Quantified Mobile

A month ago, we announced that we'd been been acquired by Conversocial. As we said then, over the next several months, the Hipmob technology stack will be integrated into the Conversocial platform. The current Hipmob product will be shut down.

Alternatives Customers have been our lifeblood since day one, so we want to make this as easy as possible for you to continue going about your day with minimal interruption. Conversocial.com is an excellent choice for enterprise companies to serve their social, mobile customers on social channels, which will include our Live Chat platform in the coming months Please reach out directly to [email protected] learn more. Otherwise, here is a list of services similar to Hipmob. The following list is for informational purposes and is not an endorsement by Hipmob of any of these services.

If you’re looking for social customer support, try https://www.conversocial.com!

Web based live chat:

www.olark.com

www.livechatinc.com

https://www.drift.com

Integrated Web & Mobile live chat:

https://www.helpshift.com

https://www.intercom.com

https://www.apptentive.com/

If you’re looking for something else, email [email protected] and we’ll do what we can to help.

30 days to switch your live chat

You now have 30 days until May 21 2017 to make the switch. On May 21, you’ll no longer be able to communicate with customers using the Hipmob platform.

60 days to get your data

You now have 60 days, until June 21, 2017 to download all your data (email [email protected] to get a download link). After 60 days, you will no longer be able to access your agent, customer & billing data, as it will all be deleted.

If you're like us and interested in getting more done, more quickly, without waste, and without stepping away, then knowing just how to send a fax from your browser is a huge step. Today we'll compare various services for sending faxes online, what they are good for, and how to get started. A spreadsheet with more detail is here.

eFax: the grandaddy of them all. Send and receive faxes online for $16.95/month.

GotFreeFax: Single page app that lets you send faxes for $0.98 for 10 pages, and cheaper from there.

FaxZero: Send faxes online for $1.99 per page. You can also send faxes for free with FaxZero branding on your cover page.

Scrypt: The only service we encountered that was truly built for enterprise, with HIPAA compliant faxing. Subscription pricing starting at $9/month.

SmartFax: At $6.95 for up to 250 pages each month, Smartfax had the cheapest monthly subscription that wasn't free, and comes with a 30 day free trial and international faxing available as a feature.

MyFax: Send (up to 100 pages) and receive (up to 200 pages) of faxes for $10/month.

BitCoinFax: Send and receive faxes, anywhere in the world, with very well enumerated prices. The only service that allows you pay with bitcoin (prices are quoted in dollars though)

TinyFax: The only iPhone app based faxing service we encountered. Also integrates nicely with Dropbox, Google Drive and Box. Starting at $0.60 a page.

Faxy: Send a fax for $15/page and receive faxes for $1/week. Novel blended pricing that doesn't constrain your receive volume.

FaxRobot: The cheapest and simplest per page faxing service we encountered, at $0.06/page.

HelloFax: A faxing, e-sign and document management suite with a free tier (5 pages per month), and subscriptions ranging from $9 - $39.99.

Here's a quick comparison of all the services across a few points.

Happy Faxing!

Hey there - we’re Hipmob. We help mobile developers and businesses increase conversions, and provide amazing customer support. We work with everyone from small startups to public companies - and our work has been featured on Forbes and CNBC. You can learn more here.

One heavily requested feature is the ability to see what your users see. We've been working on this for a while (it's called JumpJet and its in beta with a few early customers) but we've gotten a lot of questions from developers who want to implement screensharing or screencasting into their apps ASAP. We've answered these questions via email for a while, so we figured we'd share all our recommendations here for all to see. The reason you would do this is to get an even better sense of what your users are doing, provide customer support via screensharing, and run demos.

If you're interested in the following features - seeing what your users see and recording user sessions - remotely controlling your users' screens to guide users through your app - in app chat + audio - integrating screen recordings with Desk, Zendesk, Dropbox, and Salesforce

Then check out Jumpjet - it's in beta now, but we'll release it publicly later this year.. You can see a demo video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t8EWfooG34

Until then, here are 7 tools you can use for in-app screensharing and screencasting. Click here to see the full spreadsheet, which we'll update as new features and services are released.

