Category: Mobile

Apps

OLX, India’s number one online classifieds, announced a series of industry-first, tech-led changes with the launch of the new OLX App, which will help increase the penetration of online classifieds across regions, age groups, and categories. OLX, the market leader in consumer-to-consumer (C2C) classifieds in India, has leveraged innovative technology and deep consumer understanding to roll out improved and forward-looking product changes on its App that make the online classifieds experience safer, simpler, and more social. The new App was rolled out to all of OLX’s Android users by September 27th and rolled out to its remaining user base in the coming weeks.

The new OLX App is expected to fulfill the unmet consumer needs and bring about a new wave of growth for the brand. OLX, already the market leader in used cars, bikes, mobile phones, furniture, and electronics, is looking to give scale to some of its other categories with the help of these changes. Pre-owned fashion products and accessories, such as musical instruments, sports equipment, collectibles, and vintage items, have steadily grown on OLX. The new App will facilitate further growth for these under-penetrated categories. OLX expects to double its growth rate due to these changes in the next year.

The new OLX App is built on four key pillars:

Registered Users Only: To make the platform more secure, OLX has made it mandatory for all users – sellers and buyers – to register to access the platform. Users can register with either of the following: Facebook, Google+, and phone number. Social media log-ins will allow users to see mutual friends, apart from revealing the transaction history of other users, how long they have been using OLX, and their location. Mandatory log-ins will imply that there are no anonymous users on OLX anymore. It will increase familiarity amongst users and make the OLX experience more secure. Compulsory registration will help bring women users to OLX by providing a safer environment in which they can transact.

Snap and Post – Super Simple Process: The new OLX App has reduced the Ad posting time by more than 50% by introducing image recognition technology. The image recognition technology (introduced primarily for the under-penetrated categories) allows users to post an Ad in as little as 10 seconds. The image-recognition feature generates an auto-title and auto-category for the item being posted. All one needs to do is photograph the item, state the price, and it’s good to go. This change simplifies the posting process and will be extremely beneficial for the new-to-net population Wide News.

Chat First, Restrictions on Calling: The new OLX App protects user privacy, making the platform safer. The default settings of the new OLX App do not reveal the seller’s phone number. OLX Chat is the only way to get in touch with the sellers until they decide to reveal their phone numbers. This ensures two things: [1] The platform does not make the user’s phone number public, protecting their privacy, and [2] OLX empowers the seller to decide whether they want to reveal their phone number. Chat templates are also available on each chat window, making the experience simpler, especially for the new-to-net population. Restricting the conversation between the buyer and the seller to OLX chat makes the process more instant. This feature will benefit women users, who especially seek trusted platforms where their identity is protected.

Hyper-Local Experience: The hyper-local experience has been introduced to allow users to find great products nearby. This helps facilitate transactions for low-value items in the under-penetrated categories for which traveling large distances does not make sense. The new OLX App shows products closest to the user’s current location. This helps the user in four ways: [1] It helps buyers find products closest to them, reducing the challenges of travel and logistics that emerge with larger distances.

[2] It simplifies the browsing and buying experience, as users don’t have to search for the items closest to them manually. [3] It facilitates neighborhood commerce by promoting trade in the geographical area that the user is most comfortable in. [4] It puts the power in the hands of the users by letting them change their current location as many times as they want and increasing the distance of search to as much as 500 km at any given time.

Apart from these product-centric changes, the App has transformed a design perspective. In line with its new-age experience, the App is more visual with an image-first design. Said Am Singh Batra, CEO of OLX India, said, “Cons, saidumer insights played a pivotal role in conceptualizing and introducing these changes. The annual OLX Consumer Research on Used Goods and Selling Trends (CRUST) for 2015-16 revealed that Indians are stocking unused goods worth INR 78,300 Crore.

This, along with other consumer insights, pushed us to think about the users’ unmet needs and new ways in which we could simplify selling and buying unused goods. We also looked at some of the broader challenges confronting the industry. Since online is still a very nascent industry in India, users do have trust and comfort issues. Women and the new-to-net population particularly find it hard to navigate these. We dealt with the problem head-on by providing simple and tech-led solutions.

OLX, present in 40 countries, started marketing in India five years ago. It disrupted the online classifieds market in India by establishing and popularizing the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) trade, a concept that is almost unheard of. OLX is already the largest marketplace for used cars, bikes, mobile phones, household items, and real estate in the country, with an 80% market share of the C2C trade. OLX India gets 3.4 billion page views monthly, with 90% of its traffic coming from mobile. It is also the number one buying + selling App in India on Google Play Store. It is the biggest marketplace for used goods and the number one marketplace in India for many verticals, such as used cars. OLX sells an estimated 72% of all the used vehicles sold in India monthly.

