One of the most requested features in Gecko’s history just went live. And it’s the kind of update that doesn’t just improve the product, it opens the door to using Gecko in ways that weren’t really possible before.
But before we get into it, a bit of context.
Last year we made a big call. We migrated our chat and bot system into the main Gecko platform, bringing everything under one roof. It was the right decision, but it took focus. New features took a back seat while we made sure the migration went smoothly. That work is done. Q1 is the first real sign of what’s possible now.
Here’s a quick overview of everything that shipped, or read on for the full picture.
Your teams can finally have their own space
You can now configure channels so that only certain teams see the conversations coming through them. For institutions that have wanted to roll Gecko out more widely, this removes a barrier that’s been there for a long time.
Departments like financial aid, student services and HR have often been hesitant to share an inbox with the rest of the institution, particularly where sensitive conversations are involved. Now each department can have its own dedicated channel, with full control over who sees what. It’s been requested for years. It’s here now.
Chat that works harder for students and staff
Students in the Student Portal can now see which agents are online and start chatting instantly, without filling in a pre-chat form. If they’re already logged in, Gecko knows who they are. And when a bot is handling a conversation, teams can see that clearly at a glance, so there’s no confusion about whether a human or the AI is in charge.
Chat reports now have the full filter suite too, including ratings and labels. Slice your data by agent, team, bot or label to understand what’s working. And if a student gave a thumbs down on a particular response, you can now find it, review it and act on it directly from the reports area.
Forms that protect your work and speed up your day
If you’ve ever written “do not edit” in a form title and watched someone edit it anyway, this one’s for you. You can now lock forms and call scripts so they can’t be accidentally changed or deleted. Anyone can still view or clone them, but your master templates stay protected.
Building conditional logic is faster too, with no need to save between each step. And editing titles and descriptions is now inline. Small changes, but they add up quickly when you’re building a lot of forms under pressure.
Everything else
Event exports are simpler. Select one or multiple events and export in a few clicks. On RSVP pages, students can now filter sessions by tags and see session colours on cards, making it easier to navigate busy multi-session events.
In the Student Portal, contact labels now control which menu items and tasks each student sees. The portal colour and logo can be customised separately from your main account branding too.
You can save rows in the email template builder and reuse them across templates. Contact fields can be grouped to make them easier to manage. And a new red dot on Release Notes means you’ll always know when something new has shipped.
What’s coming in Q2
WhatsApp broadcasts are on the way. Locked content is coming to more areas of the platform. A new drag and drop builder is being rolled out for landing pages. Payments are being explored. And the dashboard is finally getting a refresh.
But the one we’re most excited about is this: students will soon be able to verify who they are in a bot conversation using a one-time passcode. That means the bot will be able to surface personalised data, application status, tuition balance, anything you have in Gecko. It moves the bot from question and answer into something that can actually take action on behalf of the student.
That’s where we’re headed.If you want to see the Q1 updates in action, the full walkthrough with Amy Hart, Senior Product Manager, and JU, Head of Customer Success, is available to watch now.