In-app screensharing and screencasting is pretty new so not a lot of folks do it, and the ones that do, have some constraints. Here are the high points

If you're looking for Android, your only option at the moment is Bomgar

Bomgar and Apperian are targeted at the Enterprise, so accessing their SDKs might be difficult

Only Appsee publishes it's pricing. Showkit, Watchsend and Lookback have yet to release pricing, and Bomgar/Apperian dont publish pricing (as they're targeted at Enterprise)

Showkit, Bomgar and Apperian are for screensharing and co-browsing - a real time interaction between your team and your user.

Appsee, Watchsend, and Lookback are for capturing user flows and gestures.

Showkit (iOS only): Showkit, in their words, "is a mobile app SDK that enables audio & video conferencing, screen sharing, and gesture sharing." You could use this for a variety of use cases: in-app video and audio conferencing, screensharing for demos and walk throughs or in-app voice communication. Some sample apps are available here.

Bomgar : Bomgar bills itself as a remote support solution for the enterprise. This includes tools for desktop remote support for a variety of OS-s, as well as in-app screensharing for iOS and Android. As an enterprise tool, developers won't be able to try it or inspect the documentation without signing up, but if you're in a large organization, this might be the right tool for you.

Apperian (iOS only) Apperian bills itself as an enterprise mobility management solution, one part of which is in app remote control (enabling an agent to take control of an end users' app). The use case for this would be if you're part of an internal technology team supporting a large deployment of mobile devices (iOS specifically) to employees, who will be using internally built apps.

Screen-recording and Screen-casting

Appsee (iOS only): Appsee bills itself as visual app analytics; in practice this means that after installing Appsee into your app, you'll be able to see and record the steps your users are taking as they walk through your app, in real time. The use cases are beta testing and UI design and optimization. Appsee makes it easy to understand user behavior, but isn't useful for communicating directly with users.

Watchsend (iOS only): Watchsend records videos of your users interacting with your app, showing button presses, events triggered and uploading videos every time your app crashes. Similar to Appsee, the main use case is beta testing, but it's not real-time. In addition, you can't use it for communicating directly with your users.

Lookback (iOS only): Similar to Watchsend and Appsee, Lookback records user sessions of your app; so it's useful for UI optimization and understanding user behavior. The big difference is that in addition to recording the screen and gestures, it also captures the face and voice of your users, which play back alongside the screen recording.

ScreenMeet ScreenMeet is targeted at sales and account management - enabling teams to share app screens with clients and prospects. For customer support, your teams can also now share their issues with support agents in real time.

ScreenMeet's SDKs are available by emailing the team at [email protected]. Their consumer facing app (ScreenMeet) is available in both the Apple App Store and Google Play for Android.

Hey there - we're Hipmob. We help mobile developers and businesses increase conversions, and provide amazing customer support. We work with everyone from small startups to public companies - and our work has been featured on Forbes and CNBC. You can learn more here.

One question we get asked a ton is whether we support in-app group chat. The Hipmob platform supports limited peer-to-peer chat for mobile apps, but our core focus is on helping you communicate with your customers. Many developers however, are looking for easy ways to add group chat and chatrooms to a dating app, to social apps, and many others. To help developers looking for an answer, we created a listing of the resources we know about(And those that have been suggested to us) that help you add group chat to your mobile app or website. You can see the list here.

With this post, we'll go just a little bit deeper into each resource that provides either a backend or mobile SDK you can use in your iOS, Android, or HTML5 apps, so that you can make a more informed choice and be up and running in no time! If you've used any of these and have a strong opinion for or against any of them, we'd love to hear it! Email me at [email protected].

Quick Comparison of Messaging and Group Chat Services.

Mobile SDKs

Scringo Scringo features a mobile SDK that you can install with just one line of code. Adding this SDK to your app brings you either a full screen chat view and inbox, or a swipe in view. In the view comes an inbox, peer-to-peer chat, and group chat rooms. They're focused on making your app more social, and support iOS, Android and Unity (in beta) out of the box. Check them out here.

