Adam Tratt
Haiku Deck’s Adam Tratt at GeekWire Startup Day in September 2012. (Via GeekWire)

Seattle-based Haiku Deck, the app designed for creating beautiful presentations, presented some exciting news of its own Thursday with the release of an updated version that is truly native to iPhone.

Haiku Deck 4.0 is aimed at an increasingly mobile-first society which wants to get out from behind the desktop and create on the go with what’s in hand. Co-founder and CEO Adam Tratt told GeekWire Thursday that a lot has changed since the startup launched in 2012.

“When we first launched Haiku Deck, productivity for most iPhone and iPad users meant reading email and checking your calendar,” Tratt said. “It’s remarkable how much more creative and productive people can be on their phones now than even just a few years ago. This stems from a shift in user behavior, improved hardware, and the need for people to get work done anytime, anywhere. For us, iPhone development became a top priority last year. We’ve been working to bring Haiku Deck to iPhone ever since.”

GeekWire awarded Haiku Deck with App of the Year at the 2013 GeekWire Awards. Since then, Tratt said customer demand more than anything has driven the need to innovate.

“We have 2 million users of Haiku Deck on iPad and Web. Increasingly they need to open their decks to share ideas, edit them on the fly, or quickly create new presentations,” Tratt said. “There are competitors, but most were designed in the context of desktop computing, so their iPhone apps aren’t always easy to use. Mobile is in Haiku Deck’s DNA, so the user experience and the presentations created in our app are perfectly suited for phones.”

Haiku Deck for iPhone
(Via iTunes)

Some of the features of the new version were spelled out in a news release from the company:

  • Create stunning presentations anytime, anywhere: Whether you’re crafting your big idea, getting ready for a client meeting or sharing insights from a trade show, inspiration can strike at any time. Haiku Deck for iPhone unlocks your presentation superpowers no matter where or when you need to get the job done.

  • Edit your presentations on the go: Haiku Deck presentations are always in the cloud, across devices.

  • Haiku DeckInstantly create presentations from your camera roll: Haiku Deck 4.0 lets you select multiple photos from your iPhone camera roll to instantly create a presentation using your own images.

  • View and remix thousands of presentation templates: Whether you’re creating a startup pitch, a listing presentation, a meeting agenda, or a lesson plan, Haiku Deck 4.0 offers thousands of templates that can be instantly remixed.

  • Built-in Teleprompter: Use your iPhone as a “teleprompter” to view slide notes as you present. The audience sees the slides; you see your talking points.

  • Dictate with Voice-to-Text: No need to tap in your slide notes or bullet points on a tiny keyboard. Just tap the microphone button on the touch keyboard, and Haiku Deck does the heavy lifting for you.

When it comes to what he views as the coolest part of the updated version, Tratt is all about the convenience of working on your phone.

“I love that fact that we’re making it 10 tmes easier for people to share their big idea, improve their pitch, or craft a lesson whether they’re in a cafe, waiting for a flight, or riding in an Uber to their next client meeting,” Tratt said. “The fact that you can instantly compile a bunch of photos from your camera roll into a presentation is also pretty slick.”

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