Viewing attached images in Hubspot iOS app

[mbartko]

Hello!

I'm looking for the best way to view an attached image of a business card in the Hubspot iOS app.

In order to baseline the question lets assume that I have already streamlined the process of taking the business card from paper to digital image, imported into Hubspot CRM and the image is capable of being viewed within the desktop version of the CRM.  What I need help w/ is providing my field agents with the capability to view an attached image in the field via the iOS app.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Myron

[BrettLanguirand]

Hi @mbartko, Welcome to the Hubspot Community!

I may need a bit more insight on how you plan on adding the images of the business cards to contact records before answering the question of how to view those images on the iOS app.  There isn't currently a feature within Hubspot on a contact record that allows you to simply add an image to a field, so it would require something like a URL to an image that is hosted online somewhere (dropbox, google drive, etc.).   

The other option for the desktop version is to attach the image to a note, which gets added as a link to the image on the contact's timeline, but the mobile app doesn't currently support this functionality.  

Let me know how you planned on getting the images on the contact records, and we'll see if we can come up with a solution for viewing those files on the mobile app.

Thanks,

Brett

[mbartko]

Hi @BrettLanguirand

Those are exactly the two ways I'm doing it, currently.  Either attaching a jpg of the card to the "attachments" section of the contact or adding a cloud based URL to where the image resides inside a field that I created called "Business Card Photo".

Thanks for the reply!
Myron

[BrettLanguirand]

@mbartko I'm thinking between these two currently avialable options, your best bet will be to use the method of adding a URL to the image of the business card in the property "Business Card Photo".  Your reps will be able to see all of the contact's properties, and click on that URL to have the business card open in the Safari on their iPhone.

If you were hoping to see the business card directly on the contact record in the mobile app, it'd definitely be worth it to make the suggestion on our ideas forum.  Our product team looks through the ideas forum to see what our customers are suggesting, and if they find that something is highly sought after and feasible, they do their best to make it happen in future product releases.  

I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions.

Brett

[mbartko]

Thanks again @BrettLanguirand!  Last question, we've tried your suggestion; the link to the card does properly show in the iOS app, however, it's not clickable.  In order to make the link actionable we have to click Edit --> More Properties, navigate to the field and copy/paste into Safari.  Is there a way to make the link, in the text box "clickable"? 

Thanks again sir!

[BrettLanguirand]

Hi @mbartko,

I did a bit of testing and I was able to determine that if the Hubspot App sees a URL in a single line text field, it will add http:// infront of it, however it won't be clickable.  If you manually type out a URL or copy and paste a URL including http:// or https:// the link is clickable.  I'd like to bring this up to our development team to see if this is expected behavior or if anything can be done to make any link clickable.

I'll update here when I know a little bit more, but in the meantime let me know if manually adding http:// changes anything for you.

[BrettLanguirand]

@mbartko Sorry for back to back responses - but after more testing I can see that the only field that will automatically add the http:// is the property "Website".  Other single line text fields require you to manually add it, which should then make the links clickable.

[mbartko]

That seems to be the case for links that start http://www but not for links that begin http://d07g (as an example), which is how the link is imbeded when using the full contact/Zapier integration.

[BrettLanguirand]

@mbartko Thank you for that information.  I'm going to bring this information to our development team to see if there is anything that can be done to get those links clickable.  Do you have a full example link that you wouldn't mind sending me?  Feel free to private message it to me if it contains personal information that you don't want shared on the community.

Thanks!

[mbartko]

Thanks Brett. I ll reach out.

[BrettLanguirand]

@mbartko

Thank you for sending me that information.  Based on the information on the business card, I was able to pull up the contact record in your portal, and see that the property "Business Card Photos" is a multiline text property that actually has two URLs in it - the front of the business card, and the back of the business card.  The link that you see in the app isn't clickable because there is a second link in that property that you can't see in the app.  

I went through the zapier set up process, and I believe what is happening is the zap was set up to put both the front of the business card and the back of the business card in one Hubspot property (Business Card Photos), when it should really only have one url per Hubspot property.  We tested the URLs and were able to verify that if you have a property like Business Card Front with one URL and then a property for Business Card Back with the other URL, the links will be clickable in the app.