Quickblox Quickblox has a similar set of features as Scringo, but is set up in a modular fashion, and supports several more platforms. Supported platforms include iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry, and the Web. They also have a readily available REST API. Pricing starts at free, and goes up to enterprise, but they have no dollar amounts readily listed on site. Check them out here.

Backend and Messaging Services For Developers

Talkray Talkray is a YCombinator backed company that provides a developer API for adding group and p2p chat, as well as voice calls to your app. The Talkray developer API is the same one that powers Talkray's mobile apps that have over 20 million users for iOS and Android. Talkray's Developer API is in beta so pricing hasn't been announced - you can check it out here.

Firebase Firebase is also YCombinator backed - they're the team behind the popular website chat tool Envolve (for adding chatrooms to your website). Firebase supports iOS/OS X, Java/Android, Node.js, HTML and is accessible via REST API. Firebase also provides a ton of examples (you can see some here) so it's fairly easy to get started as a newbie. Pricing is based on data transfer, storage and connections, with a free plan. Paid plans start at $49/month, all the way up to $1499 and enterprise. Check them out here..

Since this was first published, Firebase has since been acquired by Google

Applozic Applozic is a chat & messaging SDK for mobile and web apps, powering real time messaging across any device, any platform & anywhere in the world. Their SDK also enables image, file, and location sharing and audio/video conversations. They're a more recent player than the others on this list, and customers include MagicBricks and Azuga. Paid pricing starts at $99/month (billed monthly) for 25,000 monthly actives, and goes all the way up to custom enterprise pricing for >100k monthly actives. Check them out here

Pusher Pusher is a hosted API for adding real time messaging to mobile and web apps. For you this means that you can have a messaging backend up and running in no time - it's really useful for chat, but, just like Firebase, you can do lots of other things as well. The service has quick start docs for iOS and Javascript, and a free plan. Paid pricing starts at $19/month and goes up $199 and enterprise. Check Pusher out here.

Pubnub Pubnub is a cloud service, similar to Pusher, for adding real time messaging to mobile and web apps. The big difference is Pubnub publishes a ton of SDK's out the box (you can see some here). Pricing for Pubnub starts at free, with paid plans starting at $15/month on up to $399 and enterprise.

Finally, you'll probably want to know which app development platforms they support. 5 of the 7 services support PhoneGap and Appcelerator, and all Support iOS and Android.

Supported App Development Platforms

Hope this helps. If you've used any of these and have more feedback, we'd love to share it with the community! Also, If you have any others to add, please share - we'll add them to the list. Here's a link to the Google Doc Spreadsheet with all the links and comparisons.

And if you're looking to amaze your customers with customer support, just drop us an email at [email protected], or check us out at www.hipmob.com!

Hey there - we're Hipmob. We help mobile developers and businesses increase conversions, and provide amazing customer support. We work with everyone from small startups to public companies - and our work has been featured on Forbes and CNBC. You can learn more here.

One question we get asked a ton is whether we support in-app group chat. The Hipmob platform supports limited peer-to-peer chat for mobile apps, but our core focus is on helping you communicate with your customers. Many developers however, are looking for easy ways to add group chat and chatrooms to a dating app, to social apps, and many others. To help developers looking for an answer, we created a listing of the resources we know about(And those that have been suggested to us) that help you add group chat to your mobile app or website. You can see the list here.

With this post, we'll go just a little bit deeper into each resource that provides either a backend or mobile SDK you can use in your iOS, Android, or HTML5 apps, so that you can make a more informed choice and be up and running in no time! If you've used any of these and have a strong opinion for or against any of them, we'd love to hear it! Email me at [email protected].

Quick Comparison of Messaging and Group Chat Services.

Mobile SDKs

Scringo Scringo features a mobile SDK that you can install with just one line of code. Adding this SDK to your app brings you either a full screen chat view and inbox, or a swipe in view. In the view comes an inbox, peer-to-peer chat, and group chat rooms. They're focused on making your app more social, and support iOS, Android and Unity (in beta) out of the box. Check them out here.