“With our new App, we have made significant improvements on three fronts in particular. First, features such as ‘Chat First’ are bold, industry-first moves that, along with mandatory registration, enhance the platform’s trustworthiness, making our users more secure. Second, by allowing users to see products closest to them, we have tried to provide an authentic hyper-local classifieds experience based on ease and simplicity. Third, by introducing novel features such as image recognition for products, we have made the seller’s posting experience agiler and demonstrated how technology could benefit consumers benefit. We will continue to innovate to provide a more friction-free user experience. We are firmly marching forward on our growth path and expect to double our growth in the coming year,” added Batra.

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Apps

The graphic visuals on cigarette boxes and advertisements against Smoking before movies may put you off, but there is a reason why they are posted. Smoking and smokeless tobacco kill nearly 6 million people globally every year, says the World Health Organization (WHO). That’s one death every six seconds. Still, people continue to smoke. For those who want to quit, it’s a tough battle. For many smokers, it may take 30 or more attempts to quit Smoking, according to research by the medical journal BMJ Open. If you have decided to quit Smoking, several smartphone apps can assist you in kicking your butt.

These apps will not work until you have a firm resolve to quit Smoking, as most of these only act as motivation to stop you when you are craving a smoke. So, if you need some support, these apps may be useful. Quit Smoking Slowly: This app can help you reduce your daily cigarette consumption and slowly quit smoking. You can set initial parameters and preferences related to daily cigarettes smoked, the cost of a cigarette, and a deadline before you want to quit smoking Wide Info.

Based on your parameters, the app prepares a daily timeline of cigarettes you are allowed to smoke. You can smoke when the screen turns green. After that, the screen turns red for a certain duration. The app also keeps track of monthly, weekly, and yearly savings and gives motivational tips to keep the journey going. The app has more than 100,000 downloads on the Google Play Store. Quit (Quit Smoking): This app provides users various health metrics. This acts as a motivational tool for users to move toward their target. It includes metrics such as ‘After 8 hours without tobacco’ and ‘After 24 hours without tobacco’.

The app also has statistics, including savings and time, and a feature that starts a timer before the urge to smoke ends. The app has more than 500,000 downloads on the Google Play Store. Quit Smoking – QuitNow!: This app will allow you to join a community of users who have decided to kick the butt. The app requires users to fill in their personal information and the date they decided to quit Smoking. Once the details have been filled in, the app will show you statistics on how much time and money you have saved. The app lists 15 achievements you can unlock during the journey, such as ten cigarettes not smoked, no smoking for five days, etc.

The most powerful aspect of this app remains the community and chat support that will never let you feel alone during the journey. The app has been downloaded 1 million times on the Google Play Store. Smoke-Free, Stop Smoking help: This app will be useful for users who derive motivation from statistics. The app will tell users how much money they have saved, how long they have been smoke-free, and how many cigarettes they have avoided. It allows users to add smoke cravings and also gives tips to avoid them. The app also has a diary entry feature, which allows users to jot down thoughts and cravings. Users can also upgrade to the Smoke Fee Pro version to unlock missions and other interesting features. The app has more than 500,000 downloads on the Google Play Store.

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Apps

An Indian automaker is plowing a new furrow in the crowded field of car-hailing apps. Uber and Lyft have already become household names in cities worldwide, allowing people to hail a ride with just a couple of clicks on a smartphone. Mahindra & Mahindra hopes to make it easier for farmers to hire a tractor when harvest time comes with a smartphone app called Trying.

Priced at about 250,000 rupees (£3,000), many small-scale farmers cannot afford a tractor and are forced to rent one from unreliable owners. Moreover, prices surge at peak times, such as harvest time.
“One of the things that struck us was the toll it took on the self-esteem of the farmer,” Rajesh Jejurikar, chief executive of the company’s farm equipment division, told the New York Times. “It was, literally, like having to beg for it. He didn’t feel like it was his right.

Mahindra & Mahindra launched Trying last month in Karnataka, and soon, it will be rolled out in other farming states, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan. The company, which offers rentals at 400 to 700 rupees an hour, has several tractors and a pool of private owners who have signed up for the service. It has also set up call centers to place orders by telephone – an essential addition given that more than 90% of rural India cannot access the Internet.

The Trying farm equipment rental business model will enable farmers to deploy mechanization technology on a pay-per-use basis without investing in the asset,” said Pawan Goenka, M&M Executive Director, when the plan was first announced in March. “This will increase their output and prosperity and lead to the nation’s inclusive growth.”It is not the first time Mahindra & Mahindra has invested in a digital start-up. In June, it invested in Scoot Networks, a ride-hailing service based in San Francisco.

