdays have gotten longer and longer, causing the line between work and home to blur. Stress caused by remote work contributes to worker burnout, high employee turnover, and poor work-life balance.

Adapting your workflows will reduce stress, prevent a toxic work culture, and support your team in achieving company goals and objectives since remote work is here to stay.

1. Set up a workspace

Creating space for you to get your work done can help you focus and stay on track. Liven up your workspace by working near a window or adding a few succulents.

Research has shown that sunlight and plants can have a positive effect on our productivity and happiness. Instead of a windowless desk or cubicle, you can enjoy a more personalized setup. A dedicated workstation can also make it easier to log off and walk away at the end of the day.

Companies can take advantage of services like FirstBaseHQ.com, which delivers tech hardware and provides IT help. Companies can empower their teams by providing this type of support so workers don’t feel like they’ve been left out to fend for themselves.

When teams have the space and remote work tools they need, they can focus on their work and maintain healthy boundaries, which reduces stress and burnout.

2. Manage expectations

In a project or team with a lot of moving parts and different people, managing expectations is key to remote work because it clearly defines roles and tasks, so everyone knows what their responsibilities are. Since remote work environments rely heavily on good communication, keeping everyone updated is critical.

Tools with task board features let other people see your workload and track the progress of your projects. You can check on a project’s progress and keep an eye on anything that needs more attention. You and your team can avoid unnecessary interruptions while keeping everyone in the loop and up-to-date.

Managing expectations establishes workloads and assignments, which is key to clear communication strategies that remote working requires. When you and your team know what to expect, you can rest easy.

3. Make the most of documentation

Staying organized is crucial to working in a remote environment because it helps you stay on top of your priorities.

Documentation ensures that nothing gets lost or forgotten. Decisions happen quickly and informally, which is great as long as they’re documented. That way, companies can make sure that everyone is on the same page.

For workers, accessibility is key with documentation; information won’t help many people if they can’t find it. You can take advantage of the Notes feature in Rock or keep information in Google Drive. Workers and team members can reference the documentation to revisit a process or decision.

You can prepare a meeting agenda and make the notes available to everyone in Google Drive so anyone can catch up on the latest or use it as a reference. Keeping thorough documentation helps reduce stress by closing communication gaps and keeping everyone in the loop.

4. Use asynchronous communications as much as possible

The communication methods you used in office environments don’t translate well to remote work environments. Asynchronous communication doesn’t rely on getting immediate responses from clients or team members.

That means fewer things will get stuck or siloed. It’s also a less demanding way of communication for everyone.

Switching to asynchronous communication can reduce the number of meetings and messages that pile up. In Rock, asynchronous communication can be done with the Tasks, Notes, and Files features. They’ll keep information available to everyone so it’s easy to stay up-to-date on the latest.

Your team can use synchronous communication for the things that are urgent or complicated. By using synchronous communication only when you need to, your team will feel less burned out by meetings, calls, and messages. You’ll feel less overwhelmed and your team will have more time to get things done.

Asynchronous communication is a great way to convey trust to your team, a necessary part of successful remote work. When your team knows that they can count on each other, collaboration is smoother and less stressful.

5. Celebrate your victories

With a team that’s working from a bunch of different places, it can be hard to celebrate your wins. Highlighting your team’s wins can be as simple as an email celebrating a team member’s hard work or a happy hour to wrap up a big project.

Research has consistently shown that positive feedback makes a big difference to remote workers. Making sure workers are valued is a great (and easy) way for companies to retain their talent and invest in their workers’ overall well-being.

Encouragement also makes workers and team members feel more invested in their work and in their roles. You’ll feel more valued when you’re recognized for the work you’re doing—whether it’s a big project or a personal accomplishment.

Make sure to pat your coworkers, managers, and team members on the back when they’ve wrapped up a project or finished a stressful week.

Product update! We have tons of goodies from emojis everywhere to multiple account support, a faster mobile experience, and advanced task features with the Pro and Teams plans available as of today.

Let’s discuss the most important changes in more detail.

