1. Improved Calendar Integration

2. Outlook 2013 Beta

1. Undo Accidental Note Deletions

Ever delete a meeting note in Less Meeting on accident?!? Mis-clicks like these are frustrating so we’ve added a new undo option.Simply type “Ctrl+Z” (or “Cmd+Z” for Mac users) and your most recent deleted note will be re-added. This also includes any sub-notes that were deleted!

 

2. Linking & Unlinking Meetings

Recurring meetings are incredibly popular in Less Meeting. By sharing related information – action items, parking lots, etc – across related meeting topics, it makes it much easier to avoid “groundhog day meeting syndrome” (having the same discussion week after week!).We’ve recently added two new features to make recurring meetings even better:

1. Linking Recurring Meetings – Now you can link any meeting to any other meeting, giving you a central place to manage all your info on a particular project or topic.

 

• Unlinking Meetings – Accidentally link the wrong meetings? Use this option to correct your mistake.

 

3. More Meeting Note Shortcuts

We’ve added another great shortcut to make meeting minutes even easier.

While your focus is inside the note box, press Up/Down and Left/Right to move the note box to a different section in your notes. Click here for a recap of our other note taking shortcuts.

4. New Feature Request Forum

Wonder where we get all our ideas for new features to add?

These ideas come from users like you. All of the above features, including a number of others, were suggested on our new feature request forum.

Visit the Less Meeting forum now to add your ideas!

New to Less Meeting?Click here to learn how Less Meeting helps you reinvent the way you plan, run and follow up on your meetings.

iPad/iPhone Audio Recording

We’d heard your requests wanting audio recording for the Less Meeting app. And so a few weeks back we asked you why you record audio in your meetings?

As we’ve been working we learned of a few similar themes:

• You’re already recording your meetings using other apps with Less Meeting at the same time – wouldn’t it be nice if you could do everything inside one app?
• While you don’t need it for every meeting,  Often times you’ll record an entire meeting, usually an important one you’ll need documented audio for
• When taking notes, we all tend to miss something here and there and would like to go back later to re-listen to specific parts of a meeting

And with that we’re excited to announce that we’ve added audio recording to the Less Meeting App.

Record Meeting Audio with One Tap!!

Audio recording is incredibly simple. From any meeting you’ll see a new “Record Audio” option.

Just a single tap and you’re instantly recording. Feel free to start & stop recording anytime you like and Less Meeting will seamlessly merge each clip from the same meeting together.

Activate from the left menu of the iPad app

On the iPhone, access recordings from the Timer tab

Want recording automatically on for every meeting? You can set this too, from the Settings tab.

Audio Playback Syncs With Your Notes

When you’re ready to playback your audio you’ll notice any notes you took during the meeting are intelligently synced with the audio.

Use the audio slider to fast forward through the meeting and watch the corresponding notes get highlighted as you listen.

Or, tap a note and listen as the audio automatically jumps to the time of the meeting that the note was taken.

Click here to get more info about audio recording.

Mobile International Date/Time Support

Another long requested feature is supporting dates and times across languages and we’re excited to add this to the mobile app.

This is set from your iOS Settings menu (iOS Settings > International > Region Format) meaning it updates automatically, not change needed on your part.

No more confusion around whether your meeting on 02/03/2013 is scheduled for February 3rd or March 2nd.

Improved Calendar Sync Logging

Last, we’re always trying to improve the calendar sync process. It’s a continual challenge to stay up with constant Google Calendar updates so we’ve enhanced the logging around any calendar sync changes.

What’s this mean to you?

If you’re still seeing some discrepancies on how your meeting syncs to Less Meeting from your calendar, reach out to us so we can re-analyze what’s going on with the improved logging.

Don’t have the Less Meeting iPad or iPhone apps yet? They’re free and no account is needed, so why wait?

Download the free mobile apps to improve the meeting culture at your next meeting.

Lately one of our more frequent feature requests is for audio recording, especially in our iPad and iPhone apps. Seems like a natural extension to Less Meeting, right?

And if you look through the app store there are tons of audio recording mobile apps, some even a bit pricey. So there appears to be a market for them.

As we think through it more carefully though we’re not sure – what is the real benefit that you think you’ll have with the ability to record the audio of your meetings in Less Meeting?

…To let you focus on the discussion and write up the notes after the meeting?
Sounds great on the surface, but I question how often those notes ever get written. I’d bet there are a ton of audio files out there ready to get transcribed but never get checked off that to-do list.

…To share the audio with someone who missed the meeting?
Again this sounds great, but does it actually happen? And does the person receiving the audio clip ever listen to it, or does that email sit in the inbox unread forever?

…To have on record, for CYA or KX purposes?
Seems valid, but is this really a high priority use case? I suppose it could be in some regulatory circumstances.

…To send off to a transcription service that writes up your minutes for you?
Perhaps, but you don’t want 40 pages of notes if they transcribe word-for-word. Local Atlanta startup TranscriptsHQ has a promising option though, with the ability to give you fully edited notes, cutting out all the fluff and trimming down to the meat of the meeting notes.

…To go back to a certain unclear meeting note, or a certain time in the meeting you missed?
Ok I think we’re starting to get somewhere here. Which means marrying the notes and the audio is pretty important.

Which leads to the simple question – why do you want to record the audio in your meetings? We’d love to hear your thoughts.