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Apps

A different language is a different vision of life,” said Federico Fellini, one of the most influential filmmakers. You could be traveling abroad for vacation or work or shifting base to another country; knowledge of the native language can completely change your experience of a foreign land. With increasing globalization, knowing foreign languages increases a person’s employability. It also helps discover new cultures and enjoy music, art, and literature from across borders.

Learning material is now easily accessible in this tech-savvy world. Many apps are available to help one learn and enhance one’s world of languages. Different apps are designed for various purposes. While some of the apps might be good at helping you with grammar, others could help you with words, pronunciations, or sentence formation. Techcircle lists five apps that can help you learn a new language:

Spanish

Spanish Conversation Courses (Free): This app will help you learn Spanish with videos. It has videos for all levels of learning, which are very simple and easy to understand. Beginning from the very basic first-grade level, it can teach a high vocabulary level. Its subjects include basic Spanish, vocabulary, listening practices, and special videos meant for travel. It also has a series of videos to teach the language of manners and etiquette, doctor’s vocabulary, law enforcement vocabulary, etc.

French

Learn French Speak French (developed by Busuu Limited, free up to the basic level): This app will teach you the basics of French in an interactive and fun way. Tests after each exercise, games, and audio make this app easy to learn. When you tap to learn a new word, you know a “grammar tip” for the word and audio to help with the right pronunciation. The course is divided into many lessons. These lessons will teach you vocabulary based on the type of conversation you choose, such as culture, law, politics, extended family, job interview, parenting, holiday forecast, etc. Lessons can also be learned offline by paying and becoming a premium user of World Scoop.

German

Learn German with Babbel (free up to basic level): This app has two separate courses for Beginner and Advanced users. A straightforward and interactive interface with audio will keep you engaged in learning the language. The lessons are of small duration, so they fit into one’s busy schedule. Grammar exercises, speech recognition, and vocabulary for various topics will help you master the language.

Italian

Learn Italian (developed by MosaLingua Crea, free up to basic level): It’s an easy and fun app with many interactive exercises. One can learn through flashcards, listen to audio, and repeat them. The app uses a lot of pictures, which can help one memorize the words. One can explore vocabulary that caters to different topics and track progress. It also has exercises to help one learn how to write, self-evaluate, and memorize. The app’s easy-to-use format makes it stand out.

Japanese

Mirai Japanese (by Mirai LLP, free on iOS and paid on Android): The one-to-one lessons by this app are much like lessons from a personal tutor. The native Japanese-speaking guide will help users get the right pronunciations. It starts from the basics and can prepare a user to reach a normal conversational level. The course is divided into fifty lessons, and all have audio instructions by language professionals, one by a Japanese native and one by an English native. Dialogue-based learning makes it an interactive exercise.

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Apps

New Delhi, Oct 26: The Yahoo Mail app for Android devices is now available in seven new Indian languages—Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Marathi—the company announced on Wednesday. With this update, users whose “language setting” on their devices is set to one of the newly launched seven Indian regional languages will automatically get Yahoo Mail in their preferred language.

In addition to the language updates, the Yahoo Mail app on Android has added new features that are fully compatible with the Android 7.0 Nougat. The updates include “Multi-Window View,” which allows users to use Yahoo Mail side-by-side with other apps. The “Quick Actions” feature allows users to access the mail and directly reply to a message right from a notification without opening the app. You can also now quickly view and dismiss bundled notifications, or depending on your custom swipe settings, archive, delete, star, and more on each notification individually,” the statement added. The new features are now available in the latest update (5.10).

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Apps

HYDERABAD, OCT 24:

Gathering insights into mobile usage patterns, Samsung India has launched a new version of the My Galaxy application, an entertainment hub and life-services application for its mobile devices. The user experience in the new My Galaxy app has been significantly enhanced to provide an all-in-one experience to customers without having to access other apps for music, video, and other services. The new app converges several apps and services at a single interface. Developers at Samsung have incorporated several innovative features developed in India for consumers.

Asim Warsi, Senior Vice-President of Samsung India Electronics, said: “My Galaxy offers experiences across music, videos, and gaming, making it an entertainment hub. It integrates key life services such as recharge, bill payments, movie ticketing, cab, hotel, and flight bookings. He said research shows India will have over 200 million smartphone users by December; of the 120 million who will be using 3G and 4G services, it is estimated that they will spend about 169 minutes on the phone daily on average.

