If you use any type of app or online service that requires a password, you may be familiar with waiting for the code to be sent via SMS. This code is known as a OTP for short, and can only be used once to login. As we sit and wait for the OTP to appear in our inbox, the bigger hassle is when trying to copy the code. Well, Truecaller has solved that for Android users!
Simple Copy OTP
Most messages containing an OTP are filled with other text, however, all we are searching for is that number. At Truecaller, we have created a clean and clear copy button on the notification containing the OTP. This means Truecaller recognizes and highlights the number you need and provides a one-tap way to copy.
How to Enable OTP Messages
To get this feature, you will need to enable Truecaller SMS in your app. You can make Truecaller your default SMS app, and gain additional features of spam protection.Make Short Calls with an Improved Flash!
With flash messaging, you can avoid calling or writing a full text message! It’s a great tool when you need to ask a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question, and avoid the small talk. In fact, most SMS responses take around 15 minutes. But with Flash, replies are received in around 30 seconds!
In the newest Android update [v. 8.69], TrueCaller has improved the functionality their users have asked for!
JetSynthesys’ Sachin Saga Cricket Champions announced a successful milestone of achieving 2 Million downloads within less than a month of its launch. The mobile game has now become one of the top-most downloaded cricket games on Google Play in the month following its launch and the fastest cricket game to reach this download milestone.
Launched last month by the Master Blaster himself, the game gives fans an opportunity to relive the legend’s career by stepping into his shoes. Sachin Saga is the only game to receive almost 1 million pre-registrations on Google Play and was also featured as #1 by Google on pre-registration amongst top global titles.
Going beyond the digital realm, JetSynthesys is all set to celebrate this milestone with the introduction of mobile eSports to cricket fans in India and the qualifier rounds began on 5th January, 2018. For the first time ever, the gaming company will host the mobile e-Sport finals at the India Gaming Show from 19th~21st January 2018 in the city of Bengaluru.
A one of a kind mobile game entertainment event, the platform will witness lakhs of mobile game players of Sachin Saga, competing virtually to qualify for the final rounds and participate in the real-life tournament to win prizes of INR 1 lakh and more at the finale!
Sachin Tendulkar tweeted this download milestone and flagged off the tournament qualifiers on his twitter handle
Talking about this remarkable milestone, Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, JetSynthesys said
The game has grown from strength to strength since its launch and we are absolutely thrilled that it has become so popular among cricket fans and mobile game lovers. Celebrating 2 Million downloads, we’re bringing mobile eSports to the country for the first time in cricket and aim to blur the line between physical and digital, and simultaneously engage gaming enthusiasts in a unique experience of sporting events.
K7 Threat Control Lab has provided a threat advisory on the recently reported ‘Android Banking Trojan‘, which incidentally is not as recent as it is presumed to be. A storm in a tea cup indeed. The ‘Android Banking Trojan’ also referred as Bankbots, targeting banking applications is nothing new. It has been seen in the mobile malware world for quite some time now.
K7 Threat Control Lab has also emphasized that none of the banking apps that have been named are compromised, nor are they at some super high risk. However it is strongly advised that users ensure that a robust and up-to-date security software is installed on their phone before they use any banking app.
Analyzing this banking Trojan reveals that it still avails of the usual social engineering technique of masquerading itself as a Flash Player app to trick the user into downloading and installing it. As expected this malware is only available on third party markets of low reputation.
Further analysis reveals that the ‘Android Banking Trojan’ originated in Russia, and seeks out not only Indian banking applications, but also banking apps from other parts of the world, based on their geo-location.
Users must always be aware that apps like PDF readers, Flash Players or any document-related apps would never require device administrator privileges, nor would they usually request for permissions to ‘Send or Write or Receive SMS’ since these are not required for their functionality. In contrast, this Android Banking Trojan requests such out-of-context permissions from the user which should be considered very suspicious.
Precautionary Measures
K7 Computing recommends:
Installing a top-rated mobile security product such as K7 Mobile Security to block all kinds of infections
Regularly updating the mobile OS and security application installed to stay clear of mobile malware
Carefully analyzing the messages or alerts which are received before installing any app
Never installing apps recommended by strangers
Always preferring to download an app ONLY from the official Google Play store
Never enabling Download from Unknown Sources
Refraining from downloading applications that you do not need
Always verifying the reputation of the application by checking the reviews available before downloading it
In addition K7 Threat Control Lab has also reported that Android Banking Trojan was blocked as soon as it was first spotted. The desired feature is already incorporated in the K7 Mobile Security product. K7 Mobile Security users are protected against this banking Trojan and its variants with the detection name, Trojan [0051c57a].