Emojis for spaces, messages, and comments

We might have gone a bit emoji crazy, but you can now pick and choose from hundreds of emojis all across Rock.

1️⃣ Emoji space avatars

Instead of being limited to a few space avatars you can now pick from a long list of emojis to find just the right one for your group space.You can change the image of any space by:

1. Going to your space Settings (top right corner).
2. Press the icon under the current space image (see image below).
3. You can query emojis with the Search function or just scroll down and select an emoji from the complete library.
4. Don't forget to press the Save button that will appear in the top right corner!

2️⃣ More emoji message reactions

You can now also pick from the same emoji library when you want to react to a message because sometimes ❤️ or ? just doesn’t cut it.You can leave a reaction by hovering over a message. An icon similar to ? will appear that opens a panel. If you want to leave a reaction that has already been left before you can also just click on the icon with the number (e.g. "?2")

3️⃣ Emoji reactions on comments

We’ve also added the ability to add an emoji reaction to a task and note comments, making it easier to let people know that you’ve seen a comment and also to let them know what you think about it with an emoji.The function works in the same way that message reactions work.

Multiple Accounts in Rock‍

Have multiple Rock accounts? Fear no more! With seamless account switching you can toggle between different accounts without having to log in and out every time.It is as easy as accessing your settings (press the image in the top left corner) and selecting “Switch Profile” to switch between your personal and work email accounts. By the way, if you signed up with your personal Gmail and now want to switch to your corporate email account you can do that as well in Settings.

Longer Audio Messages

You can now record audio messages without limits. Record everything in a single message instead of having to deal with 1 minute limits for each audio message.

Export Tasks

Export tasks from every space into a JSON or XML file so you always have a backup. If you’re on the Pro or Teams plan you can also export your tasks in a CSV and open this into Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel or other applications.

Space Search [Mobile]

Find what you’re looking for with the new space search option! Search for messages, tasks, notes or attachments within any space by tapping on the search icon available in the top right corner of every space.You can narrow down your search to the type of information you are looking for from members to tasks, labels, and a bunch of different parameters!

(Note: Space Search on Web and Desktop coming soon).

Notification Dot on Mobile

We’re making it easier to see if you’ve received a notification on Rock. On both iOS and Android you will now get a red dot on the app icon when you receive a notification on Rock.

Custom Fields [PRO Feature] - Early Access

Customize the Tasks mini-app to suit your workflow by adding custom fields to every task. Add new fields that can be dropdown menus, numerical values, and short descriptions so each task can now include everything from story points to item quantities. Here's how they work:

1. Access your tasks
2. Press the gear ⚙️ in the top right corner
3. Add or remove fields from your tasks to make them as simple or sophisticated as you want. You can add short text, number or dropdown menus to your tasks.

Custom fields are in early access for the PRO and Teams plans -- if you’d like to try them out, please fill out this form and someone from the team can reach out to you.

Recurring Tasks [PRO Feature] - Early Access

Daily check-ins, weekly reports or monthly invoices? Now you don’t need to remind yourself to create another task for these activities as recurring tasks automatically get recreated.

Recurring tasks are in early access for the PRO and Teams plans, if you’d like to try them out, please fill out this form, so someone from the team can reach out to you.

‍Here’s how it works:

‍1) Set a due date to a task

2) Select the recurring tasks icon

3) Choose how often you want the task to repeat:a) Dailyb) Weeklyc) Monthly

‍4) Decide on the interval (daily: exclude weekends | weekly: choose which day(s) | Monthly: choose day of the month)

5) Add to the column where you want the task to appear

6) Add your recurring task

Team Management [TEAMS Feature] - Early Access

Claim your domain within Rock, add admins and manage members more conveniently by signing up for the early access Teams plan.

Curious? Please fill out this form and someone from the team will reach out to you!

All Hands Space for corporate domains‍

Having a difficult time to find your colleagues on Rock?

With the new all hands space, all your colleagues can now easily be found in your domain’s all hands space, making it easier to connect with them once they are on Rock.

