Don't just make an app.
Make an impact.
Make a connection.
Make a difference.
Make it last.
Make it unique.
Creating an app is about showing a communication concept, about offering captivating content, features that make life easier, creativity… It’s about connecting emotionally with your users, about understanding their behavior and about guiding them all the way.
Please watch the video on the right to see what you can do with Twixl.
Twixl Publisher provides a complete mobile publishing package that can be used either as an all in one solution or brick by brick.
It is a:
- Content creation tool.
- App creation tool.
- Content distribution & management solution.
We offer the Twixl Reader SDK that provides the capability of displaying a Twixl publication in custom made apps. We have different APIs to connect with our Twixl Distribution Platform and to integrate with a custom entitlement server. We allow DIY storage so publishers with high volume downloads can manage their distribution cost even better.
Twixl Publisher also integrates with workflow systems and automation tools like WoodWing Enterprise and Enfocus Switch.
- Create native apps for iOS and Android, for both tablets and phones.
- Publish to mobile and to the web.
- Send push notifications to guide your users.
- Let your users share their content.
Twixl lets you create native iOS and Android apps. On iOS this can be an App Store or an Enterprise app. An app can either be tablet only, phone only or universal. Twixl apps are platform-based. The content is stored on the Twixl Distribution Platform and pushed into the app when the reader requests it. You can organize the interface according to your needs and make your content accessible from that interface. Twixl offers different options to save content offline and to manage the size of the app. Every app can also be made available for viewing in a browser. Based on the tablet layout. This allows you to publish your content to desktop or laptop users. This makes social sharing extremely powerful. Your user can immediately share the content he is reading providing direct access to it without the need to first download the app. Twixl Push notifications allows ‘deep linking’, which means they’ll bring your users directly to where you want them to arrive in your app.
- Layout the interface of your app just the way you want to.
- Guide your user through your app.
- Create your custom navigation.
The great thing about Twixl is that it gives you so many capabilities to organize how to introduce your content to your users. The concept of ‘browse pages’ lets you create an interface for your app and create a custom layout. You can create either one ‘browse page’,or you can create multiple browse pages, if you have a lot of content in your app. You can even personalize the content based on the reader’s profile. A special navigation menu (called ‘hamburger menu’) lets you create list of quick access links to anywhere inside (or outside) your app. You are in control all the way during the creation process and what is so fantastic about this, is that you can update the interface and the navigation instantly without the need to publish an update of the app itself.
- Create responsive HTML-based content.
- Integrate web services.
- Create InDesign-based content and enrich it with our plugin.
- Publish PDFs, images, movies, ...
An app created with Twixl can contain different types of content items. You can publish HTML-based content, InDesign-based content enriched with our awesome plug-in, plain PDF content, images, and movies. In addition, you can also easily include any type of web content, whether online or embedded. This is often used to integrate services in the app. Content can be pushed from external content sources like a CMS or content can also be pulled from RSS feeds, so that every new article in the feed will automatically appear in the app. You can easily make changes to your app on the fly, and new content will always be available to your users instantly.
At Twixl, we give storytellers the tools to make mobile content look beautiful right out of the box – without knowing a line of code.
Entitlement
Lets you manage who can access which content, and for how long. This can be used to manage subscribers of a magazine but also allows companies to define access based on users and groups criteria.
Content segmentation
Using advanced scripting you can filter the content that’s displayed in the app, based on a number of properties like language, geolocation, categories, etc.
Integration API
Twixl Publisher lets you easily integrate with different solutions for automated production flows and lets you push content to the Twixl Distribution Platform and into your app.
Automated content sources
Lets you integrate RSS feeds or news feeds from your web site, or basically any site, in your app. This could also be a YouTube or Vimeo Channel. It gives you the ability to create a constant flow of content in your app and so to offer added value in your app in a very easy way.
Browser client
The ‘browser client’ brings the whole article-based app experience to the web, all your content, and your browse pages. All content can be published to both your app and your web site. All interactive elements are supported, all updates are instant.
Custom URL
By default the content of the browser client is accessible from a Twixl domain, ‘https://browserclient.twixlmedia.com', but you can setup an optional ‘custom domain’ so it appears as if it is published on your own domain.
Articles vs Collections
An article is a content item. This can be an HTML article, an InDesign-based article, a PDF, an image or a video. A collection is a set of articles presented as a group.
Instant update
The configuration of your app is fully server-driven, so any platform change to your interface or your content is reflected in your app and on your web site on the fly.
Multiple content sources
Create responsive HTML-based content, integrate web services, create InDesign-based content and enrich it with our plugin, publish PDFs, images, movies, integrate with a CMS or an HTML editor.
Customizable user interface
With the advanced cell and grid layout features, you can create your app interface just the way you want to, and create a custom layout to guide the user through your app.
Hamburger menu
An optional navigation menu lets you create list of quick access links to anywhere inside (or outside) your app.
The nice thing about this menu is that you are in control, you define the layout and you can define which items you want to put in there. It can be like the navigation bar or it can serve as a secondary navigation.
Table of contents
Each collection of articles can have its own table of contents. The table of contents will show the metadata you provide per article in a chronological order. The metadata consists of thumbnails and textual content.
The setup is slightly different depending on the type of content (HTML, InDesign, PDF)
Bandwidth & Storage
The Twixl Distribution Platform infrastructure uses the Microsoft Azure platform, and has five different storage locations around the world. In addition, it also relies on the Akamai CDN (Content Delivery Network) to ensure optimal download speeds from any location worldwide.
Download collections for offline access
This feature lets users choose to download one or more collections for easy offline access. Users can also manage the content that’s stored on their device, and remove certain content to free up space.
As a publisher, you decide whether to offer this to your readers or not. If you don’t, your content will only be accessible when a reader is online.
