Google's Android One smartphones to help bolster Facebook's growth in India

NEW DELHI: Even as Google prepares to pry open larger chunks of the Indian market with an array of cheap smartphones as part of its Android One programme, it will also willy-nilly help rival Facebook grow its India numbers.



Next Monday, Google is widely expected to launch a range of Android One smartphones, mostly priced under Rs 6,000 ($100). These have been developed in partnership with local mobile phone manufacturers including Micromax, Karbonn and Spice. They are expected to be loaded with topend features such as dual core chip, 5 MP camera and 4.5-inch display.

But, as these cheap and powerful smartphones flood the market, Facebook will benefit as much as Google as new smartphone users will also log into the former's popular social networking and messenger applications.

Facebook has 108 million users in India active monthly, of which 94 million access it on a mobile.

"A low-cost smartphone which allows a good user experience will accelerate adoption of Facebook," says Jessie Paul, CEO, Paul Writer Strategic Advisory, a marketing consultancy. "In fact, it could take Facebook's access on mobile devices to 100 per cent from about 93 per cent at present."



are now looking forward to one billion users in India. That is a different focus and challenge," Javier Olivan, vice-president, growth & analytics, Facebook, had told ET in a March interview. Google's Android One will make the challenge easier.
Google, Facebook and much of the Internet companies ecosystem are often referred to as 'frenemies'. They are friends in the sense that the success of any one company invariably yields spin-off benefits for others; enemies because all of them compete for the same users and online advertising dollars.

Google's Android One program will not only benefit Facebook, but the entire gamut of social networking companies including Twitter, Instagram etc, all of which will gain more smartphone users. But Facebook could gain more than others, since it has the largest user base in India. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has crafted a mobile first strategy for Facebook and has publicly admitted the company's biggest mistake was "we burned two years not working on mobile."

"Every service will benefit, be it Facebook, Whatsapp or Skype," says Katyayan Gupta, analyst, eBusiness & Channel strategy, Forrester Research. Google and Facebook declined to comment on this story.

Android One is tipped to be a game changer in the smartphone market, delivering a better experience to users.

"Low-cost Android smartphones have poor touch screen, poor camera and poor memory. This impacts user experience be it Facebook or Google docs," says Forrester's Gupta.

"But Android One will provide a consistent user experience across all devices," he adds. Adds Mohammad Chowdhury, leader, telecom, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC): "Android One will shake up the low-end to midtier smartphone market," Google finished the second quarter with $14.3 billion in advertising revenues compared to Facebook's $2.68 billion.

Facebook's mobile ad revenues accounts for more than 60 per cent of its overall ad revenues, while Google's earns only 12 per cent of its advertising dollars from mobile.

Google Hangouts for Android updated with Google Voice integration, free VoIP calls

It’s finally all coming together. As many suspected would eventually happen, Google Hangouts is finally—in an update rolling out over the next few days—going to be getting integration with Google Voice. The latter service seemed to definitely be getting neglected by Google as of late, with much of the company’s focus going to its Hangouts platform. But it appears that Voice may even moreso eventually become a thing of the past because, starting today, Google is putting it straight into Hangouts as part of a new update to its apps across Android, iOS, and the web.

On the Android side, you’ll find that the new app is getting redesigned to live up to the upcoming standards of Android ‘L’ and its Material Design scheme. It has long felt like the Hangouts app on Android was leagues behind that of iOS—which to some made no sense at all—but version 2.3 is rolling out starting today and it appears that today’s update is a big one with a few key interface redesigns. On Android, you need to install a separate, accompanying dialler to turn on voice calls.

Notably, for these users, Hangouts calls can now come from your Google Voice number. Features long part of the Google Voice app, including voicemail text transcriptions and text messages that were sent your Google Voice phone number, will now be integrated straight into the Hangouts app. And for text messages, users can decide between replying to each message from the number that received it (Voice or cell number), or you can pick one static number for all replies.