Mobile Updates

We’re excited to bring you a faster and much improved mobile experience:

• Performance improvements and lots of under the hood tweaks
• Multi-account support
• Space search
• Red notification dot on the app icon
• Emoji directions to comments on tasks/notes
• Export tasks into JSON/XML
• Export tasks to CSV, Excel (PRO)
• Custom task fields (PRO)
• Recurring tasks (PRO)
• Change the order of your pinned spaces
• Reply in message thread view
• Links in tasks are now clickable
• Set default view to tasks
• Longer audio messages
• New onboarding flow for sign-ups
• Text editor improvements
• Bug fix for Rock interfering with Bluetooth audio

Questions about this product release?

Reach out to us in the Rock Customer Support space. We support most major languages and try to respond as soon as we can.

Bring Rock your desktop! We are introducing a shiny new desktop app for all major providers. We understand getting work done is sometimes easier with a desktop app, which is why the team has worked hard to deliver one to improve your experience.

You can download the desktop app on:

• Mac
• Windows
• Linux

Time to move Rock out of your browser and onto your desktop. Download it today to keep Rock just a window away.

Questions about this release? You're always welcome to reach out to us in the Rock Customer Support space.

No one wants to be tied to their work computer but sometimes you don't want to cut the cord completely. If you are working on a high-priority project or want to stay available in case an urgent issue pops up, you need a way to stay in touch.That’s where mobile apps can help. With mobile apps, you can leverage asynchronous work and step away from your desk or computer—whether you’re traveling, completing chores, or spending time outside—and get work done wherever you are.

Rock & roll: take the Rock app with you on your mobile device!

You’re not always near a computer but you might want to stay connected with your work and your team. Leave for errands, get coffee, or do other activities. Use Rock’s mobile app to keep an open line of communication for urgent work, questions, or discussions. With Rock, it’s easy to get things done while you’re on the go and you can truly work anywhere.The Rock mobile app offers the same features as the web and desktop versions so you can access everything you need while you are away from your computer. It is more than just a way to keep up with notifications on your smartphone. With the Rock mobile app, you can manage your tasks, send messages, update your notes, and so much more! Rock is ready to roll wherever and whenever you need to get work done.

Mobile features that keep up with you

Staying in the loop can be tricky when you are away from your desk, but the Rock mobile app makes it easy to check in when you need to.The mobile app lets you do the same things as the web and desktop apps. You can leverage different communication strategies with the same simple interface. Use the chat feature to quickly respond to questions, you can use audio messages to set reminders or make a note for yourself.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT4gqSV8o58&feature=emb_logoWhether you’re on a couch or a beach, the Rock app helps you keep an eye on projects and tasks. Remote work means that you don’t have to be at your desk all day. With Rock’s mobile app, you can take a break without completely disconnecting or you can manage things on the go.If you have a high-stakes project, you can track how progress is going with the tasks feature on the mobile app. You can edit tasks and leave comments from your mobile device. The mobile app also lets you choose between task views so you can get the best perspective on your to-do list.Rock’s mobile app also lets you quickly open up and reference your notes, so you can access all of your important information. To capture all your documentation, you can edit an existing note or create a new one. You can also access the files mini-app from your mobile device.

Smooth communication

Rock’s mobile app is multimodal (just like our desktop and web versions). While you’re away from your computer, you can pull up any urgent discussion on mobile with the @ mention anything function.For streamlined communication, the Rock mobile app makes messaging easy. You can respond to any message by swiping left for a quick reply. If a team member sends you an urgent message with new details, you can swipe right to copy the message. Then you can paste the message into a note or task to save the details for future reference.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xfiCCdaluc&feature=emb_logo

Notifications that you control

Intuitive notification management and customizable settings are critical to avoiding burnout and stress. You can choose your settings in the Rock mobile app based on what works best for you. If you are taking time off of work, customize your notifications so you can fully unplug and relax.Check the boxes in your notification settings to indicate which notifications you want to get through email and which notifications to receive through the mobile app.

