Future O2 products & services. Get involved!

[Martin-O2]

Hey everyone 👋. 

On the O2 Community, we regularly connect members with teams at O2 to help test new/existing products and services. The feedback, comments and ideas that are shared by members have a huge impact on our decision making. Want to get involved? Check out ongoing and previous programmes below.

Ongoing trials, beta tests and programmes

O2 Priority Research Panel 📱

Currently, our most active private board on the community! Members engage with the team from O2 Priority to help develop the user experience of the Priority app. You'll join others in providing feedback, ideas and insights through various formats such as through the community, but also in virtual meetups if you want.

Check out this topic and then get in touch with a Community Manager (@Martin-O2 @Breanna @RafaC) to join.

Network Members Programmes 📡

Launched in July 2021, this programme allows us to tap into the network expertise and knowledge of our active community members. This private board of the community is where we share deeper updates and insights around the O2 network. This includes new and innovative or emerging technologies we're working on. 

Members can also use the information here to help themselves, friends, family and fellow community members with whatever network query they may have. Read this topic for more information and then message a Community Manager (@Martin-O2 @Breanna @RafaC) to join.

Previous programmes we've ran

With sincere thanks to any and all members who have been involved in any of these over the years, here are some of the trials and beta tests we've run on the O2 Community ⤵️.

O2 Aura trial

Community members collaborated together with our development team to improve Aura - the virtual assistant within the My O2 app - by testing user journeys and providing valuable insights into what they would like Aura to be able to help with. We like to ensure we're increasingly meeting our customers' needs with Aura, so who better to have asked than the O2 Community!

O2 Smart Home

This beta trial involved members testing out smart home products such as cameras, motion sensors, and smart plugs. Our triallists for this then provided feedback on functionality, reported bugs and other issues, and generally helped improve the customer experience of O2 Smart Home. Another great thing to come from this O2 Community trial was set-up and tutorial videos that some of our members created for it, which in turn helped other triallists.

Connected Car

In this beta trial, our O2 Community members connected a smart diagnostic tool to their car which provided the driver with insights into their driving habits. These insights then in turn helped the driver understand how they could change their driving habits to help save fuel, insurance costs, and view diagnostic data that could help keep their car running in peak condition. Our testers helped provide regular feedback, and thanks to that, the O2 Community directly helped iron out some teething issues and develop the product further.

Other trials and tests

In addition to the above, our Community members have also tested and helped with the development of various other products and apps ranging from music to messaging, some of which have developed into full products that are either being used by many people today, or had been used by many customers prior to that product or service closing.

Why do we run these trials and tests?

Here are just a few of the reasons we run these trials and tests:

• Important that we listen to O2 customers
• Deciding on what goes to market or not (e.g. Connected Car, above, did not)
• Improving existing products and services for all customers
• Invest time and money in the things that matter to customers

The community helps us make decisions faster and better. Our focus shifts to the most exciting projects and ideas. Members get to have fun, engage and discuss with one another, plus with teams at O2. We've seen excellent guides, help topics and more generated from being a part of these programmes.

If this sounds like something for you, get involved. We'd love for you to get a glimpse into what's happening behind the scenes 😊.

Who can join? How to get involved?

Firstly, you need to be an O2 Community member. Then, who and how many members we're looking for depends on the project. But, our current ones are ongoing projects that we're currently recruiting for, so don't hesitate to drop us a message if you're interested.

• More about the Priority Research Panel
• More about Network Members Programme

If you have any questions, let us know below! Thanks 🤗.

[jonsie]

O2 like to think they are innovative but they took large backward steps removing wifi calling from Aura, not to mention TUGo

Those were what many customers found a godsend, especially so in areas with very poor coverage

[gmarkj]

Quite why the TuGo app was mothballed I still don't understand...

[liggerz87]

I agree with @jonsie and @gmarkj  why tugo had to die 2 steps backwards 1 step forward kind of way

[BTN_EPS]

Hard to disagree with any of the comments here! O2 should not have got rid of these services before rolling out WiFi Calling to ALL customers (i.e. PAYG like Vodafone, EE and 3 do) and also enabling SMS and MMS/Visual Voicemail over WiFi Calling (EE does this for all of these, Vodafone and 3 only do it for SMS).

[viridis]

The problem that I have, in regards to future beta testing, is that many forum regulars, and / or those that have participated in previous beta trials, will be thinking "whats the point?"

O2 have a history, and a very uniform history at that, of dropping these schemes and ideas, like an unwanted Christmas jumper, normally just around the time when they are working perfectly and show some great promise.

I did o2 home, it was brilliant then poof! All that tech became e-waste and absolutely useless because the plug got pulled.

Same with tuGo, and I'm sure o2 drive.

I've beta tested some crazy stuff over the last few years, products, software and services. And none were finished off as much or as abruptly as o2s

[anticpated]

I used tugo for a while. Problem was it was not very stable. It was always writing to disk and sometimes not that useful when looking for certain transcript.

It had at least 12 months of conversation recorded and logged.

[TiagoxD]

We just need the Nero offer back on priority, not those trials 😅!