We are very excited to announce the name of Sidekick version 1.0, which we call Robin. This is our first version launch and we wanted to outline the features you can expect. Also fun fact, Robin was one of the first ever sidekicks making his appearance back in April 1940.
If you’re as excited as we are, make sure you sign up for BETA testing to give us feedback on our launch of Robin 1.0.
To start, Sidekick will function as a web app. Feature releases will include a mobile app and other awesome integrations like pairing with Alexa. In the release of Robin, Sidekick will include several main features outlined below.
Recent Activity
We built this feature so that users can see exactly what their Sidekick is working on; it includes the ability to check status updates and oversee all of Sidekick’s activity. The concept behind this feature was to make Sidekick as intuitive as possible, modeling after, and improving upon a typical workflow with a human assistant.
Pending
The Pending category, a tier within Recent Activity, provides an easy way to check in on meetings that don’t yet have dates or times. This is a great way to achieve visibility of those meetings that haven’t yet been nailed down and check updates on status and details.
Action Items*
Note the asterisk, this is an important one! Action Items mean that Sidekick requires your attention to proceed Below are some examples of Action Items.
- You’ve requested to meet someone and Sidekick has sent several emails. That person has not responded to the final nudge from Sidekick. Do you want to cancel or reschedule?
- Someone sends you an email requesting to meet for the first time. Do you want to allow Sidekick to book this?
- A contact wishes to reschedule a predetermined meeting time, are you willing to reschedule with them?
Think of Action Items as your assistant asking your preferences in regards to upcoming meetings.
Schedule A Meeting
Adding a meeting feels just like texting your (very smart) personal assistant. With an Add Meeting button conveniently accessible throughout the program, creating a meeting is as pain-free as possible.
Meetings
The meetings view will appear much like a traditional calendar on the surface, though you’ll quickly acclimate to the abundance of quick actions available to save you time. You can instantly filter confirmed, canceled, pending, inbound, and outbound meeting types. Sidekick can also handle meetings for those with multiple email addresses.
We also want to be very clear that the Robin 1.0 release will not populate calendar events created outside of Sidekick to your Sidekick calendar. We highly encourage continued use of your personal calendar. The intent of Robin 1.0 is not to replace your calendar, but to simplify scheduling and show you the meetings Sidekick has booked for you.
Availability
The availability page allows users to set general availability for each email source, input time away, manage time preferences for meeting types with buffers and even turn on an out of office. Sidekick will use all of these parameters to schedule meetings at the most convenient times for your schedule. Availability also allows you to set preferred durations for in person, over the phone, or video meetings. This does not limit meetings that may be longer or shorter, it simply gives Sidekick an understanding of your preferences.
Robin also includes an “out of office” mode that can be switched on anytime prompting Sidekick to reschedule your meetings for you.
Contacts
Users will be able to sync their Google and Outlook contacts to Sidekick. You can create groups to make scheduling meetings easier for a designated set of people. When requesting a meeting, just tell Sidekick what group you want to schedule without the hassle of adding each contact one by one. You can also set preferences on groups and contacts from “high priority” all the way to “blocked”. All of your groups and contacts will default to “medium” until you change them.
We wanted to add this feature because if you have two competing time slots being requested, we believe the higher priority contact should be allowed to book this with you.
Locations
Have a quiet coffee spot where you love to meet? The Locations page gives you the opportunity to add those favorite locations for Sidekick to select from when scheduling meetings. Much like Contact priorities, you can assign a priority to each location. Once a Location is added, you can view which meetings are taking place there and view each location on a map. Add your favorite locations and Sidekick will be sure to try to book your meetings there.
Integrations
Sidekick 1.0 Robin will come with integrations including Google and Outlook syncing. We plan to add additional email providers and communication tools in future Sidekick releases. If you wish to make a request email support@sidekickai.com.
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