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|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

BookMyShow have announced that it has successfully rolled out its new in-app messaging feature Plan it to all its users on Android as well as on iOS. BookMyShow Plan it allows friends and families to interact with each other in real time, suggesting movies, show times, venue options and eventually complete the movie tickets booking – all without having to toggle between BookMyShow and other instant messaging apps or phone calls to arrive at a decision.

Not only this saves users the hassle of coordinating through endless trails of messages across multiple mobile phone windows, the in app messaging feature also simplifies, aids and enhances the movie booking process. With this, BookMyShow has blended social conversations into its app functionality while building on conversational commerce as the backbone.

BookMyShow Plan it automatically allows users to add friends from their phone books and start chatting. They can either initiate private one-on-one conversations or create a group to start discussions on movies. Similar to other popular instant messaging apps, Plan it supports encrypted conversations, multiple conversation threads at a time, lets users receive notifications, see when their friends are typing a message or are online and know when a message has been read.

Ravdeep Chawla, Head of Product, BookMyShow said

Movie watching in India is more of social affair or experience. With this in mind, we integrated Plan it within the BookMyShow app to address a critical pain point of our user- the hassle to switch between multiple modes of communication while arriving at a movie going decision. BookMyShow Plan italso underlines a strong mobile centric approach. A feature such as this made absolute sense to us since over 75% transactions on BookMyShow happen over mobile.

Plan it has been conceived, designed and built by the in-house technology team at BookMyShow, keeping the users and their experience and journey on BookMyShow at the core. We are confident that Plan it will result in increased user engagement on our platform while improving and enhancing the overall experience on BookMyShow. 

All BookMyShow app users need to only update their apps to start using this amazing feature and seamlessly interact with their friends and family while making a movie plan. Existing Plan it users can also introduce this feature to others simply extending an invitation to them throughany of the social sharing platforms including Whatsapp, Facebook, or even through SMS. The feature has already facilitated over 130k [1,30,000] movie plans and has more than 70,000 active users per day.

About BookMyShow

BookMyShow is India’s largest online entertainment ticketing platform that allows users to book tickets for movies, plays, sports and live events through its website, mobile app and mobile site. Founded in Mumbai  in 1999 and launched in 2007, BookMyShow is now present in over 400 towns and cities across India, currently meeting the entertainment demands of millions of customers. For more information, please visit BookMyShow

 

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

BookMyShow announced that it has successfully migrated its existing mobile website to an all new Progressive Web App [PWA]. The new and improved version not only replicates the BookMyShow app design, but it is also much lighter, faster and user friendly. This has also made BookMyShow the first online entertainment ticketing brand in India to move to PWA.

With the new PWA, all BookMyShow users will be able to get the immersive app like experience on their mobile web browsers, including Chrome, Mozilla and Firefox. Even on slow networks, the BookMyShow pages will load more than 50% faster now, and users will also be benefited from reduced data consumption and increased responsiveness.  The new progressive web app has already increased conversion rates by more than 80% as compared to the older mobile website.

Anish Tripathi, VP-Product Design, BookMyShow said

On BookMyShow, almost 80% transactions are through our mobile platforms – which includes both app and mobile site. Recently after introducing our new app, we went back to the drawing board to develop an improved version of our mobile website.

The goal was to provide a user experience that was fast, responsive, reliable and engaging – all at the same time. With our new Progressive Web App, we are broad-basing our platform to include those users who either don’t have the space to download a new app or are looking for options that use less data and doesn’t require constant updates. We have already seen an exponential increase in conversion rates and expect our new web app to significantly contribute to reaching new users.

Specifications of BookMyShow Progressive Web App

  • BookMyShow has moved to a new Language Stack to accommodate the massive number of web pages served on BookMyShow; the code for the new progressive web app has been completely rewritten using React.
  • With the new design in place, the progressive web app is clutter-free and has similar look and feel compared to that of the native app, ensuring that the users can stay within their comfort zones.
  • Data consumption by the new PWA is substantially lower due to effective optimization; when a user requests for a particular page, only assets required for that page are loaded, thereby saving on data. Even on 2G networks, the initial load time is just 3.1 seconds and even for personalized movie suggestions, the new progressive app takes less than 2 seconds in subsequent loads.
  • To improve the overall performance and to increase efficiency and responsiveness, the new version consists of smaller progressive web apps that work together for better results.
  • Offline support has also been extended to movie listings and show time pages.