On iOS and the web, you’ve long been able to make voice calls, but it’s kind of been a feature that Google didn’t put much emphasis on. Today, Google says that you’ll voice calls available “the next time you open the app,” but we already knew that. Now, Google offers free VoiP calls to all phones in the U.S. and Canada across all three platforms.

Lybrate launches two dedicated Android apps for doctors and patients

Doctor directory and clinic management system Lybrate has launched two healthcare apps: Practice Management for doctors and Find Best Doctors for patients. The apps are currently only available on the Android platform although the company claims iPhone and Windows apps are coming soon. Lybrate had secured $1.225 million in investment last month from Nexus Venture Partners.

The Practice Management app pretty much imitates the features the Lybrate website provides doctors. It will allow doctors to add new patients, track payments, create appointments and record patient treatments among other things. It features a searchable patient history, can send appointment reminders to patients, displays clinic performance stats and has a complete billing module. Premium subscription to the app will also allow doctors to send SMS reminders to patients for due payments, appointments, dental checkups etc. The subscription plans are common for both the web-based service and mobile apps, which start with a free plan and range up to Rs 849 per month.

The Find Best Doctors app is also similar in functionality to what the website offers patients. A user can search for nearby doctors listed based on ratings by real patients and select from available times to book an appointment. The app offers some unique features over its web-based platform though, like finding the nearest ambulance, sharing medical documents even with people without the app and a “danger” button, which triggers messages to assigned contacts by pressing the power button. This app is available for free.

Competition:

- Online generic drug search engine HealthKartPlus.com had revamped its app and expanded its service to Bangalore and Chennai in July last year. The company also appointed former Zynga executive Gaurav Agarwal as its CTO and head of products in December.

- Healthcare startup eVaidya had raised Rs 3.5 crore from existing investors in February this year. eVaidya also offers some kind of management system for doctors which stores patient health records and offers remote consultation. The startup had launched an Android app last year.

- New York-based ZocDoc has apparently had a data operations head in India for over two years operating from Pune and is currently looking to hire a General Manager for the country. So, is the company looking to expand into India?

- HelpingDoc, an online doctor appointment service had raised Rs 10 crore in a Series A round of funding last month.

- UberHealth, a Delhi-based startup had launched a preventive health care service for senior citizens in April. The paid service includes scheduling appointments, transportation, medical tests and check up, processing of paperwork and online reports.

- DocSuggest had raised an undisclosed amount from Google India MD Rajan Anandan and other existing investors in April 2013.

- Other competitors include BookMyDoctor, Practo, Eatherway and DrSupport among others.

Viber introduces videos calls to its mobile chat apps for Android and iOS

Viber  the mobile messaging app bought by Japan’s e-commerce giant Rakuten for $900 million, is spreading its wings beyond voice calling on mobile after it introduced video calling to its Android and iOS apps.

The service has offered video calling from its desktop apps for some while, but Viber CEO Talmon Marco tells TNW that it is now ready to replicate the experience on mobile, after two years of work and testing. Marco says that the service is robust enough to support video calling even on the most basic network connections, but obviously a weak signal won’t produce an HD-quality experience.

In addition, Viber 5.0 for Android and iOS introduces QR codes for sharing contact details — so if you meet someone new and want to share details, it’s as simple as scanning their code using your phone.

Marco, who tells us that he remains very hands-on despite Viber’s lucrative exit, says that the company is preparing three more “big” releases before the end of the year. One will be games, he says, and we suspect another might be the integration of Rakuten’s e-commerce service — something that Rakuten thinks can “completely change” its business.

“Our mission isn’t over,” Marcos says. “Now that you can make video calls from your phone as well as on your PC and Mac, you can always talk in the way that’s most convenient for you, wherever you happen to be. ”

Viber isn’t the first messaging app to support voice calls — Line, WeChat, and Kakao are among the plethora of rivals that already offer the service.

Microsoft's MSN-Branded Bing Apps Coming to Android and iOS Soon

Microsoft will soon re-brand its Bing suite of apps to MSN apps and will introduce them on Android and iOS platforms in the coming months. The company has however not mentioned the exact dates when the apps will reach the other platforms.

