XR devices unlock a new world of productivity, accuracy and cost efficiency. By connecting frontline workers with remote experts, they can accelerate maintenance and inspections, reduce failure rates and save a small fortune on travel costs.

And with the right software on board, they become even more powerful.

That's why we're delighted to announce a new feature for SimplyVideo, our XR-first video collaboration platform. It's called Phonebook – and it promises to streamline training and support workflows like never before.

Let's take a good look at what it can do.

What is Phonebook?

Phonebook is just what it sounds like – a digital directory that helps connect your deskless workforce with peers, managers and remote experts.

It's currently available in two flavours: one for desktop PCs and one for RealWear XR devices. The desktop version is a web application, while the RealWear version is natively integrated into the SimplyVideo app.

For the wearer, it's as simple as it gets. With a few voice commands, they can search Phonebook for an available operative and dial into a call. It takes just a matter of seconds. Easy.

The web app acts like a communications hub. Operatives can manage their availability, track their colleagues' availability and dial into calls with a few clicks.

New versions will follow shortly for our other supported wearables.

What can it do for me?

Phonebook has many use cases. But one of its most compelling benefits is streamlining remote assistance.

Let's say a maintenance engineer is working on a piece of machinery. They come across a problem they haven't seen before. While they're following a digital instruction manual on their XR device, it doesn't say anything about this fault. They're stuck.

Luckily for our engineer, there's a team of remote experts waiting at HQ. All they have to do is open their SimplyVideo app (with a voice command) and send a request to start a video call with one of these remote experts. In no time at all, they'll be streaming high-quality, "see-what-I-see" video so the expert can see the problem and find a fix.

Problem solved – but only if the expert is available to take the call. Otherwise, it's back to square one. Our engineer has to spend valuable seconds waiting for another operative to dial in.

Phonebook closes this gap in the workflow. It gives XR users instant access to a team of experts – and lets them see who's available to offer help when they need it.

From our engineer's perspective, this means less faff and less time wasted. From a management perspective, it means a whole lot more: better productivity, lower failure rates and a sense of empowerment for the workers who are most often left in the dark.

And then there are travel costs. If you have a globally – or even nationally – distributed workforce, travelling to provide on-site support can quickly become eye-wateringly expensive.

SimplyVideo and Phonebook have the power to eliminate this expenditure entirely. Without our software, on-site support can feel like a costly and complicated logistical web. With Phonebook on board, it transforms into a simple, low-cost service, delivered remotely from a central location.

How does the feature work?

Let's go back to our stumped engineer. Their workflow might look a little like this:

• They come across a problem and realise they need help. So they open up the SimplyVideo application using a quick voice command (VC).

• They initiate a meeting

VC: 'join personal meeting'.

• They launch the Phonebook feature.

VC: 'open Phonebook'.

• They search for an operative. 

VC: 'search [name]'.

• Phonebook shows whether the operative is available to take the call. If they are, the engineer dials into the call.

VC: 'call [name]'.

And that's it! With just five quick voice commands, our engineer is on course for a speedy solution.

From the expert's point of view, things are just as simple. When the call is made, they'll get a notification to show that someone is dialling. They can choose to accept the call and provide support or – if they're busy – reject it.

What are Phonebook's features?

Phonebook is packed with productivity-boosting features – and new ones are constantly being developed by our team.

Here's a taste of what it can do:

• Voice control: users can search for operatives and initiate calls using the same kinds of voice commands they're used to.
• Availability indicators: it's easy for users to determine which operatives are available. And operatives can manually set their status to "busy" if necessary. This way, support is "opt-out", which helps to maximise time spent online.
• Call notifications: operatives will see a continuous pop-up call notification when a user attempts to dial in.
• 'Add expert': does a problem need a second opinion? Remote support staff can simply press the 'add expert' button to bring another operative into the call.
• Granular management: from the SimplyVideo dashboard, administrators can easily provision operatives and assign availability based on working hours.

When can I try it?

Phonebook is available now as a web app and for RealWear XR devices. It's free for SimplyVideo subscribers to download and use.

To try it yourself, simply deploy our latest RealWear app update and access the Phonebook web client from your user dashboard. It's easy to provision users and register devices from your dashboard too.

Please try it out and let us know what you think. We always welcome feedback from our users – positive or negative.

The feature will soon be available for all assisted reality devices – and we have lots of new features planned, so stay tuned for more updates.

Are you new to SimplyVideo? Get up to speed with our five-minute introduction – or register for a 30-day free trial and start connecting global teams today.