Full offline mode
If you enable this feature for your app, all content of all collections will be downloaded completely at first startup. Every time a user returns to the app and he’s online, all new and/or updated content will be downloaded automatically.
Auto logout support
When using entitlement in your app, there is an optional feature called ‘auto logout’. This means users will be logged out when they quit the app or when their device goes to sleep. This is an extra security feature for very sensitive content.
Video
In an article-based app you can also publish video content (.mp4 files). In addition, you can also embed a video file (mp4) in your browse pages, or in InDesign or HTML articles, or you can also stream your video. A Vimeo or YouTube clip can easily be embedded in HTML articles, or in InDesign articles, using a web viewer.
Horizontal and/or vertical orientation
When creating a new app, you can select whether to support portrait only, landscape only or both orientations for the browse pages. This creates clarity for the user on how to use the app. Navigating between different articles is done by swiping horizontally. Navigation to the next page in the same article is done by swiping vertically.
Preview and share
The Twixl app, a free download from the app store, lets you to test and share the apps you are creating. When you have an app project on the Twixl Distribution Platform, you can scan a QR code to preview it with the Twixl app.
Custom URL schemes
Custom URL schemes let you trigger specific actions starting from a browse page, the hamburger menu or an article. This can be in relation to entitlement, to navigate through the content, to activate the paywall, to activate a search, to launch a third-party app, to make a phone call, …
Push notifications with deep linking
You can send an unlimited number of push notifications to the users of your app, and either send them automatically when publishing new content or also manually.
Social sharing
Any article can be shared from the app via messaging, email, Twitter or Facebook. A custom sharing message can be defined, but by default the app will provide a link to the article in the browser client.
At the same time, if people on a mobile device navigate to the browser client of your app, a download link for the app will be displayed.
In-app purchase & Subscriptions
Twixl Publisher supports in-app purchases on a collection level, both time-based and all access subscriptions.
Encrypt PDF files
The encrypt PDF option will encrypt PDF files downloaded to an Android device so the reader can only open it from within the app, and if he has a subscription or paid for the issue.
Full text search
You can include search functionality in your app. You can integrate search in your articles or add it to the hamburger menu. It will display a search field and search all metadata and all indexed text in your app (for all articles the reader has access to). From the search result one can quickly navigate to the relevant article.
Built-in analytics
All apps offer built-in analytics reports. Twixl analytics require zero configuration, and track how readers (anonymized) use your app, which articles they read, which collections are looked at. They allow you to have a good understanding of how readers interact with your content.
Interactive features
Twixl provides a plugin for Adobe InDesign to enrich the articles you create. All layout and enrichment work can be done in InDesign, in a single creation environment, making it easier to create your content.
InDesign
Alternate & liquid layout
Using InDesign's alternate and liquid layout features, you can easily generate a portrait version based on a landscape version, a 16:9 Android layout after you created a 4:3 iPad layout, or even a special layout for phones. Twixl Publisher allows you to generate the alternate layout for all your articles with a single click.
Video Indesign
Video or audio files can be embedded in your InDesign article. Movies need to be H.264-encoded mp4 files, sound files need to be in MP3 format.
Unleash the full power with 3rd party integration
You create your content and Twixl facilitates your output to mobile and to web. You manage the access and the presentation of your content and we make it as easy as possible for you to get your content into your app.
CMS integration
Twixl Publisher offers the ability to integrate seamlessly with different solutions for automated production flows and thus to push content to the Twixl Distribution Platform and into your app. Our powerful “Integration API” allows you to integrate with a number of solutions that we support out of the box, but using that same API, basically any type of CMS could be setup to push content to the Twixl Distribution Platform.
The platforms that are supported out of the box are:
Canvasflow
Developed specifically for content creators, Canvasflow is a cloud-based, responsive HTML content authoring and management tool. You can create, design and publish to multiple channels from a single location and one of the output channels is to a Twixl app.
WoodWing Enterprise Aurora
WoodWing Enterprise Aurora is a multichannel publishing solution to fully optimize the process of content creation, management, sharing and distribution. It comes with an HTML editor that lets you to publish to a multitude of channels, one of them being Twixl.
vjoon K4
Is a collaboration and production system for creative and editorial teams to publish to print, web and mobile. With vjoon K4, customers can create HTML-based articles, custom layouts or a mixture of both on various display formats and upload them in an automated way to a Twixl app.
Caymland M4
Is a marketing automation engine. It monitors what your users do throughout your website, your app, and all the digital communication tools you are using. It analyses your data and finally it makes your content fit the context and your communication meaningful and personalized.
Enfocus Switch
Twixl media is an integration partner for Enfocus Switch. Twixl Publisher can be integrated in Switch workflows at no extra subscription cost.
Want to integrate with Twixl?
Using our Integration API, any experienced web developer can integrate any type of CMS with the Twixl Distribution Platform. The API is fully documented and can be used even with a trial account. If you develop a connector for a specific CMS, do let us know, so we can spread the word in our network. Every development may be custom initially, but if you create your integration in such a way that it is generic enough, you can start to develop an out of the box integration.
Plug-in for Adobe InDesign
With this plug-in you can enrich your InDesign-based content.
The Twixl app
This free app store app lets you preview what you are creating in real time on your device, and lets you share it with others.
The macOS builder app
The macOS app creates the app builds for your native apps for iOS and Android. This can be a phone only, a tablet only or a universal app. It saves all your app settings to make it even easier to update your app.
Twixl Distribution Platform
On the Twixl Distribution Platform you define and manage the interface of your app. You decide who has access to which content, you send push notifications and you monitor the usage of your app. But above all you publish your content, whether it’s HTML-based, InDesign-based, video or audio content or just a PDF.