About BookMyShow

BookMyShow is India’s largest online entertainment ticketing platform that allows users to book tickets for movies, plays, sports and live events through its website, mobile app and mobile site. Founded in Mumbai in 1999 and launched in 2007, BookMyShow is now present in over 400 towns and cities across India, currently meeting the entertainment demands of millions of customers.

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

The wrap of Google I/O Day 2 saw several technical sessions, tracks and announcements across the Google product ecosystem. Here are the major takeaways for developers in areas including Android Instant Apps, Progressive Web Apps, and numerous improvements in developer tools.

Play Developer and Android Instant Apps

Developers can grow their business with the subscriptions dashboard, which helps them retain subscribers by providing new metrics, like subscriber churn. With Play app signing, Play can now manage the ‘signing keys’ developers use to keep their apps secure, reducing risk from lost keys and allowing Play to reduce APK size. The revamped Play Console includes Android vitals so developers can identify and fix bad behaviors in their app, reducing crashes and battery drain.

On the Android side, instant app development is now open to all developers today with the Android Instant Apps SDK, enabling a new approach for running apps with no installation required. Learn more on the Play Developer blog and the Instant Apps Blog.

Mobile Web momentum with Progressive Web Apps

Progressive Web Apps [PWAs] have gone mainstream as developers globally are increasingly relying on them, and their progress was on display at I/O. If you are a developer building for the mobile Web, PWAs allow you to give users a polished, app-like experience [with easy navigation, offline features, and more], without going through an install step first. At I/O, Google shared more on how PWAs are becoming increasingly popular, especially in emerging markets where data and connectivity are limited.

For example, well-known developers like Twitter, Forbes, and Lancome have seen significant traction with PWA usage, and several teams within Google are also building their own PWAs, including Search, Maps, and more. Learn more on the Mobile Web blog.

Developer Products

Google announced improvements to Firebase, Google’s unified app SDK which launched at I/O last year. Firebase enables developers to build and manage their apps and grow their businesses using Google’s tools. Among the announcements is Firebase Performance Monitoring, which gives developers visibility into how users are experiencing their apps across a variety of devices and network conditions.

Google also spoke of Cloud Functions for Firebase, an integration between Firebase and Cloud that enables developers to run logic without needing their own servers. Learn more on the Developer Blog.

Ads

AdMob, Google’s mobile ad platform, has a newly-redesigned  intuitive UI, app-centric dashboards, and a simpler sign-up flow. AdMob also now gives developers a more complete picture of ‘lifetime value’ – including how often people use the apps, how likely they are to take action within the app/re-engage with it, and how healthy the app’s growth is.

Next, there are new updates to Universal App Campaigns to help developers reach more engaged users across Google’s largest properties. And finally, the new App Attribution Partner Program will now give AdWords users a more consistent understanding of their app’s advertising campaign performance to make better marketing decisions. Learn more on the Ads blog.

VR/AR

Google announced several enhancements to the core technologies that enable VR and AR, and in platforms that make them accessible to more people. In Tango, the technology that enables devices to track motion and understand depth and space, Google announced WorldSense – a positional tracking technology that makes the newly-announced Daydream standalone VR headsets work without any external sensors.

Standalone headsets, a new category of devices built by Google’s partners, are also coming to Daydream later this year. They are easy to use, and the form factor enables partners to optimize components like sensors and displays for VR. And with more than 150 apps, there’s lots to explore, watch and do in VR, regardless of which Daydream-ready device you choose.

The upcoming 2.0 release for all headsets, Daydream Euphrates, has features that make VR more fun and easier to share with others. You will be able to capture what you are seeing, as well as cast your virtual world right onto the screen in your living room. And, soon, you will be able to watch YouTube videos in VR with other people and share the experience in the same virtual space. Learn more on the Daydream blog.

|In: AI|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Google made several announcements by the close of Day 1 of I/O 2017, covering advancements in products such as Google Photos and Google Assistant, the beta release of Android O and updates in ML, VR and AR.

