When I was beta testing Editorial in 2012, I used Glassboard every day to report feedback, send screenshots, and discuss the app’s feature set. Glassboard is a private chat for groups and small businesses that has threaded conversations, attachments, notifications for new messages on mobile devices, and other cool features such as location sharing and possibility to bookmark messages. Aside from the Editorial beta, I used Glassboard to communicate with friends in private boards, send feedback for other betas, and discuss features of MacStories. I was worried about the future of Glassboard when it was put up for sale and relived when Second Gear announced that they acquired it. I’ve always believed in the idea behind Glassboard and I wanted to see it thrive.

Glassboard’s future under Second Gear management begins today with the launch of a long overdue update to the iPhone app, which is ready for iOS 7. The app still isn’t available on the iPad, but this new version provides a solid new foundation to build upon and I’m confident that Second Gear will consider an iPad counterpart.

For those not familiar with Glassboard, the service lets you create discussion boards where you invite people. Nothing is ever shared publicly and everything is kept private with an invite-based system. People can post new messages and add comments to them, which will be grouped in a conversation. What’s unique about Glassboard is that, in the age of social networks that demand constant public activity with opt-out systems for privacy controls, Glassboard is a modern, elegant, and private forum board for groups of friends or teams. My use of Glassboard may have been limited to work-related communication, but I know of several people who rely on it to organize meet-ups or get together at conferences thanks to the service’s location sharing feature.

The new iOS app is simple and nice. There’s a sidebar where you can switch between boards and access your personal Settings; next to each board, you’ll find a gear icon to control your notification preferences and see every member of a board. The All Boards view at the top of the sidebar offers a unified view of all conversations from all boards, but you can of course open a specific board and view messages pertaining to it.

The entire app has been polished for iOS 7 but there are no major feature additions for this relaunch. I like the cleaner look and I’m a fan of the Views at the bottom of the sidebar to view all Photos and Videos and Notifications from all boards at once.

Glassboard is supported by its users. There are no ads; instead, you can pay $24.99/Year to become a Premium user, which will give you access to extras such as export options, up to 1 GB of attachments per board, and more features that Second Gear will roll out in the future. The Premium subscription is available as an In-App Purchase in today’s iOS update, or it can be unlocked on the web.

Even without new feature additions, I’m glad that Glassboard is back on iOS with a refreshed app and plans for the future. As I mentioned above, I’m looking forward to an iPad version and a redesign of the web app, which still carries the original Glassboard design.

Glassboard 3.0 is available on the App Store. I’ve had the chance to ask a few questions about Glassboard to Second Gear’s Justin Williams, and you can find the interview below.

Federico Viticci: Obvious question: why Glassboard?

Justin Williams: I’ve been a big user of Glassboard since it was released a few years ago. In addition to using it at events like WWDC or Macworld, it’s also how Second Gear has run its betas for the past six to twelve months. When the previous owners announced they were looking for a new home for the app, I jumped on it.

There’s a lot of talk lately about messaging being the “next big thing” in the VC-backed startup space with many companies adding messaging features or retooling existing ones. Most of these services depend on ads, VC money, and they need a huge number of users to survive. Your plan with Glassboard is to allow users to share information privately within groups and to charge for Premium features with a subscription.

FV: Where does Glassboard fit in the modern messaging space? Is the focus more on collaboration instead?

JW: Oh god. So many messaging apps. I talk to some friends on Hangouts. Some on Path. Some on ADN. Even some on Facebook Messenger still. I think those guys are more focused on personal and one-to-one messaging.

Glassboard really excels when you’re in a small to medium sized group because of its threaded nature. Much like a traditional message board, there’s context around replying to a specific message versus everything being thrown into a single stream a la old school IRC.

FV: In August, shortly after NewsGator announced they wanted to sell Glassboard, you posted some thoughts on what you’d do with it. Now that you own the service, do you still believe those plans are necessary for Glassboard’s future, or have you changed your mind on some of them?

JW: Pretty much everything in that post is still accurate today, except killing the web app. It has been given a reprieve and are working with an awesome team here in Denver to refresh it.

FV: How was updating the iOS app? Did iOS 7 allow you to implement some particular features that work well with Glassboard?

JW: The goal of the first iOS 7 release is to stabilize the product. The foundation the Sepia Labs folks left is solid, but it also suffered from a bit of rot after not being updated for nearly a year. I went through each screen and updated it visually to match the new iOS design language, while also trying to keep keep some of the previous app’s visual flare.

One area I put a lot of focus on is composing messages. There’s more context now if you pin your location by showing a map of where the pin is. You can also see a thumbnail of any image you attach to a post.

There’s a million things I still want to do to improve the apps, but I believe the improvements from the last Glassboard release and this new 3.0 are night and day.

FV: What’s next for Glassboard?

JW: Short term goals are centered entirely around stabilizing the product. Glassboard 3.0 for iOS is the first step. We’re also working on an Android update to fix some bugs and modernize its design language with the latest versions of Android. Once I have the existing products and feature set to a point where I’m satisfied, then I’ll begin focusing on adding new features and functionality. It’s a lot easier to do those things on a solid foundation.

The other goal is finding a revenue model. Glassboard, while popular, doesn’t generate much money. Figuring out how to turn that around is a priority, because venture capital or advertisements are out of the question. I’m traditional in that I like my products to be supported by their users. The first adjustment on the revenue generation scale was lowering the price of a Premium subscription by 50% to $24.99 a year. We’re also incorporating those into the apps as in-app purchases. Hopefully people see the value in Glassboard and will be eager to support its continued development.