The issue with this is that the tasks can change rows, so you could say to someone “Did you hear anything back about task 4?” and the task in row 4 today might be different than the task in row 4 tomorrow. Row numbers are not permanent, and so can’t be used for this purpose.
Here are some other threads about this:
I worked on Facebook’s internal task system for years (after Dustin left to start Asana): we used auto-increment task numbers everywhere. A task needs to be easily reference-able, as we mention them in groups, in other tasks, in diffs and commits, and vocally of course. We even entertained the idea of using mnemonics to refer to individual tasks as the auto-increment numbers got large (never tried this though).
I have no idea what Asana’s infrastructure looks like, but I feel like it wouldn’t be too much work to associate each task with a workspace unique autoincrement ID (or something human memorizable, say under 10MM). Referring to a task like vaultio#123 wouldn’t just be nice, it’s essential.
My first impressions with Asana working at my own company, after years of both using and leading development of Facebook’s tasks system, is that perhaps Asana doesn’t understand how important integration with other services (internal and external) is to the relative success of a task management system. A human memorizable reference number and a fast, stable API are no brainer first steps here (the former of course not existing, and the latter is very very slow, taking over 3 seconds to cut a task in our anecdotal experience).
I will add my vote to this issue. Much like most others I would be happy enough to have the short-ID be a field that is searchable, not necessarily a part of the URL.
Though if asana would know which domain you belong to since you’re logged in and only search in those. That would allow for a short URL like Log in - Asana that would automatically use the login info, perform a search on your domain, so duplicate IDs are sorted out by cutting down on the namespace scope.
This has been a broken record issue since at least 2013. Same needs, same unworkable workaround suggestions, and then the thread is buried for a bit. I doubt it will change or even be addressed as a problem anytime soon.
You evaluate more than current capabilities when vetting software… the lack of any issue ID control and lack of any real markup support (asciidoc, markdown, etc.) are the main “show stoppers” for us, but the lack of any way to track Asana tasks (like this one-- it’d be neat if people could track an Asana task for it, versus subscribing to various zombie threads in a forum) also make it hard to swallow. It’d be great to see Asana using Asana, versus Discourse, basically.
YouTrack does task IDs well, that would be a good model to follow-- you can even set a task ID when importing so as to get a seamless crossover from System X to YouTrack. A smart thing to support if you’re trying to get market share in this space.
+1 !
We would be so grateful to have this feature. A short ID will improve our team communication and will be easier to make a link between PR in git with asana task.
There’s nothing quite as unsatisfying as chiming in on a deadhorse topic…but on the off chance that the Product Team at Asana is watching this thread…I’ll simply say that the absence of this feature is the one show-stopper that is preventing me from bringing my whole team workflows into Asana.
I’ve been a personal user of Asana for years…but without this feature I cannot bring my team over onto the service…it’s a deal killer. #sadness.
46 people asking for the same thing and not one response from Asana… no man!?!
Hey Asana, are you listening to this feedback? I like Asana a lot, but this feature would be indispensable.
Not listening… I’ve downgraded my subscription. Will reconsider it again later once the feature is there, but by then I may have moved on.
+1, really hard to talk on team without reference.
Task number can also be used for branches for easier references with Pull Requests.
Long IDs are really hard to remember.
Let’s have 2 examples.
PM: What’s the progress on task “743966722574403” and “743966722574387”?
Can’t even remember it without opening asana.
PM: What’s the progress on task “102” and “#88”?
This will be much easier to remember.
Hope the admin will look into this and put as top priority.
Yeah def a frustrating limitation not having Task IDs.
Similar to the lack of Markdown or even just basic Code block support. I have been holding my breath for some time.
I will continue to badger management to use something else every chance I get until these features are implemented. Unfortunately I am stuck using Asana for certain projects 
but make a point to voice my opinion to any that will listen 
Is there a way to automate a project ID number as part of the project name? For example, start each project with an auto increment number like “100001 (Project Name)” ?
Nope there is not, and neither is for the tassk, this has been asked quite often actually 
@Marie maybe you can merge the threads and Jonathan can upvote the other thread?
Have a good week Jonathan! Don’t leave us because of this! 
Thanks for flagging @Bastien_Siebman! I’ve gone ahead and merged this post with “Short task link with ID”. @Jonathan_King, you can go ahead and vote on this main thread!
Incrementing Short IDs for every Project is definitely a big must have!
Please implement soon.
Thanks
This would be incredibly helpful for our development process. We’ve migrated to asana which has been amazing, but this is one of the key pain points for our engineering team.
Thanks in advance for addressing!
I absolutely agree with James here.
I agree that the simplest and most flexible way to provide the user-specific functionality that I see requested in various threads in Asana Community is to build on the functionality that already exists - Custom Fields.
If there was a new Custom Field type like James suggested, EACH Asana user or organization could determine ‘their’ ideal ticket/numbering system. Additionally, as is already the case with Custom Fields, each project could choose to add the existing Custom Field, create a new one or not use any. It seems to me the foundation for this kind of functionality is already mostly in place?
Ideally this new field type would have three components: user defined prefix, number of auto-incrementing digits and starting number (last one is less important, just nice).
The result would be…
Result…
This seems flexible for everyone to adapt to their own business/system while at the same time does nothing to mess with the existing internal Task ID system that Asana has in place. To me, this would be a good solution.
We also really miss this feature. Posting an asana id doesn’t say anything since it’s too long to remember. A shorter name would me much easier.
I see that this issue is 1.5 year old already. What’s the status for this?
Hi Fredrik,
Welcome to the Asana Customer Experience - shouting into the void 
I was following a thread a while ago about HTML formatting and it was a similar experience, no roadmap or meaningful acknowledgement of the customer need. Then, one day, the feature appeared like magic. So there is some hope…
Liam
Hi @Fredrik_Gustafsson and thanks for your feedback;
We’re constantly working toward improving Asana (you can actually learn about all recent updates here), but unfortunately, we’re not always able to make things happen as quickly as users would hope. as you can imagine, we receive hundreds of feature request per month and have to prioritize requests based on a load of criteria. Rest ensured that we do monitor this thread closely, and have robust processes in place to digest and action feedback (you can learn more about it in this article). I’m keeping a close eye on this topic and will make sure to keep you posted as soon as I have an update!
All the best,