The year 2020 was the most successful year in the history of our start-up. Despite the Corona crisis, we gained more new customers than ever before. Especially in the USA, many new exciting customers and use cases have emerged for us (more on this shortly..). We were so busy with new projects and customers that we didn’t get around to providing the usual outlook for the new year at the end of the eventful year 2020. We would like to make up for this herewith. Because we can tell you this much: it’s going to be exciting!
So what is our focus this year? What new features can we expect? Where is our platform heading? We’ll try to provide some answers below.
Content-driven community
Overall, we plan to expand the possibilities in connection with exchange, conversation and user-generated content. On the one hand, we will be using lessons learned from last year. On the other hand, we will also try out new things that make engagement with our own users even more exciting and diverse. In particular, we will expand the possibilities related to chats, live video and comments in the newsfeed. Imagine being able to promote chat groups in the News Feed. Or show when a chat group has a lot of activity for a certain content.
Threads
Overall, we’re planning to expand the possibilities in the We’re introducing a new map type that starts with discussion rather than content: the good old thread that we all know from forums or platforms like Reddit. This can be phrased as a question or bundle an editorial topic. A list of threads in a single mix is its own forum, so to speak. In the middle of your own app, combined with news and content. The perfect tool to make the exchange even better, even more dynamic and to integrate it flexibly in the app at the ideal places. Expanding the context with exchange, conversation and user-generated content. On the one hand, we will be using lessons learned from last year. On the other hand, we will also try out new things that make engagement with our own users even more exciting and diverse. In particular, we will expand the possibilities related to chats, live video and comments in the newsfeed. Imagine being able to promote chat groups in the News Feed. Or show when a chat group has a lot of activity for a certain content.
User Generated Content
The possibility of how and where you can post content or how the community can do this, we will fundamentally revise and improve. Not least because of the new card types, there are more options here. This also affects the sharing extension, which allows sharing content from other apps. Performance and UX will also take a big leap forward. Posting and sharing will be even more fun!
Broadcast Chat and Automation
Our chat already offers comprehensive options for organizing live communication in your own app and connecting with the community or individual users. In 2020, we have already added some features, for example, it is now possible to automatically add new users to a chat group or to link this to certain criteria. Apart from groups, however, 1:1 connections are often particularly interesting, because they create trust and intimacy. Accordingly, there will be a possibility to contact new users (or all of them) via automated 1:1 chat message.
Live Video
It is already possible to insert any live video feed simply using the HLS streaming URL and, for example, to pin it at the top of the news feed. Here we extend the possibilities to link live videos with a chat and present them at other places in the app.
PDFs
Another map type will be added: the good old PDF! This can be easily uploaded and conveniently navigated or read in the app. We may not be big fans of this not necessarily mobile format on the Internet, but it is simply useful in many cases. Moreover, the additional integration of a PDF reader opens up further possibilities for integrating entire print products in the form of an ePaper in a good and easy-to-read way. This is especially interesting for publishers and media providers who want to connect a news community with their print product.
More integrations
Of course, we are also planning new integrations or an extension of existing integrations. The Slack integration will probably be upgraded and we are also working on an MS Teams integration. In addition, there will be standardized interfaces and plugins for WordPress and other XML formats, which are common in large press databases, for example, and are therefore widely used. So it will be even easier to import and structure content.
Audio Rooms
2020 got off to an exciting start here in Germany with the sensational launch of a new social audio app called Clubhouse. We don’t want to give too much away, but we’ll just say that we’ve been working on this topic with some US customers since late fall. Audio Rooms, which allow users to talk live via audio in the app is a feature we will soon see in many apps. We think that we will also be able to offer this as an option to our customers in the course of the year. If you find this exciting – please contact us directly!
Bookmarks and search
Remembering and saving content as well as browsing content and maps will soon be available. Both things that are high on the wish lists of many customers. Searching comments and threads (see above) may also follow.
Personalization push messages
Push notifications are an important USP for many apps. We have just added the possibility to manage push notifications for individual chat groups. Further personalization options will follow. The extension of push notifications with an own UI as well as image teasers is also planned.
More Apple-like privacy
This year, Apple will expand the possibilities for its users to control which data is collected and forwarded by apps. We think this is great, even if it doesn’t make life any easier for some app marketers. Either way, we will adjust the tracking options on our site so that users cannot be tracked here unnecessarily and that no special query is necessary. The vast majority of users rightly do not agree to data collection anyway. So we think this should be left alone. Data protection and privacy have the highest priority for us and we find Apple’s initiative in this direction important.
This was a small preview of our planning for this year. Of course, things can always change or be postponed. Instead, new, different points are often added. Either way, we promise: it remains exciting and goes full speed ahead!