If you check your inbox regularly, you can get updates on tasks with upcoming deadlines, space invites, and other important activities. Mobile app notifications are a good fit for things that might require a quick response, like new messages or task assignments.All of Rock’s notifications are customizable, so you can rock out however you want. To prevent getting overwhelmed, you can decide if you want notifications when there are new messages in your groups or when someone tags you in a mention. You can also turn on notifications for when new tasks get assigned to you.

Remember to unplug

We love helping people get their work done. However, some things are more important than work. Your mental health is valuable and needs to be taken care of. That is why it is critical to be able to disconnect. Just because you can take your work with you everywhere does not mean that you should.

Mute your notifications if you want to disconnect for time off, after-work hours, and weekends. You should be in charge of your notification settings. That is why we make it easy to customize your settings.Rock has more great features coming to the mobile app so you can keep getting the most out of your work. We love to hear from you so reach out to the Rock team in the Rock Customer Support space for suggestions or questions!

We know keeping it simple and staying productive is a priority to you. This is why we have introduced these latest changes, so you can communicate and collaborate even more easily with your team…

Here’s what’s new.

✔️Set Aside

The Set Aside feature allows you to save tasks, notes, and messages to a dedicated set aside list that you can work on when you have time. Access the Set Aside panel on the left-hand panel in your browser or by tapping the Set Aside icon on mobile.

Better Notifications

Pick and choose if you want to be notified about activities in Rock through email, on mobile, or browser. Notifications have been expanded to Email and System. Notifications can be easily changed in account settings by clicking on the checkmark box.

The following Notifications have been introduced:

• Email Notifications ✉️ Email notifications will send a dedicated mail to your inbox for any of your selected activities.
• System Notifications System notifications will trigger each time a selected instance occurs on either mobile, web or desktop for a variety of activities.

Mute Notifications

Mute notifications when you want to have some time to focus, are out of the office, or would not like to receive notification sounds or emails during certain hours of the day.

Space level

You can mute notifications from a specific space by pressing the Mute option in space settings

All notifications

In addition to muting the notifications for specific spaces, you can also silence down Rock as a whole.

This can come in handy when you want to have some time to focus, are out of the office, or would not like to receive notification sounds or emails during certain hours of the day.

Gather feedback with polls

Get everyone’s opinion by creating a poll in a space. Use polls for anything from deciding on marketing taglines to figuring out what to do for next week’s happy hour. Here's how it works:

1. Create a poll by pressing the icon at the bottom of your chat interface.
2. Write your question and select the answers in the poll (you can add more fields if you need them).
3. Decide whether respondents can select one or several options.
4. Decide whether respondents are anonymous entries or not.

Improved Task Filters

Filter tasks in list view, board view, or My Tasks by assignee status so you can easily see which tasks are In Progress, Blocked, or Completed. Combine these new filters with labels, assignees, and task lists, so you can now more easily see what’s going on with all your tasks.

External spaces

Spaces that include people that are not part of your organization are now highlighted in Rock so you can quickly determine what’s relevant to share in each space. You can turn the external spaces badge on and off in your Account Settings.

If you have any questions about this product release, feel free to drop a message in the Rock Customer Support space.

Too many apps and platforms make you juggle a bunch of different tools to get things done.

If you have to rotate through an ever-growing number of apps to do your work, you’ll have less time to focus on what matters. Not to mention that it’s inconvenient and stressful for everyone involved, from your team to external partners and collaborators.

We’re here to make it easier for you to get your work done. That’s why Rock provides different ways to collaborate and communicate, all from one centralized place. Streamlining your workflows and processes helps you focus on what matters.

Rock offers a variety of ways for you and your team to stay on top of things. You can use mini-apps such as tasks and notes to communicate, manage, organize, and share information. Rock also boosts your productivity with a files and meetings mini-app, which allows you to integrate video conferencing apps and storage providers.

Available options include Google Drive, DropBox, Onedrive, Miro, Notion and Smartsheet to simplify your workday. If you’re a creative or work in the design industry you can also integrate Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud for free in any space.