Image Source – StartupWorld

This list recaps the most important ones, with links to more information on their blogs.

AI and ML

  • Tensor Processing Units  – Aimed at powering machine learning – is into its second generation
  • Built to run machine learning algorithms faster and more efficiently.
  • Optimized for both inference and training, it will help power the AI era.

Detailed information can be found here

Android

  • Android O focuses on delivering a more fluid experience, faster response, and stronger vitals
  • Android Go, a special version of the latest Android release aimed at entry-level devices [upto 1GB RAM]

Detailed information can be found here

Smart Reply is coming to Gmail’s one billion for Android and iOS. More information about Smart Reply can be found here

New in Google Photos

  • Suggested Sharing identifies the best photos of your friends, and reminds you to share it with them
  • Shared Libraries share photos directly with a specific person – it shows up directly in their photo feed
  • Control the photos shared by selecting subjects, or a certain date forward.

Detailed information about the updates can be found here

Google Assistant

  • It is now coming to iOS
  • The Google Assistant SDK enables Third Party Developers to easily integrate Assistant into their devices.

Detailed information about updates in Google Assistant can be found here

Google Lens brings a new way for computers to ‘see’

  • Learns more by identifying things around you
  • Perform actions directly within a Google Allo conversation
  • Identify buildings and landmarks in Google Photos

More information about Google Lens can be found here

VR/AR

  • Daydream is coming to the next LG flagship, and the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+
  • Standalone AR/VR devices coming, with hardware fully optimized for VR
  • Features WorldSense, a new headset tracking technology for tracking your precise movements in space

Further information can be found here

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

On Day 1 at Google I/O at the Shoreline Amphitheater at their Mountain View headquarters, Google celebrated a big milestone of reaching two billion monthly active Android devices globally. At the event, Google showcased a number of ways they are working on to make Android even more useful, including a beta release of Android O and a new initiative to help bring Android to the next billion users.

Image Source – Google I/O

Android O: fluid experiences to help you do more

Android O, coming later this year, will bring more fluid experiences to your smaller screen, as well as improvements to areas of the phone called ‘vitals’ like battery life and security. With picture-in-picture, you can seamlessly do two tasks simultaneously, like checking your calendar while planning a party on a Duo video call.

And Smart Text Selection improves copy and paste-because who enjoys fumbling with text selection handles? By using machine learning to recognize entities on the screen-like a complete address-you can easily select text you want with a double tap, and even bring up an app like Maps to help navigate you there.

Under the hood, Android O aims to make your phone startup quicker and your apps faster, with added optimizations for developers to help prevent your battery from draining. Because with all of Android O’s new features, you are going to want a device that can last all day. Android O will begin rolling out later this year, but developers can try the preview at android.com/beta now. Read more on the Android Developer Blog.

Reaching the next billions of users with a new initiative: Android Go

This is a new configuration of Android – an initiative for entry-level Android devices. The goal of Android Go is to get computing into the hands of more people by creating a great smartphone experience on all Android devices with 1GB or less of memory.

Android Go is designed with features relevant for people who have limited data connectivity and speak multiple languages, and comes to life through three key areas: the Android OS, Google apps, and the Google Play Store. It is an optimization of the latest release of Android, starting with Android O, to run smoothly on entry-level devices.

It will also consist of specially designed Google apps-like YouTube Go, Chrome and Gboard-to use less memory, storage space and mobile data. And there will be a version of the Play Store that highlights apps specifically designed for the next billion users coming online, while still offering the entire app catalog.

All three of these things will ship together, as a single experience, starting in 2018.

Keeping you safe with Google Play Protect

Today Google introduced Google Play Protect-a comprehensive set of security services for Android, providing powerful new protections and greater visibility into your device security.

Play Protect is built into every device with Google Play, is always updating, and automatically takes action to keep your data and device safe, so you don’t have to lift a finger. Play Protect detects and removes apps that might be harmful. And with more than 50 billion apps scanned every day, Google’s machine learning systems are always on the lookout for new risks. Also being launched is ‘Find My Device’ as part of Google Play Protect, allowing you to locate, ring, lock and erase your Android devices-phones, tablets, and even watches. Google Play Protect is available out-of-the-box on every Android device with Google Play.

For more information and images, visit the Android blog.