SharkID, the Smart Phonebook app, achieved 1 lakh downloads; with their network database zooming past 1,75 cr. A bootstrapped StartUp with capital investment of $ 2 million, SharkID is a joint venture between e-Procurement Technologies and Silver Touch Technologies, founded by Ramesh Sinha, a technocrat and serial entrepreneur.
SharkID is a smart phonebook app backed by a highly scalable Service-oriented architecture with full stack technology, SharkID deploys a Big data Database Mongo and Redis for storage and Encrypted streaming for data security.
Speaking on the occasion, Ramesh Sinha, Founder – SharkID, said
Crossing a lakh downloads is a defining moment for SharkID. It reaffirms our core belief; that, given a best-of-breed, secure and smarter technology, User migration is inevitable. Every smartphone User will migrate to a smarter, easier and meshed experience, if someone provides it. And that is precisely what we do.
When 50,000 network connections get added every day and they zoom to 1.75 cr, it validates our belief many times over and is testimony to our technical array expertise and user experience. SharkID stands committed to provide bleeding-edge technology support and a secure, user immersive experience.
Elaborating further, he added
SharkID is geared to provide an immersive experience – based on your usage and communication pattern, our data analytics pack will smart-search for you and refer people with whom you can network. Added to this, you can also check your connects to the persons suggested, tightening the reference cycle and generating productive conversations.
Currently the company plans to deepen the user experience and expand the userpool across India to 10 million by March 2019
About Shark Identity Private Ltd
Shark Identity Private Ltd is a JV between Silvertouch Technologies and eProcurement technologies. A bootstrapped startup founded by Ramesh Sinha and Jignesh Patel, SharkID aims to replace physical visiting cards with digital cards over the next few years. For more information, please visit SharkID
India’s largest mobile-first financial services platform, Paytm has introduced Paytm Loyalty Points which customers can earn doing multiple activities within its ecosystem. To start with, all cashbacks that customers receive on the platform will be accumulated as ‘Paytm Loyalty Points’.
These points can then be redeemed across online platforms as well as over 5 million merchant outlets that accept Paytm. The company, which will also introduce more features in this offering in the coming year, aims to reward its vast user base and encourage them to transact digitally. This will further help Paytm’s offline merchant partners increase their business opportunities.
Paytm has created a wide ecosystem where it offers services such as recharges and utility payments, movies/flights/bus tickets booking among others. It is also a preferred payment method across major online platforms. Moreover, the company’s widely-accepted Paytm QR enables millions of offline merchants to accept Paytm, UPI and Card payments directly into their bank accounts at 0% charge.
With Paytm Loyalty Points, the platform aims to bring this entire ecosystem together and enable users to earn, accumulate and redeem anytime, anywhere. For instance: If a customer walks into his neighborhood store, he can scan Paytm QR and redeem his loyalty points.
We are extremely grateful to our millions of users who make us the most preferred payments platform in the country. With Paytm Loyalty Points, we are providing an exciting experience to our users who can now earn and redeem loyalty points while transacting on Paytm or at any major online platform and offline merchant outlets. This will further encourage our users to keep transacting using Paytm, and drive business growth for our merchant partners.
BookMyShow, India’s largest online entertainment ticketing platform, has been touted as one of the best apps of 2017 on both Google PlayStore and on Apple’s App Store. As per Google, BookMyShow was one of the most innovative apps this year, a title give to those which explored interactive new ways of budgeting time and money, helping others, and experiencing the world around them.
On Apple’s App Store, BookMyShow featured in their Best of 2017 list in its Trends of the Year section that featured App Store editors’ most download worthy games and apps globally based on topics and trends that were popular on the App store throughout the year. BookMyShow was recognized as an app which helps people get more done each day through time saving personal services that continue to evolve.
Rightly so, BookMyShow has moved beyond just an online entertainment ticketing platform and has completely transformed itself into an experience provider with options of booking tickets for sports, events and concerts or tuning into Jukebox – a platform to stream the latest music and podcasts.
BookMyShow, with its mobile first approach, continues to drive over 75% of total transactions through mobile [apps and mobile web]. In 2017, BookMyShow particularly focused on improving user experience on its platform. Some major visible innovations included roll out of Jukebox- BookMyShow’s audio entertainment service, becoming the first Indian entertainment ticketing player to be a part of WhatsApp for Business pilot wherein WhatsApp replaced SMS as a ticket confirmation channel and rolling out the app in additional vernacular languages taking the total regional language count to 8.
