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Tag: Android

  • Microsoft Teams makes ‘Walkie Talkie feature’ available to all users

    Microsoft Teams makes ‘Walkie Talkie feature’ available to all users

    Mumbai: Microsoft Teams has made its Walkie Talkie feature launched in 2020 for frontline workers available to all its users.

    The ‘push to talk’ feature was introduced in 2020 as a way for frontline workers to communicate easily on-field when the pandemic rate was at its peak. “As the frontline faces continuous constraints from labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, they want technology that saves them time, helps them communicate more seamlessly, and maximises their efficiency when completing repetitive tasks,” the company stated.

    Walkie Talkie is now also available on all iOS mobile devices such as iPhones and iPads, in addition to Android mobile devices. It is a push-to-talk (PTT) communication feature that allows users to connect with their group members through a respective channel. No one else can interact with the people inside the channel unless they are given permission to do so. The company teamed up with Zebra mobile devices to implement the digital Walkie Talkie functionality.

    According to Microsoft, the app replaces the need for carrying bulky radios and offers a secure line of communication through Wi-Fi or cellular internet connectivity. The three mobile devices: rugged TC-series, customer-facing EC-series, and the scanning device MC-series will now include the Microsoft Teams’ push-to-talk features. All of them come with a dedicated, built-in button on the side emulating a radio walkie-talkie, that one needs to hold onto while speaking. The voice gets recorded, and then sent to the recipient.

    “With this partnership, we’re excited to be able to provide frontline workers with the ability to use these devices to seamlessly communicate, collaborate, and stay productive in any conditions,” said Zebra Technologies CEO Anders Gustafsson in a blog post.

    Currently, the feature is not pre-installed. To enable WalkieTalkie for use in Teams, organisations will have to add it to the ‘App Setup Policy’ through the admin centre. Once turned on, the feature becomes available on the app within the next 48 hour.

    According to Microsoft, the pandemic drove a 400 percent increase in Microsoft Teams usage among frontline workers from March 2020 to November 2021.

  • Netflix to make mobile game titles available on App Store for iOS users: Reports

    Netflix to make mobile game titles available on App Store for iOS users: Reports

    Mumbai: Earlier this month, Netflix announced that it is making four mobile gaming titles available to Android OS subscribers worldwide. The company is working on an iOS version however Apple’s App Store policies may prevent it from making these games available via its app.

    App Store policies bar third-party apps from functioning as a centre for games. Netflix’s mobile games are currently available on Android via a dedicated tab on the Netflix app and users are only able to launch the games from within the app. These games have to be downloaded individually from the Google Play Store.

    According to a report by ANI, Netflix plans to skirt Apple’s policies by making its games available via the App Store. This means that the games won’t be downloadable or playable via the Netflix app. Users will only be able to launch them from there.  

    Other platforms such as Facebook have got around these policies by developing a web app for their games. Cloud gaming services such as Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia Geforce Now, and Google Stadia have been unable to offer their games from within their apps.

  • Whatsapp set to roll out new multi-device feature

    Whatsapp set to roll out new multi-device feature

    Mumbai: Instant messaging app, WhatsApp is set to roll out a feature that would allow users to log into the messaging platform on their personal computers without being online through their smartphones.

    The feature is currently at the beta testing stage on selected Android and iOS devices, and has been made available in the settings menu of the app. Users will have to manually opt in for the feature.

    Presently, in order to use WhatsApp Web, which is the personal computer version of the messaging service, users have to keep their phones online. With the potential roll-out of the latest feature, users will no longer need to keep the phone near their laptop and make sure it is online before using WhatsApp Web. The linked personal computer would be able to receive and send messages for up to 14 days. This, if the user decides to not manually log out.

    The feature will be useful when users lose their smartphones but require Whatsapp to stay connected.

  • Clubhouse for android to arrive in India this Friday

    Clubhouse for android to arrive in India this Friday

    KOLKATA: Android users in India can finally come out of Clubhouse FOMO as the invite-only audio chat is debuting on Friday, after a week it launched the beta version in the US.

    As the start-up’s android expansion continues, it will roll out in Japan, Brazil, Russia on Tuesday, followed by India and Nigeria on Friday. However, it will remain invite-only both on android and iOS despite the mass rollout. “Globe with meridians Rest of world throughout the week, and available worldwide by Friday afternoon,” the tweet added.

