Use link previews to collaborate, manage projects, and ship faster

Link previews gather information from other tools — helping you collaborate with cross functional teams and make quick decisions on project timeline inside one Notion workspace.

6 min read
Link previews for project management hero image
Use link previews to bring information from other tools inside Notion.
In this guide
  • Get clarity on the work happening in other tools
  • Build your workflows around people, not tools
  • Everyone — not just engineers — knows the status of bug fixes
  • Build faster knowing the status of product features
  • Connect the dots to centralize information
  • Alignment with external collaborators
  • Manage your projects with ease

Different teams use different tools to get work done. But what happens when it’s time to collaborate?

Feedback lives here. Task statuses live there. Soon, it feels like you’re panning for gold, sifting for that nugget of information you need to get context, push a project forward, or make a decision.

People already bring information from other tools into Notion simply by sharing links. But with the newest addition to our line of API features — link previews — you can get live updates from those other tools right in Notion. This enables you to build workflows leveraging the up-to-date information teams need for cross-functional collaboration.

Here are a few ways to use link previews to bring full transparency to manage work between teams.

Get clarity on the work happening in other tools

All you have to do is paste a link from Jira, Slack, Asana, Trello, and GitHub, and a preview is generated with real-time information fetched directly from the link. Here’s what it means for you:

  • Log in once — if a Notion page is shared with you, link previews let you view information from other tools after that initial log-in.

  • Display updated information from other tools — the links are updated on a continuous basis, so there’s no additional work you need to do to update the information.

  • Build a granular project management system — unite all aspects of your project into a single project management system, so you’re not chasing around disparate pieces of valuable information. Say, adding tasks from Jira to your project tracking page in Notion so everyone can see the status of tasks in one place. Or adding Slack updates into that same page so you have a single source of truth.

  • Bring teams working on other tools on one page, literally — link previews doesn’t just gathers tasks, notes, and updates from other tools. It also brings teams together on a single Notion page, where they can paste external links, share information and collaborate without switching tools during an ongoing project.

Build your workflows around people, not tools

When you're working cross-functionally, both tools and people come together. But often, there isn’t a place to collaborate, meaning information gets lost. Notion’s API helps you build custom workflows that match project needs, but that’s even more powerful with link previews — the information teams need to execute lives in one place, even when folks are using different tools.

Here are a few ways you can use link previews to help your team execute.

Everyone — not just engineers — knows the status of bug fixes

We know that many engineering teams use tools like Jira and Asana to manage their product roadmap, track bugs, see their backlog, create reports, and more.

But other teams outside engineering often don’t have insight into these statuses. Instead, they’re left to send Slack messages or emails, asking engineers if the work is complete.
If you’re using a page in Notion to track the status of bug fixes and product updates for a project , ask your engineering team to post Jira link previews inside the page so other teams know exactly when issues are fixed.

This makes information more accessible to all, helping align teams without meetings, pings, or rooting around.

For example, your marketing team can release a tweet that a critical bug has been fixed without needing to ask engineers its status. Or the sales team can let prospects know about new features as soon as they land.

Build faster knowing the status of product features

A team launching a new product needs to be able to track all the dependencies that go into that final product. For example, you need to build a feature for creating events before your calendaring app is launch-ready.

It’s important to be able to navigate constant change against a tight timeline.

Using Notion’s link previews, product teams can get everyone up to speed without needing to go into tools like GitHub. Simply paste GitHub links inside Notion pages where engineers are tracking feature statuses. That way, new tasks can be started as soon as dependencies are completed, helping your team move quicker.

Connect the dots to centralize information

Swirling conversations about work can be difficult to keep track of, especially when that information lives in different tools.

Using link previews, you can paste a Slack message right into a Notion page — so you have direct access to information (minus the noise) while still in focus mode. For example, when your content team is writing a new blog post, they can get access to relevant Slack messages about that post without being distracted by all the other messages flying around your channels.

Alignment with external collaborators

Working with external collaborators can bring a few speed bumps to your process. How many times have you shared a doc without giving the right person access?

Link previews gives external collaborators all the information they need to execute, uniting teams without needing to manage more access controls.

If you’re working with external teams, they’re probably not all using the same project management software. So instead of granting access to entire tools or systems, simply paste links from other tools like Trello and Asana right in Notion so everyone’s aligned on statuses and action items.

Manage your projects with ease

Notion helps you bring tools, teams, and workflows into a single source of truth.

Normally, updates would be buried under these tools — but link previews ensures you have live information (and full clarity) to execute. Link previews are now supported for Jira, Slack, Asana, Trello, and GitHub.

If you’re looking for project management inspiration, here's your guide to build your very own project management starter kit.

Share this guide

Give Feedback

Was this resource helpful?


Start with a template

Browse over 10,000 templates in our template gallery


Something we didn't cover?