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 1 Comment

Reliance Retail, India’s largest retailer, is now delighting customers with attractive cashback offers on JioFi [the portable 4G voice and data hotspot device]. These offers will facilitate 2G & 3G Phone users as well as Laptop and Tablet users to move to Jio Digital Life.

Reliance Retail has introduced two special ‘cashback offers’ on JioFi devices across various channels of sales for the convenience of the customer. The two offers namely, 100% cashback offer under exchange and 50% cashback offer without exchange are available to customers buying a new JioFI device at the current retail price. All that a customer has to do is buy a new JioFI device and subscribe to a new Jio sim connection to avail the cashback benefits which will be available through add-on high speed data vouchers.

Special 100% cashback offer under the exchange scheme has been launched keeping in mind customers wanting to exchange their existing old dongles/data cards/Wifi Hotspot routers. The 100% Cash back offer available at multi brand retail outlets and online at Jio, is an attractive cashback offer with customer receiving full value back by receiving 4G Data vouchers worth Rs. 2010. So Customer just buys a new JioFi with a new Jio SIM, exchanges old dongle and gets 100% Value back. This attractive offer is live across India, but is only available for a limited period.

This 100% Cashback offer is exclusively designed for customers to enjoy 100% value with JioFi, a device that works with Laptops, Tablets, 2G/3G/4G Smartphones, Smart TVs, and other wifi enabled devices.

There is another fantastic offer for customers who would want to buy a JioFi but do not have a Dongle/Wifi Hotspot router to avail exchange offers. This is the 50% non-exchange cashback offer i.e. JioFi is effectively available only at Rs. 994/- [substantially less than the actual cost of Rs. 1999/-]. This offer is available across all channels as indicated above for customers who want to buy a JioFI device without exchanging any old data card/dongle. Under this offer customers can buy a new JioFi and receive a cashback of 4G Data voucher worth Rs 1005/-.

JioFi, the portable 4G Voice + Data device from Jio is available at Reliance Digital, Jio stores, as well as several thousand other multi-brand retail stores across the country including online channels. The channels where these JioFI cashback offers are available include Device channel, recharge channels, IT Channel stores that sell Laptops/Tablets, Modern Trade channel stores and online at Jio.  In addition customer can also do direct to home order with Express Delivery option and get JioFI delivered at Home by simply calling 1800-200-2002.

Above all with these offers, the customer also will be able to enjoy the Jio Prime Membership with Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan benefits by recharging with a total of Rs 408 for the first recharge which entitles customers to unlimited data and voice calls for a period of 84 days. Subscribers can avail 1GB of 4G data every day during this period and on exhausting the 1GB data limit subscribers can continue to access unlimited data at revised speeds. Additionally, with the new cashback offers customers can continue to enjoy 4G data even beyond the daily FUP limit of 1 GB through the cashback data vouchers, applicable with each subsequent recharge post the Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan offer period.

|In: India|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

With around 391 million users, India has already become the second highest country in terms of mobile internet users. This is expected to grow rapidly to around 650 million mobile internet users by 2020. At the same time, data consumption by 2020 could potentially increase 10-14 times. The Boston Consulting Group [BCG], along with TiE, have released a report titled The $250 Billion Digital Volcano: Dormant No More that describes this phenomenal digital adoption in the country.

The impending digital salience can be seen from the following indicators:

  • High speed mobile internet adoption is set to reach ~550 Mn users by 2020, almost 85% of the total mobile internet users
  • Average data consumption is projected to reach ~7-10 GB per user per month by 2020
  • India’s internet economy is expected to double from USD 125 Bn to USD 250 Bn, growing from

the current ~5% to ~7.5% of the country’s GDP

The report reveals that while so far mobile internet users have proliferated and Smartphone users have gone up by 4 times, high speed internet users have still been limited only to ~56%. Thus, average data consumption per user continues to be low, standing at less than 1 GB data per month vis-a-vis developing economies like Indonesia and Brazil at 2–3 GB/month and developed economies like Japan and US at 9–11 GB/month. However, the situation is about to change.