Additionally, I wanted to let you know that our product team informed me that they will be adding a Business Card Scanning feature to the Hubspot product very soon.  @vishnu might be able to shed a bit more light on this upcoming feature, but your business card workflow might become a bit easier soon!

Let me know if you have any questions!

Brett

[mbartko]

Thank you, @BrettLanguirand! Having the capability to scan cards directly into the CRM would make a world of difference!  We look forward to that added feature!

Respectfully,

Myron

[vishnu · Accepted solution]

@mbartko, it is on the way! We are playing around with a few prototypes which will make this feature native to the app and you wouldn't need zaps to accomplish this. I would highly recommend joining our Early Access Group for the app which is where we will first release few features (like business card scanning, email attachments, Social etc).

[mbartko]

Thanks @vishnu! I went ahead and downloaded EAG version of the mobile app.  Are there automatic notifications of updates or is it on the user to open the app and hunt them down?

[vishnu]

@mbartko, currently there aren't any automatic notifications for updates (or somewhere where all the chnages are surfaced). For the EAG version of the apps, the app will get automatically updated in your phone. As for the app store versions, it will also get automatically updated but you will see the updated changes on the App Store page.

We are working surfacing this better - potentially using this community. The reason we are hesitant on having some form of in-app messaging on updates for the EAG is because our engineering team is putting out a lot of small updates daily which can be quite disruptive for the user. That said, we are toying around some ideas on making our update service as transaparent as possible so that users know what new features are in the app they just installed! Let me know what you think.

[mbartko]

Understood.  Maybe you have a thread, here, in the community announcing only the larger scale updates to the EAG app which in turn could solicit immediate feedback.  Just a thought.  Thanks for your help!

[vishnu]

Duly noted. I'll be passing this on to the powers that be!

[Hugh1]

I need to see a client’s contract on my mobile device quite often. 

[Paramore32]

Yes this would be Huge

[DMurphy1]

Our vp of sales has asked me about the ability to not only scan the card to add the contact into the CRM, but to be able to save the image directly on to the timeline. 

Also, we often collect cards at tradeshows and conferences. After scanning the card, I'm wondering if there could be a way to attach a lead source description (custom property) field while adding the contact. that would eliminate booth visitors from having to do anything mroe than leave a card. 

[904shaffer]

Where is it possible to view the original scanned image of a business card, in either the phone app or IOS? If it is not visible, it is MUCH less useful. How is, or when will, this feature be available? If it is not currently (or VERY SHORTLY) available, I fear I may need to use another CRM. Any help?

[galileran]

Hi 904shaffer did you get an answer to this annoying issue ? 

I remember for sure that this was once possible and done automatic- meaning that the business card image is being uploaded as part of the adding of new contact. 

And we suddently noticed that it doesn't do this anymore - we don't have a clue why and didn't find any mention on this...  You are right this is really annoying.

Can anyone in hubspot team let us know why its doing that ? 

Thanks, Eran. 

[vishnu]

Hey there - we now save a copy of the card to our phone. On iOS, you should see this in the Photo App in a folder called HubSpot. On Android, you should see this in your files!

[galileran]

Thank you Vishnu for the response. 

It's partially helpful - since the main thing we need it to be attached to the actual contact in context.     not to go and look for it later in the phone - also specifically we have few sales people uploading new cards and on that way only the one that uploaded the card can examine it closely...

i could have swore that the image of the card used to be automatically inserted to the record of the contact ,  but maybe it was from other 3rd party mobile apps we used in the past.... 

Any plans of adding it the contact record in the back-end ? 

Thanks, Eran. 

[jameebcf]

Agreed! Does anyone know if this is already possible or if the ability to attached the scanned photo to contact will be available in the near future?

[chrisddi]

I would love for this feature to be available as well!

[Ringwaldt]

Hi Vishnu, I agree with the other guys on this forum that the image needs to be saved against the contact somehow, not just retained on the phone.  Often there is information on the card that perhaps doesn't align with the contact property fields, but you may want to come back and find later.  Your app does a good job of identifying the cards and 90% of the time the automatic cropping is done perfectly.  Could Hubspot work on saving that cropped image against the contact.

Sam

P.S. it would be great if on the business card scanner you had an option to choose single sided scan or double sided, as many business cards have info on both sides that is important to capture.