    While it has taken its home market by storm with top Silicon-valley execs, popular Hollywood stars, artists jumping on the bandwagon, its impact in India is still very limited with less than a lakh iOS users. This move could be critical in the Indian expansion as the market has a lion’s share of android users, despite the increasing footprint of iPhones in India.

    The development comes at a time when the download numbers have plateaued. Globally its downloads peaked in February with 9.6 million downloads. However, it has gradually come down to 9 lakh downloads in April, as per Sensor Tower data.

    The app saw 42,000 in February followed by 20,000 in March and 14,000 downloads in April in India – a gradual decline.

     

     

    In a tweet, the company said it is working on feature parity with iOS for android users. Earlier this year, the app revealed its plans to launch in India. Clubhouse is now facing stiff competition in the category as Twitter has rolled out its Spaces on a larger scale, Facebook is also working on a live audio chat feature.

    Adoption, penetration can be of a lesser challenge for the audio-based social apps compared to acceptance and usage which will be driven by content on the platforms, a senior digital market executive said earlier.

    “The good thing about this period is that it has shown us how universal voice is as a medium. The same types of rooms that we saw forming last year in the U.S. quickly started forming in Japan, Brazil, and Nigeria. Farmers in rural Georgia have been making friends with entrepreneurs in Tanzania. Film clubs have formed in India,” the company stated in a recent blog post along with examples of many other communities.

    Throughout this period, it felt the need to be cross-platform more strongly than ever, the company added.

  • Gaana ‘Tunes – Up’ App For An Elevated User Experience

    Gaana ‘Tunes – Up’ App For An Elevated User Experience

    MUMBAI: Gaana, the leading music streaming player in the Indian market has rolled out a  new version of the app on Android and iOS platforms that would offer music lovers a never before immersive experience by enhancing the discoverability of music, aiding in decision making of playlists, a better voice search and with the availability of lyrics making it more engaging and interactive than ever before. 

    The app is now with with more than 80 mn users and over 1.2 billion streams a month across 30 languages including Indian regional languages has introduced a facelift to improve user experience on the app. Some of the new introductions are as follows:

    Hassle Free Discoverability:

    With the new app discoverability become a lot simpler. Users can now quickly select their choice of music by taking help of the Personalized Music Feed at Search. The app will track your listening history and prompt suggestions thus saving you the drudgery of browsing through a vast library of music to make your pick. The smart feed is powered by the ML models to expose users to varied content in one go.

    Aids Decision Making:

    The revamped version also features a Made for you Mixes and Playlists. This will aid in decision making with tailor made playlists to cater to your eclectic preferences. These will have tracks across genres for various occasions put together just for you. 

    Engaging Content

    And engaging modern UX will ensure that music lovers  experience a Fresh Content Everyday. It will filter music based on what you have listened and what you have not and will suggest new content accordingly. AI and Machine Learning (ML) has been the key driver in leveraging the user behavior for understanding taste profiles and tailoring music listening experiences for each unique user. 

    Easy Accessibility

    Voice is the most convenient medium for input unlike a keyboard and we see the millennial generation moving to Voice in a big way.  Also the new wave of internet users will primarily use Voice as input as many will not be comfortable with typing. The Voice Search option will make accessibility faster as it gives you the freedom to make movements on the app without having to type details of the songs. Users can search for their favourite songs by saying the name of song, singer, movie, lyrics, moods and occasions. 

    Immersive Experience

    Consumers can not just listen to the music but also sing while the song is playing. The new feature will let consumers view Lyrics With Full Screen Players. The font and the style can be changed to make it appear more legible. 

    In addition to the above, the app has been made more user-friendly with an increased focus on imagery and breathing spaces. It has also improved player experience and onboarding process.

    Commenting on the new launch, Mr. Prashan Agarwal, CEO – Gaana said,“Today we are at more than 80 mn monthly active users with an active subscription base. We are extremely passionate about elevating consumer experience at every step which is why we decided to give the app a facelift to further enhance user interaction. Over the last few months, we have increased investment in machine learning and AI to improve our recommendation algorithms and today almost 15% consumption on the platform is being delivered through our recommendation engine. “

    He further added, Our focus at Gaana is to be the everyday companion of every user by being there through all the different moods and phases that our user goes through.  Keeping in line with this, we are certain that the revamp will help us curate a fulfilled user experience on the App.”

    The new app will be available to Gaana’s IOS and Android user base. 

  • Facebook clones TikTok; launches Lasso app

    Facebook clones TikTok; launches Lasso app

    MUMBAI: Facebook, without making any noise, has released an app called Lasso that lets users create short videos in a bid to compete with TikTok which is the 15 second video app that recently merged with Musical.ly.  