"In the coming months, we will release a suite of MSN apps across iOS and Android to complement our corresponding Windows and Windows Phone apps. You only need to set your favorites once, and your preferences will be connected across MSN, Cortana, Bing and other Microsoft experiences," stated the official Microsoft blog post.

Once synced across platforms and devices, the service would show user's preferred selections from MSN Food & Drink, MSN Sports, MSN Money or any other sections "at your PC at work, on your iPad in the living room, or on your Android phone when you are on the go."

Notably, the Bing apps that are re-branded to MSN apps are Travel, Weather, News, Health & Fitness, Finance, Food & Drink, and Sports. These apps are currently available on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 platforms only, but will be made available individually on Android and iOS platforms.

Microsoft has also redesigned its MSN website giving access to the re-branded apps on the top bar along with easy access to other services including Outlook, Office, OneNote, OneDrive, Maps, Facebook, Twitter, and Skype. Users can see the new MSN website by going at preview.msn.com. The latest move by Microsoft falls under the company's "mobile-first, cloud-first" vision which Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, had detailed earlier this year.

The company says the revamped site fits in with Microsoft's overall strategy of making mobile phones and Internet-based services priorities as its traditional businesses - Windows and Office software installed on desktops - slow down or decline. The changes also come as people increasingly read news on smartphones and tablets rather than desktop computers.

Facebook Messenger for Android Update Lets Users Draw, Type Over Photos

Facebook on Friday has released an update to its Messenger app for Android with ability to draw and type messages on photos that have been selected to send from the device's gallery.

The updated version (varies with devices) of the Facebook Messenger for Android has been rolled out to users on Google Play India. The update was first reported by by Android Police.

With the updated Facebook Messenger app, users will need to tap on the photo icon in the bottom control row, which will bring up a horizontal photo reel. Once a user selects a photo, users will need to tap on the 'Aa' (text) or pen icon, in order to draw or type a message on it. The Android Police team also notes that the app doesn't seem to annotate a photo taken with Facebook Messenger's built-in "selfie cam" directly. Users will need to save it in the gallery and can follow the same procedure to select it.

Last month, Facebook had confirmed that it is currently testing the option to post stickers while commenting on a post. Notably, stickers had until that point only been available via the Facebook Messenger app.

The confirmation had come from a Facebook spokesperson when asked about the issue by The Next Web. "We are running a test which allows you to add a sticker to a comment on Facebook," replied the spokesperson.

The users can add the sticker in the same way they do in the Facebook Messenger app. As seen in one of the screenshots shared by Thodoris Konsoulas, the sticker button is placed besides the camera button in the comment bar. On clicking the sticker button, the option would expand with a number of default stickers and other sticker packs purchased by the user.

E-paper version of ST now on Android smartphone app

The updated ST Android apps let stories, pictures and videos take centre stage. 

BY VINCENT CHANG

Android smartphone subscribers to The Straits Times can now read an e-paper version which looks just like the print version of the English daily.

This feature has been available to ST's digital subscribers on the Web, iPhone, iPad and Android tablet platforms but was extended to Android smartphone users last week. Android tablet subscribers now get an additional perk over smartphone users: They can save a copy of the paper in PDF format to read offline later.

The latest versions of the ST Android apps have also been sporting a new look since last week.

"We had major issues previously with the design of the ST Android apps as they didn't cater to the vastly fragmented nature of the Android platform," said Mr Zuraimie Ismail, who led the redesign efforts. The app would look fine on certain mobile devices and screen sizes, but would not work on others, he said.

Besides fixing these issues, the updated apps look modern and clean, allowing stories, pictures and videos to take centre stage.

ST apps provide free breaking news and push notifications to all readers. They also provide local weather and stock market updates. Subscribers get access to a seven-day archive and the paper's full print content.

This is the first major revamp of the Android apps since their debut. The tablet version was launched in July last year while the smartphone app was released in 2012. Mr Zuraimie said the apps will be updated constantly based on feedback from users.

You can subscribe to The Straits Times smartphone or tablet packages for $26.65 per month.