Last modified time [SOLVED]

[Katherine_Duh]

UPDATE 2: last modified time is now available to everyone! You can learn more about it here.

UPDATE: The last modified time beta is now closed as we get ready for a general release. Thanks to all of the testers who made this beta a success.

ORIGINAL POST:

Hi folks! We’re very excited to announce that we’re beta testing a last modified time field type, as well as a LAST_MODIFIED_TIME formula function. Many thanks to the users who’ve posted specific, detailed feedback about their needs and use cases with regard to this feature, like @Arlo_Haskell, @Deborah_Buck, and @Jordan_Friedman. We read everything that is posted here in the forums and your feedback is incredibly valuable for us when we’re planning the product roadmap and developing new features!

If you’re a Pro plan user and you’re interested in testing out the last modified time field type and/or the LAST_MODIFIED_TIME formula function—and giving us your feedback—please sign up using this form. (Note: this is a different form from our standard beta signup form, and it requires you to fill out a couple of additional questions.)

As you are all aware, this is a highly anticipated feature, and there are many users who would like to get beta access. However, for technical reasons and to ensure an optimal user experience, rollout for this beta will be conducted in small, limited batches. (In practical terms, that means that it might take a while for you to get access.)

[Bruce_Cannon]

Hi! I like this discussion. Evaluating Airtable now. Came here figure out how to access “last modified” timestamp.

Writing to add my vote: I won’t invest in the platform at all, until I can see the modified timestamp for any field or record, and can trigger the API on update types that I specify.

Reading between the lines from the comments from the AT folks over the year or more of this thread, sounds like maybe neither of these is that easy, and it may be a while.

I’ll probably build apps in G Suite for now, and check back on Airtable in a year. This is a really nicely thought out RAD system! Thanks!

[Deborah_Buck]

+1 - This feature would be very handy! One use case: I have a base of contacts. Some contacts have a status of “Loss of Contact” and then I have an Archive view to help me clean up the database from time to time. If I could easily track and see when a record was last modified, it would make cleaning up outdated records a cinch! I look forward to this feature.

[Amber_Stacey]

I’d like to create a zapier to send email alerts to my team anytime a due date is changed. I believe the only way I could do this is by using modified_date in a formula. This is pretty much necessary in getting my team to move from Trello to Airtable. Do we have a projected date on this feature?

[Julian_Kirkness]

Hi @Amber_Stacey - we would also need the ability to have instant Zaps - with the current Zap setup you can only have a Zap run once on a record which wouldn’t be effective every time the date changed.

However, you may be able achieve something similar with timed Zaps (where you specify how often they run). I wrote a blog post about how to use this to send notifications and you may be able to modify it to suit:

Sending Notifications from Airtable

Hope this helps…

[Felicia_D_Ascan]

I would love to see how you are using airtable as full CRM (minus last modified field) !

[Proa_Filippi]

+1 to date modified feature … Do you have any other idea how can when was the last update!?

[Gijs_Nelissen]

+1 missing a last updated + webhook just makes the system unusable as a backend for large datasets. We’re now pulling the API for the entire dataset just to compare

[Tony_Konstant]

Last Modified Timestamp is a must to compete with other database systems

[Daren_J_Mongell]

Hi Looking for a “Last Modified” cell. Any work around?

[W_Vann_Hall]

I would love to see how you are using airtable as full CRM (minus last modified field) !

The easiest way is to create a new linked record to track important events, and then roll up the creation time of those linked records using a MAX(values) aggregation function.

For instance, if you are tracking the last tme an attempt was made to reach a client, your [client] table would contain a linked record field called {contacts}. Each [contact] record would track, say, type of contact (phone, email, IM, etc.), result (spoke with, left message), next step, and so on; it would also contain a Created Time field. With each contact attempt, you would create a new [contact] record documenting the attempt.

Meanwhile, in your [client] record, you would define a {Last Contact} field as a rollup of {contact::Created Time} using MAX(values) as your aggregate function. You can also easily, if slightly inelegantly, pull any detail you wish from that most-recent [contact ] record by creating a field in [contact] that performs a lookup on {client::Last Contact}. Any [contact] field you wished to surface to the [client] record would then use this field to detect the most-recent entry; for instance, you could create a {Latest Next Step} field with this formula:

IF({Created Time}={Last Contact},{Next Step},BLANK())

You could then use either a lookup or rollup field (depending on how you planned to use the result) to pull the data through to the [client] record.

Is it as easy as having a LAST_MODIFIED() function? No. Does it work? Yes.