What to expect next for HeyOrca on mobile

One of the realities of being a social media manager is spending a huge chunk of your day glued to your phone. For better or for worse, that doesn’t look likely to change anytime soon. At HeyOrca, we are committed to making that time spent on your phone as productive and delightful as possible.

Hey! I’m Jonathan, and I am the Lead Mobile Developer here at HeyOrca. You might also know me from helping out our marketing team with social content: I’m the timid developer introducing inspo library in this Reel, and the in-house Newfoundland culture expert from this Reel (just don’t mention that last part to anyone from Newfoundland, there’s a whole “no true Scotsman” thing here). I’m here to give you a sneak peek behind our vision for HeyOrca on mobile.
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Our goals for HeyOrca on mobile

If you’ve ever used the HeyOrca mobile app, one complaint you might have had is “Why can’t I use [some HeyOrca desktop feature] on mobile?” That’s a completely fair complaint, and it’s one that we continue to work hard on fixing. Bringing all the features of HeyOrca on desktop to the mobile app is a top priority for us. We’re getting there, but we aren’t there yet.

However, simply recreating the exact same experience as desktop is not the endgame for HeyOrca on mobile. Phones produce a different experience than desktop, which gives us opportunities for unique solutions.

Consider for a moment the daily work of a SMM. That might include filming, editing, and posting content, monitoring social platforms to identify trends and respond to engagement, and, of course, communicating with clients and colleagues every step of the way.

Now, consider how much of that work is already best done on a phone. You probably already film most of your content on a phone. For editing, apps like CapCut are essential. And while you might use a social media management tool (may I recommend HeyOrca? 🤭) for most of your posting and replying to comments, there are still times where using social apps is required. And, lastly, you likely already use text messages, WhatsApp, Slack, email, etc. on your phone for work correspondence.

Given that, the mission for HeyOrca on mobile is to make all of that work easier for you. From finding trends and planning out your calendar, to filming and editing content, to stakeholder approvals, to posting on social platforms, through to monitoring performance and engagement—we want HeyOrca to be a helpful and convenient tool at every step. Our aim is to make HeyOrca become the central hub for all of your social media management needs on your phone.

Current roadmap

Okay, so it's all well and good to say we want to improve HeyOrca on mobile at every step of the way for SMMs, but what will that actually look like in practice? If we break it down a bit further, there are really three key areas we want to improve: content creation, content reports and monitoring, and collaboration. Let's talk about what those improvements might look like.

As always, you can check roadmap.heyorca.com for the official up to date product roadmap—this article serves as just a peek behind the curtain, but there are no official feature announcements here.

Content creation

If you've created posts with the HeyOrca mobile app, you've probably already noticed some limitations yourself. For instance, you can't create multiple posts at once for easier cross-posting. There are also parts of the UI that could be a bit simpler and more intuitive. We are working on both of those.

However, we also know that content creation doesn't start at filming. Curating the right trends for your brands and planning out your content are a critical step. That's why we started work on our inspo library feature to save posts as inspiration, so you can ensure you don't lose track of that awesome TikTok idea you saw. Over time, we plan to expand on this to help make it easier to use these to plan out your content calendar.

Once you get to the stage of filming and editing your content, our focus will be making it easier for you to work with the tools you already love at this stage. Think integrations with your favourite tools like CapCut or Canva.
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Reports and engagement

So, what about content reports and engagement? For this, the goal is just to catch up with the features already available on desktop. The next big focus will be on social inbox, which we think will be a lifesaver in mobile. Eventually, features like our custom reports, and social listening will be added too, but, for now, you can consider them to be further down the road and not on the immediate horizon.

Collaboration

We plan to improve collaboration across the board. That won't come as just a single feature, but the overall goal will be to reduce the disjointedness of your communication about social content with your teams and clients. Instead of having to juggle a combination of emails, Slack, text messages, etc., we want to make it simpler to communicate through HeyOrca. That can take a couple forms: 1) we will make it easier to communicate on content directly inside HeyOrca, by improving commenting features and having more helpful push notifications, and 2) we will make it easier to move your conversation out of HeyOrca, by sending direct links to content through your own preferred channels, be that email, Slack, WhatsApp, you name it.

Conclusion

So, to wrap it up, there is a lot planned for HeyOrca on mobile, and we are committed to making your experience in the app the best it can possibly be. It won't happen overnight, but you can rest assured we will try our hardest to reach our goals as quickly as we can. I look forward to continuing to make the app a more delightful experience.

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