UserVoice Launches Customer Service SDK on the Android Platform

UserVoice, a provider of solutions for managing in-app user engagement, feedback, and support, today launched the UserVoice SDK for the Android operating system.

The new UserVoice SDK allows developers to support end users, engage users in improving products, and ultimately retain more users by engaging them in app, all with a single line of code.

The UserVoiceSDK lets companies do the following:

• Keep customer support in app, where they want to keep their users;
• Reduce spam and blank messages resulting from traditional support mail links;
• Help customers instantly answer their own questions with Instant Answers, thereby lowering support costs;
• Enable application developers to manage large amounts of data, including app versions and runtime information, to help route and respond to requests and increase the percentage of issues resolved with the first response;
• Engage customers when and where they engage with companies;
• Allow customers to see ideas from other users rather than posting in a vacuum;
• Enlist customers to vote on the best ideas; and
• Enable companies to respond to their communities en masse.

The UserVoice SDK has been available on Apple's iOS since November 2012, and companies that have deployed it have seen a 75 percent drop in junk tickets and blank email requests. Customers, such as PicCollage, that are leveraging both SDKs, have seen up to a 49 percent reduction in support requests thanks to Instant Answers search-as-you-type technology that serves up answers instantly by pulling from companies' knowledge bases.

"We pride ourselves on understanding our users. One way to understand them is to meet them; the other more scalable way is through in-app support, which UserVoice helps us do," said Ching-Mei Chen, head of product and a co-founder of PicCollage, in a statement.

Richard White, CEO and co-founder of UserVoice, notes that there has been a surge in mobile app usage and continued growth of the Android market.

"One of our number one requests from customers was to build the UserVoice SDK for Android," he says. "Android continues to build its market share, and UserVoice wants to empower customers to reach and communicate with their users wherever they are."

Though the UserVoice SDK currently only supports Android and iOS, White says support for other platforms is possible. "We'll go anywhere there's strong developer demand. There's some demand for a Windows Phone, but it's not on our immediate roadmap. If demand increases, that could change," he says.

The UserVoice SDK covers tablets and smartphones running iOS version 5 and higher and Android version 2.2 and higher.

White also notes that the UserVoice SDK can be applied to many verticals. "Our data shows that it's useful in any vertical--from gaming to productivity--but most valuable to free or freemium apps over paid apps simply because they tend to have much larger install bases," he says.

Those install bases are 10 times larger on average, he adds.

The SDK, he also notes, is in direct response to consumer demand. "With the shift towards subscription-based businesses and in-app purchases, we're seeing developers having to put more energy into customer support and gathering customer feedback to stay competitive."

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