When a virtual meeting is needed, you and your team can use the Meetings mini-app and use the Zoom, Google Meet, or Jitsi integrations to start or join a meeting—without ever leaving Rock.

This way, you can quickly jump on a video conference call for topics or discussions that are too complex for tasks or emails. You can also add your meeting agenda to notes to make sure that you are getting the most out of your time.

We know it’s key to have tools that make your life easier—that’s why we made it completely free to add video-conferencing or different file providers to Rock!

Get down to business with the files mini-app

When you can create and share documents in one place, it’s easier to streamline your work.

Centralizing your documents means you won’t need to switch between different apps and platforms to use them. Rock allows you to connect with well-known storage providers such as Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and SmartsheetGoogle Drive is a must-have for file storage, productivity, and organization.

With the Google Drive integration in Rock, you can put important details and information where they can be easily accessed and edited. Rock makes it easy to store your files and connect relevant information to each space for your team. Accessing details and documents is more convenient since your Google folders are connected to relevant spaces.

‍Communicating with clients or collaborating with freelancers, team members, and external partners will be a lot smoother with a connected Google Drive. The best part is that you can finally stop sharing links across platforms to share your files!

You can access, create, and upload Google documents, sheets, slides, and surveys, right from every Rock space. You can also set aside folders or documents in Google Drive to create a to-do list so you can easily manage and keep up with your different workflows.

In addition to storage providers, you can also connect your creative tools such as Figma or Adobe Creative Suite to the files mini-app. This is useful if you work on a lot of different projects and want to access or share progress on a creative project without endlessly searching your different folders.

Make the most of meetings

Sometimes meetings can solve problems more efficiently —especially for remote teams. Virtual meetings can provide an interactive and personal experience. Schedule meetings for situations that can’t be easily addressed any other way.

For example, brainstorming a creative solution to a problem or talking through client feedback on a project. Rock integrates video conferencing into its platform so you can quickly jump on a meeting when something can’t be solved through messaging, tasks, or notes.

You can easily integrate meetings into each Rock space with either Zoom, Jitsi or Google Meet. Log into your Zoom account through Rock and start a meeting in any space by clicking on the Meetings button.

The Google Meet integration works similarly to Zoom, and allows you to quickly start audio or video meetings in any space. If you prefer more open source tools you can always create a quick meeting through Jitsi.

Remember: for meetings, less can be more

Too often, meetings can be a waste of time. We’ve all heard someone say, “this meeting could have been an email.” Sometimes a different type of communication (like a message, note, or task) is better suited than a meeting.

When it comes to meetings, less is always more. Constant meetings can decrease your productivity, drain your team’s energy and lead to toxic work culture. Instead, schedule meetings thoughtfully and only when it’s really needed, you can follow our virtual meetings best practices guide to get the most out of them.

Meetings should focus on things like problem-solving, decision-making, or substantive discussion. Schedule meetings only when they’re really needed and stick to an agenda.

Files and meetings boost your productivity by streamlining your work

Platforms should connect to the tools you rely on so you can focus on getting work done. Rock connects to different storage providers and creative tools for free so you can access all your docs, sheets, presentations, or designs and easily share them with anyone.

Additionally, Rock’s video-conferencing integrations with Zoom, Google Meet, and Jitsi make it easier to ask questions, have complex discussions, and collaborate with team members.

With so many options at your fingertips, you can simplify your workflows and stay organized at work. All without leaving Rock.

We're zoomin' through new features and improvements! This release includes a seamless integration to Zoom in any space, the ability to send audio messages on both web and mobile, duplicate tasks across spaces and lists, and so much more!

‍Let's get right to it!

Works with Zoom‍

Connect your Zoom account to Rock and have your meetings a click away in every space. Easily set up a Zoom meeting when you need to discuss something quickly or set up a screen share to walk someone through the latest design mocks.Check out the video below for the steps you should follow to integrate your Zoom account to Rock!

Asynchronous Audio Messages

Sometimes its just easier to say what you mean. With audio messages in Rock you can now send a quick audio message when you're on your phone or on your computer.

