Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 14, 2013. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Shotgun has made its software more user-friendly and leans a little towards social media with the new version. The new toolset is intended mainly to benefit artists and supervisors. Its centrepiece is the "My Tasks" tool: a news-feed format shows the most important project updates and who else is currently working, which is intended to make freelancers scattered individually and alone around the world feel more present.
The second function is the Inbox, where notes about the project can be created and relevant updates filtered from less relevant ones. The third and final tool is the "Global Search" function. The search function works across projects and is intended to deliver results in a clear news-feed-style layout.
Version 5 does not contain any groundbreaking innovations, but one tool or another may prove quite useful. At least there is no additional charge. Version 5.0 still costs 49 USD per month.