Emerging as the second-largest global smartphone market after China, India is the fourth-largest app market in the world after the US, China, and Brazil, he said. App usage shows different patterns have emerged, and the new app seeks to address them all. As part of innovations made in India, the new Samsung phones will have power plan mode and rescue power mode, which have the feature of early alerts when the battery is low, he said.

New smartphone

As of August, Samsung claimed a market share of 48.7 percent in the Indian smartphone market in terms of value and sought to consolidate it further. To this end, Samsung introduced a new smartphone, Samsung Galaxy On Nxt, exclusively on Flipkart ₹ 18,490. The device packs a 5.5-inch screen, 3 GB ROM, 32 GB RAM, 16 MP and 8 MP front and rear cameras, and a 3300 mAh battery.

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Apps

MUMBAI: Air India launched an app to make it easier for its passengers to book, check in, and manage every aspect of the journey through their mobile phones. The Air India app offers the ability to book and pay for a flight by quickly and securely scanning both passport and credit card. Passengers can fully manage their booking from their mobile device, including selecting their seat, making changes to their itinerary, buying additional services, choosing their meal, and checking in,” said a joint release issued by Air India and SITA.

The app has also been integrated with Air India’s Flying Returns loyalty program where passengers can securely access details of points earned or other updates to their accounts,” it said, adding the app, which is available on Android and iOS. Windows will be a boon to its 18 million passengers. Start using this website powered by Sujoy Dhar whenever you want. At check-in, passengers can receive their boarding pass on their phone or smartwatch.

At the airport, passengers will receive regular flight updates and use the app for mobile boarding.
Ashwani Lohani, chairman and MD of Air India, said: “Mobile apps are becoming an important tool for making travel bookings by tech-savvy passengers who like to access information on the go. This mobile app gives Air India the right tool to access a growing passenger market connected to India and beyond. The new app, developed by SITA, provides an elevated mobile experience where passengers can easily manage every step of their journey on their phone or tablet, no matter where they are.

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Apps

India is gearing up to become a massive player in the global app market.

However, a study conducted by Google and TNS found that inexpensive handsets, data-heavy apps, and a lack of relevant app content could be inhibiting future growth in the market. This indicates that app makers must find ways to reengage smartphone users or risk getting lost in the upcoming app download deluge.

Here are the key takeaways from the report:

India’s app users are highly engaged. On average, nine of the 33 apps installed on Indian users’ devices are used daily. While that seems low compared with other, more mature Asian smartphone markets, it’s substantial. For example, the average smartphone user in Japan engages with just 17% of all apps installed on their phone.
Relevancy is key to getting users to India to revisit a lapsed app. Sixty-one percent of users in India said they would come back to an old app if it increased relevancy, became more popular among family and friends, or gained new features, Google notes. Reengagement tactics like push notifications and frequent updates to add new features will help encourage users to revisit dormant apps.

Lack of memory is making app users more selective. Forty-nine percent of users in India said that the main reason they deleted an app was that it took up too much of their memory. While Indian smartphone users download five apps daily, they’re also deleting/uninstalling three apps to make space on their devices. This is because most smartphones in India cost less than $120, according to Gartner. And, with the low cost comes much less internal memory, meaning app publishers will need to give users a reason to download and keep their apps.

Overall, the opportunity India presents is massive. Daily app downloads in India saw a 16% increase during the first half of 2016, according to a report from 9Apps, a third-party Android app distribution platform. Moreover, the total number of apps downloaded is projected to grow by a staggering 92% from 2014, reaching almost 8 billion downloads in 2016 and 20 billion in 2020, according to App Annie. However, developers and publishers must ensure their apps are optimized for the emerging market. Mobile app makers and content creators are vying for consumer attention in a crowded and noisy market.

Even if an app can stand out enough to prompt a consumer to download it from among a list of millions, it then faces the challenge of enticing them to use it enough times to recuperate development, maintenance, and marketing costs. To make matters worse, those marketing costs have hit record-high levels over the past year as discoverability has become more challenging. While consumers spend more time on apps, most of that time is spent on a few favorites. According to ComScore, consumers spend almost three-quarters of their total smartphone app time in just their three favorite apps.

But it’s not all doom and gloom: There are numerous tools at a publisher’s disposal to engage and reengage consumers. New products and solutions are coming to market that can help alleviate some of the issues around this app engagement crisis. Jessica Smith, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on app engagement that explores the current state of the app market, the issues around engaging consumers, and the tools at a publisher’s disposal. It also identifies best practices for implementing some app engagement tools and presents the pitfalls that some publishers fall into in this pursuit.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

The app market today is challenging and volatile. It isn’t easy to stand out, and most apps have to be offered for free to entice consumers with too much supply. This emphasizes engaging consumers after they’ve downloaded an app to recoup costs. Consumers are more difficult to engage today, as most have dozens of apps installed on their devices yet spend most of their time in just a select handful of favorites.

