Purposeful guidance is beating ignorable pop-ups. And tailored, personalized journeys are chosen over generic messages.
And the biggest shift of all? Product communication is becoming more human. The best guidance today is clear, contextual, and completely user-centric. That’s why we’re giving customers new ways to connect, engage, and drive action with users, on their terms.
Six new ways to connect with users even easier in Pendo
From branching user journeys to form validation and experiments, we’re building a future where the right message always finds the right person, at the right moment.
1. Embedded Guides: Adapt your software to every user, without a developer
When users are in your product, every moment counts. Embedded Guides help you turn those moments into momentum.
Think of Embedded Guides as always-present, purpose-built experiences inside your product. They don’t interrupt the experience—they’re part of it. They can live in persistent UI elements like sidebars or panels, giving users access to support, guidance, or actions right when and where they need them. They’re designed to feel native, stay visible, and drive action, without relying on pop-ups or pulling in engineering help.
Companies like PlayOn, Demandbase, and Corpay are already using Embedded Guides to rethink and refine their software experiences:
- PlayOn boosted feature adoption by 41%, all without relying on pop-ups or dev cycles.
- Demandbase used Embedded Guides to streamline AI agent setup, accelerating time-to-value and reducing the need for human support.
- Corpay condensed a 4-week engagement process into 30 minutes with Embedded Guides and they’ve driven a 4x increase in feature conversions.
“Embedded guides are a game-changer. I can build and test more ideas, and we’re seeing way better results. Our overlays used to feel like interruptions—these feel like part of the product.”
— Joshua Miller, Senior product owner, Corpay
Embedded Guides work because they:
- Blend into the experience while standing out visually
- Empower teams to move fast—no devs required
- Scale across teams and products with centralized governance
- Outperform overlays in conversion, engagement, and retention
Whether you’re guiding users to adopt new features, complete critical workflows, or explore premium functionality, Embedded Guides are the backbone of the modern in-app experience.
Want to build your own? Start today. Embedded Guides are now available for all Guides Pro users.
2. Guide Experiments: A/B testing your way to better outcomes
Not sure which guide will drive more engagement? Or which message helps users convert faster? Now you don’t have to guess.
Guide experiments let you test two versions of an in-app guide to see which one performs better, based on the outcomes that matter most to your team. Whether you’re improving onboarding, refining upsell prompts, or clarifying support content, you’ll get clear, data-backed answers.
Here’s how it works:
- Select two in-app guides
- Define your key metric, like a page view, feature click, or custom event
- Set audience, duration, and distribution
- Launch your experiment and track results!
Once your experiment ends, you’ll see which version won and can easily publish the most effective message. Not sure how to get started? Use this to streamline onboarding steps, increase upsell conversions, and improve the impact of your support content.
Guide experiments are now available as an opt-in beta for Guides Pro users. Sign up now.
3. Journey Branching: Automatically deliver relevant messages
One-size-fits-all is out. Journey branching within Orchestrate makes it easy to tailor guidance based on user behavior, role, or stage in the lifecycle. Now you can deliver the right sequence of messages to every user, whether they’re onboarding, exploring new features, or returning after a break.
Create powerful flows based on real-time behavior and metadata. Combine this with integrations and guide variants to build truly custom experiences.
Here’s how that might look in a real-world scenario. Imagine a user logs into a digital banking app. Based on their behavior and profile, Journey Branching delivers the right experience:
- If they’re brand new, they see a step-by-step checklist to set up direct deposit, link external accounts, and order a debit card.
- If they’re an active user exploring more features, they’re guided to budgeting tools, savings goals, or investment options.
- If they haven’t logged in for 30 days, they’re shown a re-engagement message like “Here’s what’s new.”
Each experience is triggered by user behavior and metadata so every experience feels relevant and personal.
Journey branching is now in beta. Learn more.
4. Form Validation: Reduce user frustration
There’s nothing worse than filling out a form, clicking submit, and hitting a wall. Our new form validation lets you create in-app checks and error messages that guide users through forms correctly, in real time.
You can use Form Validation in many different ways, including:
- Reducing support tickets and data clean-up
- Guiding reps to enter correct, compliant data in CRMs
- Helping new users avoid friction when adopting new tools
It’s a small upgrade that makes a big difference. Form validation is now available for all Guides Pro users. Get started.
5. Integrations with Marketo and Hubspot: Your comms stack, working as a team
With our new integrations, your marketing stack is more powerful than ever. Sync guide segments with HubSpot or Marketo audiences to create consistent, cross-channel experiences that move users through the funnel.
Want to nudge a trial user toward conversion after a webinar? Now you can trigger both an email and an in-app guide in a unified journey, with two-way data flow to keep everything in sync.
Integrations with HubSpot and Marketo are now in beta. Learn more.
6. Guides Agent: You say it, the Agent builds it.
Soon, we’re putting even more power in your hands with the upcoming launch of the Guides Agent—a new conversational UI that turns plain-language prompts into polished, branded in-app guides.
Here’s how it works:
- Start from a prompt or template
- Describe what you want in natural language
- See a real-time preview generated as you type
- Edit in place with inline controls or refine via chat
No more waiting for a power user or switching between tools. Just tell the Agent what you need and watch your ideas come to life. Join the interest list.
Want to be part of the future? Explore everything in the Pendo Summer Release, or get a demo.