    According to the reports, in 2018, only half of the teens claimed to use Facebook, compared to in 2014, when 71 per cent of them said that they still use it. In order to catch hold of its lost charm, Facebook has planned to set the ball rolling by launching Lasso to win over teens.  

    Lasso is almost the same as TikTok. Users can record themselves dancing, lip-syncing to music and recording short clips like Vines. The app is also available on iOS and Android. The rollout of the app was made with no official statement from the company on its website, said the reports. However, later, its product manager Bowen Pan specifically tweeted about its launch.

    This isn’t the first time that the company has cloned an app. Facebook copied Snapchat by launching a standalone app called Slingshot in June 2014. After a year, it wasn’t available in the app store.

  • Tinder becomes top-grossing app on Android and launches Top Picks in India

    Tinder becomes top-grossing app on Android and launches Top Picks in India

    MUMBAI: Tinder is excited to announce that Top Picks, a premium feature that surfaces a daily, tailored list of potential matches to Tinder Gold users, is rolling out on iOS and Android platforms in India and globally. Ahead of the rollout of Top Picks, Tinder reached number 1 grossing app status on Android in India. 

    Top Picks are based on criteria that can help predict a potential match using details like a user’s job, education, hobbies, and other details noted within their profile. The feature was first test launched in June 2018.

    Paid features (like Top Picks) have helped increase Tinder’s subscriber growth and in August 7, 2018, Match Group reported that Tinder added 299,000 paid members in the second quarter, totaling 1.7 million in the past year and more than 3 million since the app started offering its subscription services. 

    “We’re excited to finally share Top Picks with our users around the world given its early success,” said Brian Norgard, Chief Product Officer at Tinder. “Data suggests users in test markets have loved the feature, and we’re happy to make one Top Pick available to all users each day with this global rollout. The feature refreshes every day, highlighting the diversity, talents and passions of our users in a simple, fun and useful manner.” 

    Taru Kapoor, GM of India at Tinder and Match group, added, “It has been our constant endeavour to provide more value to users; and hence we’re excited to make Top Picks available in India. The feature brings to life aspects of our users and provides a fun, new way of making meaningful connections”

  • Introducing Mobile Previews

    Introducing Mobile Previews

    One of the best ways to know if you’ll like a new series or movie is to watch a quick trailer. Today, we are excited to introduce mobile previews (launching today on iOS and coming soon to Android) to the mobile experience. Mobile previews present members with a fun, simple, and easy way to learn about all the new content on Netflix — and find something great to watch even faster.

    Each preview is about 30 seconds long and presented in a vertical format, so you can watch them without turning your phone. The previews are shown like a slideshow, so if you see something you like, you can tap play or add to your list. If not, you can swipe or tap the screen to advance to the next preview.

    Last year, we introduced video previews to the TV experience, which brought dynamic and engaging video to the TV interface. Years of testing has made it clear that video previews help our members browse less and discover new content more quickly. With the launch of mobile previews, we are bringing a video browse experience to your mobile phone in a fun and mobile-optimized way.

    Mobile previews load very quickly, are personalized to your specific tastes, and are easy to use. We hope you like using this new feature and that mobile previews help you find your next favorite show!

  • News’ Nation’s Abhay Ojha among top-50 influential persons

    News’ Nation’s Abhay Ojha among top-50 influential persons

    MUMBAI: News Nation Network Pvt. Ltd. launched a National Hindi News Channel -News Nation in February 2013 with a basic premise of “ideal viewer connects”. The channel aims to address the ground realities and complexities of diverse and multi-layered India and demystify news into relevant absorbable facts. The channel’s ideology is to respect viewer’s intelligence and provide them with “News they can use”. Adding to the bouquet News Nation Network Pvt. Ltd. launched a regional Hindi News channel by the name of News State Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand in Feb 2014.  The differentiation of its regional offering stands out in the fact that it carries mostly regional news which is thoroughly covered to the level of every district of both the states. As per BARC ratings while the National Hindi News channel “News Nation” ranks amongst Top 5 , its regional channel “ News State UP/UK” has been No.1 in the twin states since many weeks. Speaking on the occasion Mr. Abhay K Ojha ,President – Sales & Marketing, shared his views in Q & A session.

    News Nation has completed 5 years – How was the journey so far?
    The journey till date is on the growth trajectory. Since the launch of the channel it has scaled up the ladder and today it is amongst Top 5 Hindi News channels. In terms of revenue also every year we have been growing steadily.

