Turn.io launches behaviour change chat platform for social impact

Against the background of an increased focus on the role of technology to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges, today sees the launch of Turn.io, a product that leverages messaging platforms for social impact.

Turn.io is a startup incubated by Praekelt.org, an early partner in the WhatsApp Business API pilot programme. Developed to connect social impact organisations with audiences using chat messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Google’s Android Messages, Turn.io is underpinned by the crucial role of chat as the growing platform of choice for the majority world. 

“Every day there are over a billion opportunities to have conversations that can improve lives,” says Turn.io co-founder, Simon de Haan, from San Francisco where he’s currently attending the 2019 Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP).

“However, conversations only have value if they have an impact. We believe that having an impactful conversation at a key moment can positively change someone’s life, and we’re excited about introducing Turn.io as a product that does just that.”

The evidence for this is already emerging from several Turn.io clients and partners, including MomConnect, a maternal health programme in South Africa, which provided the original impetus for the development of the product. 

When the digital maternal health programme was launched in partnership with South Africa’s National Department of Health in 2014 it quickly reached national scale and was cited as a global measure of what a mobile health programme can achieve with government backing. Developed by Praekelt.org, MomConnect was launched as an SMS messaging service, but by 2017, the sheer number of users made it difficult to manage and track key behavioural change conversations.

To solve this, Turn.io was developed to manage conversations with mothers. It changed the way mothers communicate and instantly triggered a necessary and continuous evolution of the technology platform that drives MomConnect. 

As evidence of the impact of this new approach, monitoring data collected by the end of 2018 showed a rise in monthly engaged mothers on MomConnect from 5 000 to over 55 000 users actively engaged in conversations about their health via WhatsApp.

“It is the kind of engagement that global brands dream about,” says Gustav Praekelt, Turn.io co-founder. “MomConnect provided a powerful case study of how the switch from SMS to WhatsApp can leverage engagement to change user behaviour and improve lives.”

Since 2018, Turn.io has developed features and functionality to enhance the use of chat for social enterprises such as using Natural Language Processing & Machine Learning to triage the most urgent conversations, ensuring conversations start at the right time with the right people.

“By 2021, we want to support hundreds of social impact organisations working in health, education, finance and agriculture, serving millions of active users,” says Pippa Yeats, Turn.io’s Product Manager.

Turn.io aims to build a strong evidence base as an enabler for both engagement and behaviour change. In pursuit of this, Turn.io is currently working with organisations that already run scaled messaging programmes, or who have a robust theory of change how they will improve behaviours. These include Noora Health, Girl Effect and Nivi amongst others.

Turn.io is currently supporting social impact organisations working in South Africa, India, Kenya and Jordan, and has imminent launches across Latin America and Africa.