On the other hand, BookMyShow has been tirelessly working at the backend to make its app a lot more intelligent and intuitive. The app now recommends movies and events, basis a user’s purchase history, right at the top, along with preferred cinemas and show times. The interactions between a user and the app have also been made a lot simpler. They no longer have to toggle back and forth and can simply tap to choose between different show times, cinemas while booking for a movie. These minor yet extremely significant changes have improved performance by 2x on major booking screens such as homepage, show times, and seat layout.
On the non-movies front, BookMyShow continued to seamlessly handle thousands of booking requests at once for mega concerts like Ed Sheeran Live in Mumbai, tickets for which were sold out in a matter of 48 minutes! BookMyShow improved the post purchase experience of the users by engaging with them through video and audio content [Jukebox] hosted on BookMyShow. The discovery of experiences was also made easier with introduction of many new filters and improved search option.
Parikshit Dar, Director, BookMyShowsaid
At its heart, BookMyShow is a simple product that provides a simple solution to pertinent problems that users like you and I face related to entertainment experiences. In all our endeavours, we continue to identify and solve these problems to create an unmatched experience for our users. We are absolutely thrilled that our efforts this year have not just been loved by our users but also recognized by both Google and Apple.
Apple Best of 2017 can be found here. Google Play Best of 2017 can be found here
Google announced the launch of Files Go app that takes a mobile-first approach to freeing up space, finding files faster and easily sharing them with others, even when offline. Starting today, Files Go will be globally available on the Google Play Store for all phones running Android 5.0 [Lollipop] and higher.
Talking about the new app, Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Next Billion Users, Google, in a blogpost said
Every day, millions of smartphones run out of space. While phones with 16 GB or 32 GB of storage are becoming more popular, many phones around the world have much less storage, often as low as 4 GB. Users often struggle to keep on top of the storage space on their phones and are constantly having to choose between what to keep or delete. We have been testing Files Go for a month, and the average user is saving 1 GB of space and has shared many files with others without using data.
Files Go helps you
Free up space – Get personalized suggestions about which files to delete, whether it’s unused apps, large files, duplicate files or low-resolution videos and memes detected using Google’s latest mobile vision technology.
Find files faster – No more navigating through a maze of folders. Find exactly the stuff you want with smart filters that automatically organize your images, videos, apps, documents and more.
Backup files to the cloud- If you want to keep a file forever, select it from the Files menu and back it up to Google Drive or any other cloud storage app.
Share files offline – Transfer directly from your phone to a nearby friend’s phone without using any data. The file transfers are encrypted, fast (up to 125 Mbps) and free.
The Makaan Instant App is in line with the brand’s vision of empowering its users with top technology solutions. With Makaan Instant App, an Android user will now be able to experience the ease of Makaan App without actually having to install it on his/her mobile phone. If a user sends a link to property details from Makaan.com’s website to another user, the recipient will be able to access the details even if he/she doesn’t have the app installed. Whereas, without Instant App, tapping on the link would’ve taken the recipient to the web version of the site.
A user simply has to go to ‘Settings’, select ‘Google’ and then activate ‘Instant Apps’ from the list. He then has to visit Makaan.com website through Google on his mobile phone and engage in the most seamless property search experience ever, similar to using an app. This helps users to save storage space in their phone.
Commenting on the development, Ravi Bhushan, Group CPTO, Housing.com, PropTiger.com and Makaan.com, said
The usage of mobile phones for transaction purposes has seen a huge surge in India. We have also observed that more than half of Makaan.com’s web traffic is on mobile browsers. In line with the belief of having our customers at the centre of our offerings, it was imperative to invest in a technology like Instant Apps to ensure the best customer experience for all.
Speaking on the rising demand for this feature, Ravi further added
Our current engagement metrics on Makaan App is more than 2x better than the web experience. This clearly indicates that if more users start migrating to Instant App, the engagement levels will go up significantly and we will be able to offer better property search experience to more customers.
This service was introduced by Google in May 2017 and Makaan.com is one of the early adopters of this technology. Instant Apps also allows users to first check the interface of any app by selecting ‘Try-It-Now’ before downloading the app.
Get started with Makaan Instant App, you need to perform the following steps
Go to ‘Settings’ on your mobile phone and click on ‘Google’
In ‘Google’, click on ‘Instant Apps’
Activate ‘Instant Apps’ and switch it ‘On’
Now go to Google on your mobile browser and search for Makaan.com
You will find Makaan.com along with ‘Instant’ written across it in the search results
Click on Makaan.com and enjoy a seamless, app-like property search experience without installing the app on your phone
Do share your feedback/experience in the comments section…
Make Short Calls with an Improved Flash!