Nimisha Jain, a BCG partner and report co-author said

It is essential to understand the three forces that are now synergizing to unlock internet consumption in India. Firstly, by 2020, 4G enabled devices are expected to grow 6 times to 550 Mn devices, constituting 70% devices in use. Secondly, reliable high speed data is becoming both ubiquitous as well as mass affordable (data rates have reduced to less than one-third in just 4–5 months). Lastly, digital content is proliferating as well as improving in quality, thus driving consumption.

Increased high speed internet adoption, the report says, is expected to increase time spent online by 2020 to almost 3-4 times. Moreover, the amount of video consumed online is on the rise especially driven by online media and entertainment. As internet access ceases to be a constraint, consumers will become more quality conscious, resulting in an increase in the average video resolution. Driven by these changes in online consumption, average data consumption per user is set to increase by 10-14 times by 2020.

Geetika Dayal, Executive Director, TiE Delhi-NCR added

The report comes at a time, when the conversation has moved from ‘Internet of Things’ to ‘Internet of Everything’, and digitization presents a great opportunity for multiple stakeholders.  Innovation is what leads to sustainability, and sustainable growth in the current entrepreneurship ecosystem will enable India to chart its own success story.

India’s internet economy is expected to double to become USD 250 billion by 2020. E-commerce and financial services are projected to lead this growth. For instance, share of digital payment transactions could more than double to go up to 30–40% by 2020. Digital economy will have a much broader influence beyond the direct economic impact. Digital adoption will deliver several citizen-centric social benefits like enhancing ease of doing business, improving access to services and products and transforming governance.

As the new digital paradigm emerges, adapting to change will become critical. For instance the impact on jobs is expected to be transformational. Increased automation will minimize manual and repetitive roles while roles in upcoming spaces become coveted, e.g. Human-machine interaction. Existing roles will also undergo transformation as low-value adding tasks get automated. New ways of working are expected to emerge with an increasingly flexible workforce optimizing for efficiency. At the same time, genesis of new technology-led business models will give impetus to entrepreneurial activity and create new opportunities.

About India Internet Day

India Internet Day is a leadership conference that looks at setting conversations around a long term vision for the industry. The idea of India Internet Day is to look at paradigm shifts in the internet industry globally and what that means for the internet business in India. While based in India, the event seeks to have a strong global connect. The forum also explores the shape of things to come while connecting with the established players, outliers and experimenters – making the forum as a point of reference. In this our fifth year, #iDay2017 goes beyond the predefined boundaries and explore issues of far more relevance and impact. For more information, please visit India Internet Day

|In: Mobile|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Contributing to more than one-third of the daily user on-boarding and verification’s on third party mobile apps, TrueSDK is now available for iOS and web-based platforms in addition to Android platform.  The update will allow developers and startups across verticals and across mobile and web platforms to leverage TrueSDK’s phone number identity based frictionless service for authenticating, auto-filing profile and on-boarding users. TrueSDK offers end users a seamless and one tap process for authentication and verification by using their phone number based True caller identity.

Priyam Bose, Director and Head Worldwide Developer Relations at Truecaller said

TrueCaller is growing at an unprecedented pace and TrueSDK was born out of the sheer commitment to give back to the developer community and to help simplify user on-boarding. While so far, the service was only available for Android platform, TrueSDK will now become platform agnostic with its additional support for iOS and web platforms, making it easier for developers to create unified experiences across platforms for their end users.

This opens up opportunities for developers to create multiple use-cases, keeping mobile number identity at the heart of the solution.

Since its launch last year, TrueSDK has partnered with leading digital brands, app developers and startups in India such as Quikr, Mobikwik, RedBus, CarDekho, OYO, Ixigo, Sharechat and FreshMenu among others.

Highlighting the key milestones on TrueSDK, Priyam Bose added

TrueSDK is contributing over one third of daily user on-boarding and verification’s for our app partners. Number of apps leveraging TrueSDK [across use cases] has grown by over 8x and daily signups/verification’s via TrueSDK have gone up by 15x.

Further engaging and extending the commitment to the developer and startup community, Truecaller has also recently initiated an all-India Build for Mobile tour to foster innovation, collaboration on the Truecaller platform. The tour has been successfully concluded in Bengaluru and Gurgaon, collectively witnessing overwhelming participation from over 300 developers and product leads.  Next stop of this India tour will be in Mumbai.