Quickblox Quickblox has a similar set of features as Scringo, but is set up in a modular fashion, and supports several more platforms. Supported platforms include iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, Blackberry, and the Web. They also have a readily available REST API. Pricing starts at free, and goes up to enterprise, but they have no dollar amounts readily listed on site. Check them out here.

Backend and Messaging Services For Developers

Talkray Talkray is a YCombinator backed company that provides a developer API for adding group and p2p chat, as well as voice calls to your app. The Talkray developer API is the same one that powers Talkray's mobile apps that have over 20 million users for iOS and Android. Talkray's Developer API is in beta so pricing hasn't been announced - you can check it out here.

Firebase Firebase is also YCombinator backed - they're the team behind the popular website chat tool Envolve (for adding chatrooms to your website). Firebase supports iOS/OS X, Java/Android, Node.js, HTML and is accessible via REST API. Firebase also provides a ton of examples (you can see some here) so it's fairly easy to get started as a newbie. Pricing is based on data transfer, storage and connections, with a free plan. Paid plans start at $49/month, all the way up to $1499 and enterprise. Check them out here..

Since this was first published, Firebase has since been acquired by Google

Applozic Applozic is a chat & messaging SDK for mobile and web apps, powering real time messaging across any device, any platform & anywhere in the world. Their SDK also enables image, file, and location sharing and audio/video conversations. They're a more recent player than the others on this list, and customers include MagicBricks and Azuga. Paid pricing starts at $99/month (billed monthly) for 25,000 monthly actives, and goes all the way up to custom enterprise pricing for >100k monthly actives.Their key differentiators: You can enable chat across your multiple app users, eg: lets say a car marketplace app have multiple apps, one for dealers and another for consumers. You can enable Contextual Chat with Analytics: Buyer-seller can chat for a specific topic/product (eg: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AppLozic/Applozic-iOS-SDK/master/images/contextBased.png) , all chats are tied with the topic and companies are able to run analytics and extract useful info. Check them out here

Pusher Pusher is a hosted API for adding real time messaging to mobile and web apps. For you this means that you can have a messaging backend up and running in no time - it's really useful for chat, but, just like Firebase, you can do lots of other things as well. The service has quick start docs for iOS and Javascript, and a free plan. Paid pricing starts at $19/month and goes up $199 and enterprise. Check Pusher out here.

Pubnub Pubnub is a cloud service, similar to Pusher, for adding real time messaging to mobile and web apps. The big difference is Pubnub publishes a ton of SDK's out the box (you can see some here). Pricing for Pubnub starts at free, with paid plans starting at $15/month on up to $399 and enterprise.

Finally, you'll probably want to know which app development platforms they support. 5 of the 7 services support PhoneGap and Appcelerator, and all Support iOS and Android.

Supported App Development Platforms

Hope this helps. If you've used any of these and have more feedback, we'd love to share it with the community! Also, If you have any others to add, please share - we'll add them to the list. Here's a link to the Google Doc Spreadsheet with all the links and comparisons.

And if you're looking to amaze your customers with customer support, just drop us an email at [email protected], or check us out at www.hipmob.com!

A while ago, we released browser notifications for Chrome and Safari. That wen't a long way towards making it possible to chat with customers from within the browser, and move off Adium and other 3rd party XMPP clients (we don't intrinsically have any problem with XMPP, it just caused confusion over time).

Today we're releasing in-webapp alerts. So now, regardless of your notification policy, if you're anywhere in our app, other than in the live chat console, you'll be notified of new messages, and be able to click directly in and continue the conversation. The only times you won't receive these messages, is when you're availability is set to "Away". You don't have to do anything - this already works.

One of our most powerful features is proactive chat, which allows you specify how your chat window should behave under certain conditions. For example, if you want the chat window to pop up on a specific page of your site, when visitors are viewing that page, here's how you would do it:

First, visit https://manage.hipmob.com/livechat/proactiverules

Next, create a new rule

Name the rule, and add a condition by clicking the blue "+" on the right:

For the "IF" statement (first part of the condition) select "Seconds on Page":

Select "Is More Than"

For the qualifier (second part of the "IF" statement), specify how long the user should be on that page. In our example, we use "20 Seconds". Afterwards, add a new action by clicking the blue "Plus" sign:

As the first part of the "Action, select "Once for each visitor":

Select "Expose the chat box", and Save the rule.