    With new Hindi news channel being launched in already cluttered Hindi News genre- How difficult was it then to make inroads into sales?
    We did not face much problem in establishing in the sales front.  The Product offering was different from all other existing Hindi News channels. Apart from Top 3 channels , most of the other news channels that time were me too product. We analyzed that programming and news delivery of all other channels were revolving around Top three channels only with no distinctive offerings. We, therefore, came with programmes  like Bharat Ek Khoj, Idea India ka, Khana Gana. These programs helped us create a brand identity and delivered good ratings.   

    Do you think TRPs are really that important for sales and what are your views on allegations of BARC panel homes tampering?
    TRPs do play a vital role in revenue because it gives an indication of ROI. With regards to tampering BARC authorities are competent enough to handle these issues and I am sure they are taking utmost care to ensure robustness of data, having said that there are also instances where data defies logic. 

    After 5 years how do you say that News Nation is different from other Hindi News channel?
    News Nation has not deviated from its Brand Promise. Today where one can see a clear tilt of every news channels towards a pro or against sentiment, News Nation stands as an observer and reports news as it is un-opinionated, unbiased. We respect the intelligence of viewers and provide them with news they can use. We still have no dedicated show on astrology, crime or religion. 

    Lately you have been facing strong competition from a couple of channels – How do you tackle that?
    We are focusing on our core strengths and assuring clients to look at value for their money. Evening Prime Time is one area where the concentration of audience is highest and if a broadcasters decides to reduce commercial FCT in these band ,their programming ratings might go up but break ratings tentatively will go down. Apart from these for some broadcasters a couple of bands in prime time delivers about 30-40 % of their entire viewership unlike News Nation which generally has an equal distribution of viewership.  

    News consumption is gradually becoming higher on 2nd screen i.e digital –What are your views on this and what advancements has News Nation made in the digital domain?
    Yes, eventually not only news but almost all content will see a higher rise in consumption on mobile. With the penetration of smart phones into smaller towns/rural and affordable data plans, this sector is poised for a massive growth. News Nation is already geared up for this, it has two websites www.newsnation.in (English) and www.newsstate.com( Hindi). It also has News Mobile App for these websites available on android and iOS. The mobile apps are equipped with latest GUI and some unique features like “Quicky”- The Quicky feature lets you watch news from 1 minute up to 5 minutes to save your time and also we are facilitating live audio news feature to our users. 

    Can you detail some future plans of News Nation Network and do you think that there still exists some space for any other Hindi News channel?
    News Nation is evaluating business potential in different genres , some expansions plans are already under consideration and will be able to share some news soon.

  • SPI International (FILMBOX) launches 7 thematic channels and VOD Content – Exclusively on SonyLIV Web and App in India

    SPI International (FILMBOX) launches 7 thematic channels and VOD Content – Exclusively on SonyLIV Web and App in India

    Global media group SPI International (FILMBOX) and Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) have signed a distribution agreement to launch seven thematic channels from SPI’s worldwide TV portfolio exclusively on SonyLIV. SonyLIV streams are accessible online, on mobile devices (Android and iOS), web and m-web. 

    From this month, SonyLIV’s TV line-up will include the following SPI’s channels:

    – FilmBox ART HOUSE – an international movie channel featuring classic masterpieces of world cinema by such prominent directors as Kurosawa, Fellini, Hitchcock, Antonioni, Visconti along with an impressive selection of art house titles and independent films from all over the world. The channel also presents award-winning movies from top film festivals including Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Sundance, Tokyo, Hong Kong and many more.

    – FIGHTBOX – a 24X7 martial arts network with live broadcast of international MMA events and other TV programming covering more than thirty combat sport disciplines.

    – FAST&FUNBOX – a sports/lifestyle channel featuring coverage of international shows and competitions in such disciplines as car racing (Formula One), motorcross, snowboarding, sailing and many more

    – DOCUBOX – a unique documentary channel presenting documentary films and television programming devoted to nature, science, history and human civilization

    – FASHIONBOX – a worldwide TV network focusing on fashion trends, top designers and shopping

    – 360TuneBox – an independent international music video network showcasing breakthrough artists from all over the world and the best of art music video

    – GAMETOON – SPI’s brand new worldwide entertainment TV channel for millennials revolving around gaming and eSports. The Gametoon channel features highlights of popular video games, entertainment content from gaming youtubers, video game tournaments (e-sports) with million dollar prize pools and much more.