There are numerous solutions for mobile app publishers and content creators seeking to engage consumers. Push notifications, in-app messaging, and app message centers with badges are three tools publishers can use to engage consumers. While many publishers mistakenly rely solely on push notifications for app engagements, this is a poor practice because many consumers don’t allow push notifications. Those who do can easily be overwhelmed when they receive too many. The best solution often includes leveraging two or three tools to engage consumers with the right message at the right time. The technology in this market has grown increasingly sophisticated, and publishers that don’t diversify their approach risk annoying their consumers to the point of abandonment.

Emerging engagement technologies will change the current app engagement norms and present new ways for app publishers to communicate with users. The mobile ecosystem changes quickly as technology improves and consumers become more comfortable using more mobile devices. The report Identifies the major challenges in today’s app market and explains why employing good app engagement practices is more important than ever.

Presents the major app engagement tools currently available.$

Examine the pros and cons of each app engagement tool while outlining some pitfalls that publishers encounter when implementing them. Prescribes best practices for adopting various app engagement tools or strategies. Assesses how the market will likely change over the next five years as emerging technologies change consumer behavior with mobile devices and introduce new tools to engage consumers.

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Apps

India’s LGBT community deserves better apps. After drinks on a Saturday night, Akash* opens the gay meet-up app Grindr to continue an earlier conversation. They’ve agreed to meet at the large ICICI Bank at the corner. After waiting a few nervous minutes, he recognizes a face coming up the street. Their walk home carefully avoids the juice shop where police officers usually stand. “Grindr life.

Akash laughs. Fast-forward a few encounters to a Sunday afternoon. This time, Akash opens the app to a charming stranger who asks to meet in a posh neighborhood. After a short walk and a winding staircase, he’s confronted by a man who looks nothing like the well-positioned photos he’s sent. He runs, reminded of other stories—urban tales of a man lured into a Grindr date in Delhi and beaten up or one in which blackmail and public shaming are used as revenge.

Are there options? Barely. Tinder preferences can be adjusted, but the app connects directly with Facebook to display mutual connections. That makes things more transparent and merges a network that often includes family and friends, terrifying for many in anti-anything-but-straight India. A few people direct me to an Indian site that’s been gaining popularity,

Amour is an online dating project that lets people create profiles and meet like-minded individuals across the gender spectrum. It’s available in five languages: English, Hindi, and Kannada. The problem is that it’s still just a database and doesn’t have the investor interest or tech background to match Grindr’s likes. It’s clear about that. “We still DO NOT RULE OUT data leakage to external persons,” Amour writes on its site.

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Android

Continuing the festive season discounts, Amazon India has kick-started its Great Indian Festival sales starting today. The festival sale will last until October 20. The discounts are mostly on smartphones, accessories, and electronic items on the first day. Xiaomi also announced its “Diwali with Mi” sale on its range of smartphones. Amazon India offers an additional 15% discount for buyers who shop on their app. Also, Citibank credit or debit card users can get extra discounts. The e-tailer also offers exchange offers on electronic items. There is also an option to avail of EMI options at no additional cost. For Prime subscribers, Amazon India will open deals 30 minutes ahead of general availability.

Here are the top five deals on smartphones from Amazon India.

Apple iPhone 6s (64 GB, Gold, and Space Grey): If you are looking for a killer deal on the slightly older iPhone 6S, Amazon offers the 64GB variant for Rs 45,999. The Rose Gold color variant is available for a slightly higher price of Rs 48,290. While Amazon India has also listed the Silver color variant of the iPhone 6s (64GB) for Rs 39,225, note that the offer is not Amazon-fulfilled.

OnePlus 3: The new OnePlus 3 smartphone is available in both colors—Gold and Graphite—for Rs 27,999. However, there is an exchange offer of up to Rs 16,000 in select regions. LeEco Le Max2: LeEco Le Max 2 (32GB) is available for Rs 17,999 instead of Rs 22,999 during the sale. Moto G4 and G4 Plus: The new Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus are available for Rs 10 499 and Rs 13,499, respectively. Also, the budget Moto G4 Play is available for cashback of Rs 1,000. Lenovo Zuk Z1: If you want the best budget smartphone, check out the Lenovo Zuk Z1 on Amazon India. For a discounted price of Rs 10,999, the device offers top-notch hardware.

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