Ever so often, you run into a visitor or customer that rains abuse on your team. In those cases, we have you sorted. Hipmob gives you the ability to permanently ban specific visitors who are abusive, to prevent them from continuing to harass your team. You can do this in Hipmob by using our proactive chat. Here's how:

First, visit https://manage.hipmob.com/livechat/proactiverules

Create a new rule.

Name the rule, and add a condition by clicking the blue "+" on the right:

For the "IF" statement (first part of the condition) select "the Visitor/User":

Select "Has a matching tag"

Specify the tag. In our case, we just use "banned". Afterwards, add a new action by clicking the blue "Plus" sign:

Select "Every Time":

Select "End the conversation", and Save the rule.

And that's it. Make sure you set the rule to "ON". This rule says that if a user has the tag "banned" attached to their profile (your operators can use the usertag command to do this:

"#usertag banned"

For the last few months, we've been testing ratings in chat. Now, we're rolling them out widely to all our customers.

Ratings are a really simple way to know how you're doing. At the end of a conversation, your visitors will see a rating option in a chat window, as below:

You can see the rating of a particular chat by viewing the transcript, as below:

Ratings are from one to five stars, which are a pretty widely understood way to measure customer success. We plan to continue improving the ratings options; we'll expose them in more places, and make them easier for you to analyze over time. If you have questions, comments or feedback, we'd love to hear from you!

We updated our Slack integration with the recent launch of the Slack API and Appstore.

Hipmob now allows you to recieve notifications when your customers send you new chats to your site or mobile app. The notifications also include a link to the specific chat. this way, you can monitor a slack room and respond promptly.

Check out our Slack integration here.

Install it here.

We've updated our Zendesk integration, and made 2 key changes.

First, we've changed the way tickets are handled to better fit within the Zendesk interface.

Previously each chat was converted into a separate ticket, which meant replies from the same conversation turned into multiple tickets. Now, we track the most recent ticket for every user, and update that ticket with a comment if there is a new conversation/transcript. This essentially means that you'll be able to view subsequent conversations inside the same 'thread', rather than separately.

If the ticket has been marked as resolved or closed, we'll create a new one. This change is instantly available to any Hipmob customers who use Zendesk - you don't need to do anything to be able to access it.

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Second, we now allow public comments entered by your agents in the Zendesk interface be forwarded to Hipmob and then routed for delivery to the customer's chat window.

You can opt into this by visiting https://manage.hipmob.com/integrations/#/zendesk and enabling the 'Synchronize' option.

We expect to make some small changes over the next month, but please try it and let us know what you think. Please note that we rely on the Zendesk agent's email address to locate the user in Hipmob: only comments by agents that also have Hipmob accounts will be properly processed and forwarded.

Hey folks - hope you all had a good holiday break!

For several weeks during the fall, we had to take down our analytics service and rewrite it to handle the scale we're reaching. We're sorry it took so long to bring back up, but in the process we added a key new feature.

You can now download and analyze your customer support data yourself.

To download your data, first go to the dashboard, and hit download:

That should take you to a listing of every day you've had historical data, and the ability to download them all (or just specific, individual days).

We first launched in 2012 to make it easier for mobile developers to provide fantastic customer support. Since then, we've come along way - in addition to iOS and Android SDKs, we've published tools for the web, build an admin dashboard, added proactive chat, and more.

About a year ago we released our first iPhone app. It quickly went from being one of several clients, to being the only client that our customers who have iPhones, use. Today, we're announcing our Android App! Get it here.

The app is pretty simple, and builds on our experiences with (and your feedback from) the iPhone app. You no longer have to use Xabber, Yaxim, or any third party apps for Android (or for iOS for that matter)!

We notify you whenever a customer sends a message. You decide whether to answer.

You can see what customers are up to.

You can drill in deeper, and learn more about a customer.

And of course, you can chat with ease.

Get Hipmob for Android here.