Introducing our new messaging and application experience

THS News & Feedback
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Hello everyone :wave:

We have written a new Blog about the upcoming new inbox and wanted to share the details here as well!

We’re always looking for new ways to enhance your TrustedHousesitters experience, and now, we’ve got some new and improved inbox and application features coming your way soon! Here to make it easier than ever for pet parents and sitters to message each other and organize sits, here’s everything you need to know.

So, what’s new?

Good question! Soon, you’ll notice a brand new, snazzy layout for your inbox. We’ve also made some backend tweaks which will make it much easier for us to make new improvements in the future.

What’s new for all members?

Firstly, let’s list out what will be updated for all our members:

  • We’ll be introducing a new inbox layout
  • Previously, members were finding it difficult to find the conversation thread and to load past conversations - this will soon be signposted clearly
  • We’ve made some fixes so that the correct times are shown on messages sent for all timezones
  • You can now archive lapsed or inactive members
  • On the web inbox, you can now send image messages (which is aligned with our app!)
  • Favourites page for sitter and sits

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New inbox layout for pet parents

What’s new for pet parents:

Here are the future updates for our pet parent members:

  • We’ve added a new assignment page that shows the active dates of your upcoming sits, including:
  • The sitters who are active and have applied
  • The sitters who you have declined or sitters who have withdrawn their application
  • We’ve made it clearer when you have multiple dates live
  • We can now display when your listing is active or when it has been paused, and we’ve made it clearer how to unpause the listing if you would like to receive more sitter applications
  • Invites now can’t be sent without a message
  • Invites won’t be able to be sent to sitters who already have a confirmed sit
  • We’ve also made it easier for pet parents to add private dates and directly invite a previous sitter, all without the sit going live on their profile for other sitters to see

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View of paused sitters for pet parents

What’s new for sitters:

Last, but certainly not least, this is what we have coming up for sitters:

  • If a pet parent adjusts their dates and already has a sitter confirmed, we’ve now made it clearer that the sitter has to confirm the new date change, and then confirm the sit.
  • This also gives the sitter the option to withdraw their application, if they can no longer make the amended dates
  • If a pet parent edits their dates after applicants have applied, the sitter will be alerted that these dates have changed. If they’re not available for these new dates, they will also have the option to withdraw their application
  • For sitters, your ‘Favourites’ is now on a separate page, making it easier to view. These can also be sorted by listings currently ‘Looking for a sitter’
  • Owners will not be able to send you an invite if you already have a booked sit.

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New inbox layout for sitters

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Application confirmation for sitters

When are these new features coming?

Our team is currently dotting the I’s, crossing the T’s, and getting everything finalised and fine-tuned before the full rollout. We hope to have these features live very soon, so watch this space!

Anything else?

As we revamp and introduce these new features, we’ve decided not to include inbox labels within the new inbox. Inbox labels had very low usage and members mentioned that they would prefer features such as messaging filters, sorting, and search options instead (something we’ll be adding at some point soon, so watch this space). We’re sorry to any members who did like the inbox label feature, however, we really hope you’ll enjoy the new and improved inbox features coming your way soon!

Thank you to our amazing members

Finally, a huge shout-out to all of our members who took part in our Beta testing group (600 members in total!) Because of your detailed feedback, we’ve been able to create something that’s far more user-friendly for our members. Thank you!

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We will also be taking the testing feedback on board about the size of the message field space and making the ‘read’ status clearer!

You will see the new inbox mentioned in the next Newsletter and there will also be a pop-up (coming soon!) that members see when they open their inbox explaining the new update.

Thank you

The TrustedHousesitters Team.

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These sound like some good updates, thank you for the info!
I would love for our “saved” or “favorited” listings to be categorized by country! It gets so muddled when we have saved so many, to filter through them.
Also would love to see an “opt in” or “opt out” of the possibility for sitters to contact sitters or HO’s to contact HO’s privately (with the option to block that feature if we don’t want to be contacted).
Lastly, I wish you’d go back to the term “Home Owner” and lose the more recent “Pet Parent”. For one, some listings are not for pets at all, but for house sitting only. Second, as one who has owned pets, I gave birth to children, not animals. I personally find this term juvenile and almost patronizing.

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@carpediem16 Several helpful suggestions! I have sent all of this feedback to the team. Thank you :slight_smile: