Convo for iOS gets Siri reminders, 3D Touch, and Split View on iPad Pro

Enterprise social networking app Convo today is announcing new features for its iOS app.

The users have spoken, and they have said they want Split View on the iPad Pro — so Convo can be open right next to another app, like Safari. Now that’s possible.

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The app now supports the 3D Touch feature of iOS 9, which lets you push down on a certain thing and instantly start doing something that ordinarily would be more complex. You’ll be able to see your notifications, start a new post, and see direct messages when you 3D Touch the Convo icon on the home screen.

But the really fascinating thing that Convo has done, that could distinguish it from other work communication applications (think VMware’s Socialcast, Yammer, Facebook at Work, and even Slack) beyond integrations with the latest iOS features, is turn Siri into an assistant that gives you reminders — right when you’re looking at the important thing on your screen. Tap the Convo icon in the resulting alert, and you’ll get a deep link right into the Convo post, or even a given comment.

“Business apps, obviously, in general have kind of ignored Siri,” Convo founder and chief executive Faizan Buzdar told VentureBeat in an interview.

This isn’t something that rides on top of the Siri software development kit (SDK) that Apple will be releasing, Buzdar said. Instead, it uses Siri functionality that Apple exposed last year, something akin to Apple’s Handoff feature that lets you transfer calls and websites between an iOS device and a Mac.

But over time, Siri could become even smarter by tapping the data repository that is Convo, which employees use to communicate with one another.

“This is the foundation of stuff that’s going to come next,” Buzdar said.

Buzdar uses Apple’s CarPlay, and his company has put together a video showing what might be possible when Siri in the car can really start to understand natural-language queries and answer questions after thinking, not just delivering an answer to a question based on clear and structured data.

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Check out the video below:

Convo started in 2012 and is based in San Mateo, California. More than 16,000 companies use the service. Investors include Morgenthaler Ventures.