Amazon may unveil its own messaging app

Anytime would give Facebook, Hangouts and iMessage a run for their money.


The messaging app field is as hot as ever with Apple, Facebook and Google (among others) slugging it out... and Amazon appears to want in on the action. AFTVnews claims to have customer survey info revealing that Amazon is working on Anytime, a messaging app for Android, iOS and the desktop that promises a few twists on the usual formula. It has mainstays like message encryption, video, voice and (of course) stickers, but it reportedly has a few hooks that would make it easy to sign up and participate in group chats.

You would only need a name to reach out to someone, for one thing -- no WhatsApp-style dependence on phone numbers here. You only have to use Twitter-style @ mentions to bring people into conversations or share photos, and you can color-code chats to identify the most important ones. Naturally, there are app-like functions (such as group music listening and food ordering) and promises of chatting with businesses for shopping or customer service.

We've asked Amazon for comment. Provided the scoop is accurate, though, Anytime wouldn't be coming out of the blue. Amazon is already diving into communications between Echo calling support and business videoconferencing -- it wouldn't be a stretch to add text-based messaging to the mix. A chat app would give Amazon another way to bring people into its fold, and could serve as a sales hook for Amazon gadgets (say, sending and receiving messages through your Echo). Anytime might not keep Facebook execs awake at night anytime soon, but it could be an advantage if it catches on in the long run.

Source: Engadget

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amazon Prime Day Sale Starts Today: Deals, Discounts, Cashbacks, and More to Look Forward to

Image
E-commerce site Amazon is set to kick off its first Amazon Prime Day Sale in India, along with 12 other countries worldwide. The Amazon sale will see some major price discounts, offers, and deals on varied smartphones, electronic products, and other items across many categories on July 11. The Amazon sale begins on Monday, July 10 at 6pm IST , while the main sale day is on Tuesday, July 11. A reminder that this sale is only applicable for Amazon Prime members and the yearly membership for Prime is at Rs. 499. Amazon sale deals on mobile phones, and other gadgets Talking about smartphones first, the Xiaomi Redmi 4 will be made available in an open sale at Rs. 6,999 starting at 5pm IST today. OnePlus is offering its 6GB RAM/64GB storage OnePlus 5 variant with an extra Rs. 2,000 off on exchange offer in the form of Amazon Pay balance; both variants of the smartphone will get the buyer a Rs. 250 discount on Marsboy portable speaker. Smartphones from Honor (Huawei’s Terminal brand)
Read more

Biggest "country" on Earth, Facebook hits 2 billion monthly users

Image
Social network giant Facebook has reached yet another milestone! The total number of monthly active Facebook users is now much more than the population of any country in the world! Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced, "Facebook community is now officially two billion people." Its colossal user base is roughly a quarter of the world's population, which is about 7.5 billion. Growth numbers: Facebook continues to grow steadily Critics, who said Facebook's growth would be slow as users are attracted to other social networks, have been proven wrong again. The internet giant has reached the major milestone of 2 billion monthly users only 13 years after being launched. In Oct'12, Facebook crossed one billion monthly users only two years after it announced that 500 million people monthly use it. Fact: Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his college dormitory room When Zuckerberg founded "The Facebook" in 2004, he was still at Harvard University.
Read more

Facebook overtakes US with 201 mn active users

Image
Facebook on Friday said India, with 201 million active users, continues to be its second largest user base after the US that has 214 million active users. Facebook on Friday said India, with 201 million active users, continues to be its second largest user base after the US that has 214 million active users. "India has 201 million active users and retains the second place after the US," a Facebook spokesperson told IANS on Friday. Earlier this year, when Facebook announced its earnings for the fourth quarter and full year 2016, it showed a steady growth in its revenue and user base. Facebook reported $8.8 billion in revenue, $3.56 billion in profit and said more than 1.23 billion people were using the social network every day and that 1.15 billion log in from mobile devices each day. Facebook earlier announced it now has more than two billion monthly users around the world. Source: ET Telecom
Read more