CliqTags Beacon Reader has been replaced by CliqTags Spotter.
CliqTags Beacon Reader together with CliqTags provides a seamless beacon experience for context-based coupons, offerings, contests, surveys, entertainment, instructions, or any other static or interactive information to be consumed on a smartphone or in cases tablets, to people inside or just outside shops, malls, conference centers, exhibit halls, airports, train stations, bus stops, museums, hospitals, real estate, points of interest etc.
This without having to write a line of code, nor having to know much about beacons and content management either.
Features and Benefits
- A unique solution for easy to use beacon-based content management without any development required what-so-ever. There are no SDKs or APIs to learn, because they are simply not needed.
- We’ve strived to make the beacon experience as simple yet functional as possible, with a minimum “one click” path to results for users.
- Enhance the experience in retail, conferences, healthcare, real estate etc.
- Fully compliant with Apple’s iBeacon means that you have a maximum choice of beacons for competitive prices and with different form factors and features.
- Beyond the physical installation of beacons, you only need to spend time on the content you want conveyed, triggered by those beacons.
- You can even configure that content via a tablet on location, via a browser or the CliqTags Admin app, speeding up the process even further.
- The app will only alert the user when there’s any content to convey. If not it will be completely silent.
- Several sites can have the same IDs, providing a palette of information to a customer.
- Sites can be selectively active over time (via manual activation or via scheduling), e.g. for daily offerings.
- It’s possible to match sites on wildcard major and minor IDs, as well as proximity, e.g. for a store’s main site, general information about a store or other venue etc, transparent to the user.
- Major and minor IDs can also be stacked, so that any one of several beacons can trigger a certain site.
- Existing sites can become beacon-enabled with a minimum of work (just add a beacon/site association).
- A site can be anything from a single coupon, contact sheet or similar up to a complete site with multiple and interactive pages.
- Sites created for beacons can also be accessed via QR Codes, NFC tags, SMS, e-mail etc, enabling multi-channel access to information.
- Time from beacon detection to showing related content is optimized, typically taking a second from one to the other.
The App as Window to Information
The app for iOS and Android looks like this (screenshot of the app on an iPhone running iOS9), listing detected content as clickable banners, that can include text, pictures, videos etc, showing the latest detected content at the top. Clicking on a banner immediately performs the action (going to a site or performing a function). No questions asked.
Usage
The app will show banners for content once a beacon has been detected. Those banners can in themselves be coupons, pictures, videos, pricing information etc.
When such a teaser is clicked, either a site is shown, or a function is performed (e.g. making a call). The latter immediately without server communication.
This presentation shows how you configure and use a beacon with CliqTags:
Beacon/Site Associations
It’s easy to make beacon/site associations via CliqTags: Fundamentally just choose UUID and set major and minor ID. Fill in the other fields to your liking. Hover to get popups describing what each field is used for.
Beacons
We partner with BeaconZone regarding beacons. They have a wide range of beacons for different situations.
Access Methods
Beacons complement the other access methods in CliqTags’ eco system for multi-channel mobile content:
Deployment
This presentation goes through the basic steps needed to deploy a beacon solution, whatever the scenario.
The Technology
Without going too deep into the details, CliqTags Beacon Reader detects BLE-based beacons (currently iBeacon) and maps their IDs (UUID, major ID and minor ID, collectively unique for a certain beacon) and proximity (far, near or immediate) to CliqTags sites as well as optional URL scheme semantics (similar in function to QR codes and NFC tags).
CliqTags Beacon Reader on a Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact, with a variety of beacons
Support for URL scheme semantics (http:, mailto:, tel: etc) enables performing local phone actions like making a phone call, sending SMS or e-mail, go to any site, see a map etc. Things that can also be achieved via CliqTags sites, but more directly and quicker this way.
For the overall capabilities of CliqTags, please see e.g. Arguments and Features.
Availability
CliqTags Beacon Reader is no longer available for download, and is being replaced by CliqTags Spotter, that also supports geofencing. Contact us about CliqTags Spotter.
Custom versions of the app, as well as integration of the functionality in other apps, are offered on a case by case basis. Things that can be customized are e.g. custom UUIDs, branding, graphics, colors, custom functionality etc. We can also handle the publishing process.