Duplicate tasks‍

Save precious time by duplicating tasks when needed. Keep labels and task descriptions while moving the duplicated task to any space and list. You can find the feature by pressing the three dots in the top right corner of every task.

Copy a task from one space to another so you don’t need to recreate tasks across multiple projects. Check out the video below for more information about duplicating tasks across spaces.

Space folders

If you have lots of Rock spaces you can now organize them into folders, so you can keep your space list tidy. Create a folder for 1:1s, Marketing, or Product, and easily switch between different workstreams.

Guests in spaces

Want to invite someone to a space but don’t want them to change tasks, notes, or files? The new guest role limits ⛔️ the actions of users in your different spaces. This can be useful for spaces where you use Rock as an information board or for community purposes.

If you have any questions about this product release, feel free to drop a message in the Rock Customer Support space.

Our first product update brings some exciting new changes to Rock. Enjoy Rock on the go with mobile apps, integrate your Google Drive folders to stay productive and more!

Now on iOS and Android?

Mobile apps are now available in the App Store and on Google Play so you can pretty much use Rock from anywhere. Leave us a 5-star review if you like what you’re seeing!

Drive integration ?

Add any Google Drive folder to a space so everybody has access to every relevant file. No more digging through emails & messages to find that one file that got away.Check out the video below with some simple steps that explain how to integrate Google Drive folders to your different Rock spaces!

Tasks mini-app improvements ⏩

The ☑️ Tasks mini-app is now a lot faster, the Board View handles better and labels now make it easier to get everything organized.This short video should provide you will all the information you might need to get started with the tasks mini-app!

If you have any questions about this product release, feel free to drop a message in the Rock Customer Support space!

We are now in more meetings and work longer hours than ever before. With 62% of people working from home because of the pandemic -- the number of meetings has gone up 12.9%, the volume of emails has increased and workdays have grown 48 ½ minutes longer.

All of these distractions take up 40% of someone’s productive time.There are different reasons why this has happened, but one of the main reasons is that the way we work hasn't really changed. When companies started shifting their workforce to a remote model, they took the tools they were already using (e.g. Slack, Zoom) and sent their employees home.

These tools are now being used in the same way they were used in the office, where most of the interaction happened in real-time.

We're moving towards a more distributed way of working.

A quick chat is now another Zoom meeting in a long succession of meetings and a tap on the shoulder is yet another Slack message that pulls you away from what you were doing. This firehose of messages and meetings is not sustainable as it leads to anxiety, burnout and pressure to always be connected.

With a majority of companies stating that remote work is here to stay, office footprints being reduced dramatically, and tech companies like Twitter telling their staff that they can work from home forever some of these changes will become the new normal.

Most people agree that whatever happens, companies will be way more distributed than they were before the pandemic. One thing is for sure -- the communication & collaboration tools that exist today just don't cut it.

We need tools for a distributed workforce.

This is where Rock comes in. We started building Rock about two years ago to make it easier to shift towards a more asynchronous way of working. This way of working gives you more control over your workday, and makes you more productive while reserving face-to-face meetings for the most important things.

It's also ideally suited to a workforce that is more distributed.With the right tools and mindset, working with your team becomes more like a relay race. Everybody knows what's going on, you can pick things up when you're ready, and work happens in a state of flow.

Why Rock is better

Rock combines real-time messaging and video calls with more asynchronous ways of communicating like tasks, notes, and files and makes this available in one space.

Because we combine these different types of communication, we make it easy for you to pick and choose the best way to interact with your team.

We also work with Google Drive (and will work with Zoom and others soon) so it's easier to tap into your existing workflows.When you compare Rock to Slack you can easily see why we think Rock just works better for how work happens today.

Rock empowers anyone to work from anywhere

It's our mission to build tools to empower anyone to work from anywhere. When this happens - companies are more diverse, job opportunities are not limited by location and we all meet less while doing more.

We have a lot more to say and lots more to build. If you want to join us on this journey to bring some much-needed balance to the way we work, try out Rock today.

Watch how Rock works