Cola is the smart messaging platform that makes life easier

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Cola is getting even smarter with help from third parties.
Cola is getting even smarter with help from third parties.
Photo: Cola

We could all use a personal assistant who’s there to make life that little bit easier, and thanks to Cola, the world’s first smart messaging OS, we can all have one.

Cola is designed to take care of all the small but important things you have to do throughout your day, like arranging meetings and managing to-do lists. And for the first time, it’s opening up to third-party services to become even more powerful.

Virtual assistants like Siri and Google Now are useful, but they’re limited in functionality, and not everyone likes talking to their phone. Smart messaging services solve this problem by giving you an assistant who’s just a text message away.

Messaging providers like Facebook and WeChat already offer smart assistants of their own, but Cola is different. Its intelligent Cola Bubbles work seamlessly alongside traditional SMS messages, so you can use Cola with anyone — even those who don’t have the app.

A simple Cola Bubble can arrange a meeting with a bunch of people without the inevitable back-and-forth that’s usually required to find a time that suits everyone. They can also allow you to share to-do lists to a team, then updates it when others claim or complete each item.

Cola also lets you carry out quick polls that help you make better decisions — like where to hang out this Saturday — and tells you where your friends and colleagues are when it’s time to meet.

What makes Cola really great is that unlike Siri and Google Now, it’s now open, so developers can create their own Cola Bubbles. The Weather Channel is the first to take advantage of this with a service called “How’s Your Weather?”

“We know that users want the most timely, accurate weather information possible and the Cola weather bubble allows users to share personalized, hyperlocal conditions with their contacts seamlessly and efficiently,” said Jason Sinnarajah, VP at The Weather Company.

You can download the Cola app from the App Store now, and if you’re interesting in building Cola Bubbles, you can find out more about the SDK on the Cola website.

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