Firstly, a huge thank you for being part of our journey so far. Starting a business in a hugely competitive industry like telecommunication isn't an easy thing to do and it's with the support of organisations like yours that we've been able to craft a product that we hope makes your days better, and every phone call a Cradled Conversation!
We've grown a lot since we started, and the friendly, light hearted but overly digital and techy feel of our original branding started feeling less and less like who we are. We have been wanting to make this change for over a year and feel we have nailed it with our new Cradle brand.
So! What's changing you might ask? Well, things are always changing of course, and this change is not only a visual one, but one that we've bundled together with a bunch of performance improvements for all users of Cradle. What isn't changing is the friendly voice on the end of the phone and our commitment to helping you be better and be human, when it comes to communication.
A big shout out to Emme, Simone and the rest of the Auckland team at Maynard Design, who carried us along on this journey. It was at times frustrating (for them and us!) - we aren't branding experts!
We hope you'll love you new brand as much as we do. This reflects who we have become and who we aspire to be for you - the best way to have all of those important conversations with your customers.
Cheers,
James
So, what are the changes?
We have started by applying all this brand means to our most popular apps. Starting today, you'll be able to use the new Cradle applications on Windows (within about 36 hours), macOS and iOS. Over the coming weeks we will be rolling out the new experience on our other platforms, including a refreshed web-based admin site. There will be a period where things are a mixture of both Cradle brands, but rest assured it's still us sitting behind them all!
The experience - the way you interact with our apps - is an improvement on what you're used to, but will definitely be familiar. We have simplified navigation on all of our apps by moving navigation down to the bottom of the app. You can still call directly from the call history tab (left-most tab) by simply typing the number or name of the person you want to speak to and hitting enter or return.
Performance wise, we have spent over a month improving the performance of these apps, so it's not just a lick of paint! The apps will be faster and less likely to slow down as the day goes on. We continue this work and still have lots to do to ensure that your experience is as slick as we can make it.
A sneak peek
What else has changed?
We have a bunch of other small changes, many in response to recent feedback from you, including:
Your team are now ordered based on their presence, so those you're able to call are at the top
Your team's presence is now easier to see, and spelt out in words underneath each person's name
Due to this change, the role your team are in is now accessible by clicking on the name to expand out the row. As always, you can search your team and transfer lists by role or name on both of these pages
You can hide all those pesky audio notifications! Click on the audio settings button, and click Hide Audio Notifications at the bottom of the menu. Remember to ensure you have the correct settings or you could end up sharing a phone call with the office!
How do I get it?
To get onto the new version of the apps, you'll need to follow a few different steps.
macOS
If the macOS version doesn't automatically find the new version when you start up this morning, you might need to follow these steps.
Uninstall the old version by opening the Finder (smiley face), finding your Applications folder, and dragging Cradle to the bin
Finally, drag the new Cradle to your applications folder and double click to open
Please! macOS may say that Cradle wants to access items in your keychain. If you have just installed the new version, this is ok. Put in the password for your computer and click 'Always Allow'. Don't hit Return, or the setting won't save permanently.
Windows
If you're currently on version 1.15.7 (from the MS Store), your app will automatically update. You can open the MS Store and look for updates to get the latest version.
If not, you need to uninstall your current version and download the latest version from the MS Store. We have made a step by step video guide for this process here:
