Welcome back. Tech companies want to make holograms an everyday thing in the office. Many brands managed to improve the customer experience they provide–or at least maintain it—despite the difficulties of the pandemic. And Instagram is making it easier for companies to manage customer communications on its platform.

WeWork, Google and other tech companies are looking to take video calls to a new level: by making them holographic, Ann-Marie Alcántara reports. 

Google recently announced Project Starline, for example, a video-chat system to give people three-dimensional depth. And WeWork revealed a partnership with ARHT Media to bring holograms to 100 WeWork buildings in 16 locations around the world.

WeWork customers can use the hologram technology for a regular video call, to chat with a physical audience or a combination of both.

Holograms give remote interactions a more natural feel, said Hamid Hashemi, chief product and experience officer at WeWork.

But analysts aren't convinced that we’ll all soon start to take our meetings in 3-D form, citing the cost, complexity and equipment involved. Holograms might be best suited for recorded events or seminars, said Kanishka Chauhan, principal research analyst at Gartner.

A number of brands managed to improve their customers’ experience over the past year despite the obstacles thrown in their way by the pandemic, Katie Deighton writes for the Experience Report.

Twenty-one percent of brands improved their customer experience in the 12 months through April, 67% held their ground under the tough conditions and just 12% saw their experience slide, according to a study from Forrester Research. The market research firm’s rankings determined that petcare brand Chewy offered the best customer experience in 2021.

Scores in Forrester’s CX Index had been steadily rising before the pandemic, but it wasn’t clear whether the tumult of 2020 would interrupt that, said TJ Keitt, a principal analyst at Forrester and lead author of the report.

“You may have assumed that because everything was thrown off-kilter last year people may have had degraded customer experiences,” Mr. Keitt said. “But that didn’t happen.”

Instagram is opening the gates for businesses to integrate the messages they get from consumers on its platform into the tools they already use to manage customer communications, Ann-Marie Alcántara reports.

Companies large and small increasingly rely on third-party tools to manage their customer communications across a range of channels including email, text messages and social media. Instagram has been a major missing link, especially as the app became more of a shopping destination.

That left companies grasping for details such as order history when customers contacted them on the platform.

Instagram’s new tool is meant to help customer service agents and social teams get a more unified look at their increasingly digital customers.

“We think that people are just going to message businesses on Instagram more and more,” said Ankur Prasad, director of product marketing for Facebook and Instagram’s business messaging.

Apple announced a raft of new features set to arrive this fall, including “Find My AirPods Pro” and the ability to store driver’s license information on devices. [WSJ]

Tinder made it easy for users to block everyone they already know in real life. [Input]

Personalized nudges may be one way to get people to adopt stronger passwords. [WSJ]

How to design user experiences that don't create anxiety. [UX Collective]

Pinterest added a feature that lets users save products to a shopping list. [Digiday]

In-store sampling is making a return. [Ad Age]

Meet Lisa Smith, the designer behind the rebrands of Burger King and Chobani. [Fast Company]

Companies like WeWork are redesigning the office for the touchless era. First up: QR-code-powered coffee machines. [Business Insider]