Times Internet Ltd. has entered into a partnership with Sweden-based communications and mobile identity platform Truecaller, to make sign-ups and phone number verifications easy for its users.
The tie-up is in line with TIL’s unique ‘Single Sign On’ initiative, the objective of which is to increase user convenience by providing a homogeneous sign-up and log-in interface across all TIL web and mobile properties.
Times Internet, with its 37+ digital properties, already offers unified logins [SSO] and loyalty. However, this new tie-up with Truecaller will further smoothen the sign-up and authentication processes for TIL’s customers, of whom 75% access the portals through their mobile devices.
Truecaller’s mobile number based identity solution – ‘Truecaller SDK’ innovation has made mobile authentication exclusively number-based since mobile numbers are highly personalized and user-specific. This enhances security and convenience by eliminating the hassle of repeated OTP SMS-based logins.
Commenting on the partnership, Gautam Sinha, CEO of Times Internet said
Consistent to our flywheel strategy, and catering to a mobile first customer base in India, TIL understands the need to reduce friction and make the experience seamless across properties.
Commenting on the partnership, Priyam Bose, Director & Head, Global Developer & Startup Relations, Truecaller said
Mobile number has become the primary identity in India. We are excited to partner and integrate Truecaller SDK, our mobile identity solution into TIL’s web and mobile platforms to bring ease of access to our diverse audience across its properties. The more touch points we can bring to our users, the more value we can add to their lives in India’s fast-maturing mobile-first market.
About Truecaller
People use Truecaller to stay ahead. It helps them know who’s getting in touch, filter out unwanted calls and SMS, and focus on what really matters. The company provides a suite of unique services such as a dialler that offers caller ID, spam detection, messaging and more. For more information, please visit Truecaller
In a report released by MoMagic Technologies, a mobile ad tech company on buying patterns of mobile phone buyers across India, it was also revealed that only 8% of the buyers bothered about screen quality.
A significant 44% of the people surveyed in a report said that they want better battery capacity in their mobile phones indicating most of the mobile phones in the market including several flagship phones are still unable to tackle this key issue.
With data prices dropping almost every month post the market entry of Reliance Jio and 4G enabled phones also getting cheaper, many Indian buyers have now moved to 4G phones. 56% of the respondents surveyed were using 4G phones, followed by 3G at 34% and just 7% were using 2G.
4G Mobile internet penetration in India is happening at a rapid pace and at very low price points customers can experience 4G speeds. This has led to faster adoption of customers to shift to shopping on ecommerce apps through mobile phones and this trend will continue to go up.
Survey also indicated that in spite of low mobile data cost, 41% of the respondents limit data themselves and 28% of them do not either limit or monitor data usage. As Indian buyers get technologically savvy, mobile processors brand has started to play key role in their buying decisions.
When purchasing a phone, 46 per cent pay attention to a processor brand name while 21 percent reckon phone design and camera quality and only 12 per cent pay attention to screen quality of a smartphone.
Other mobile buying trends from the survey are below
About MoMagic Technologies
MoMagic Group, founded in 2011, with strategic investments by MediaTek and Foxconn, has been consistently innovating-developing AI/Big Data Technology solutions and has the widest deployment of applications on Mobile platform ecosystem. The strong business presence in Asian Market along with Strategic tie-ups with multiple Mobile OEMs, MoMagic started Joint Venture companies with Leading OEMs. Other than Mobile Brands, MoMagic is Strategic Partner with leading Apps and Content Providers in Asian Market as well. For more information, please visit MoMagic Technologies
Upon integration of its web and mobile app products with Truecaller’s mobile identity solution, Truecaller SDK, leading e-commerce healthcare start-up 1mg has witnessed an impact upside of 21% increase in their daily user registration.
This integration with Truecaller SDK enables new 1mg users to instantly sign-up in a simple and quick manner using auto-fill functionality and completely bypassing the SMS based OTP process, using their Truecaller mobile identity.
With the above impact, this integration has enabled 1mg to seamlessly on-board new users and appropriately connect with them for fulfilling key use cases in their platform like doctor consultations, diagnostic tests and last mile medicine ordering and delivery. The Truecaller SDK solution has been live on 1mg for about a year now and they have seen very encouraging results.
Truecaller SDK is a developer toolkit for digital startups, app developers, and other online businesses. An efficient, secure and asset-light solution, Truecaller SDK is designed to minimize complexity in user on-boarding and verification process as well as helps businesses build more trust on their products, offer more personalisation and enables further evolution of the quality of users being served by them.
Commenting on the partnership, Priyam Bose, Director & Head, Global Developer & Startup Relations, Truecaller said
Our partnership with 1mg epitomizes the value we bring to the burgeoning integrated digital and mobile healthcare sector in India. Truecaller’s Mobile identity toolkit is enabling better personalization, more trust and seamless consumer experience, and predictable last mile service delivery. This in turn is leading businesses like 1mg to achieve better customer satisfaction and repeat engagements.
Truecaller enabled us to obtain verified user identities, right at the time of signup, significantly improving sign up rates while reducing hurdles associated with OTP based registration processes. For a mobile first country like India, Truecaller helped us bridge the chasm to giving users a seamless and automated mobile registration process thus reducing user drop offs and increasing engagement across the board.
NI, the provider of platform-based systems that enable engineers and scientists to solve the world’s greatest engineering challenges, announced the release of NI Trend Watch 2018. The report examines the technological advances propelling our future faster than ever before along with some of the biggest challenges engineers face looking ahead to 2018.
As per Shelley Gretlein, NI Vice-President of corporate marketing,
As we advance through the 21st century, our customers demand higher quality devices, faster test times, more reliable networking and almost instantaneous computing to keep their organizations moving forward. Not only is NI prepared to help customers keep pace by exploring the trends impacting our industry, we also provide actionable insights backed with an open, software-centric platform to accelerate the development of any customer-defined test, measurement or control system.
NI Trend Watch 2018 explores the following topics:
Machine Learning Puts Data to Work– Intelligent systems create and rely on data, but the ever-increasing quantity of data exacerbates the Big Analog Data Challenge. Discover how machine learning addresses the problem head-on, so engineers can focus on finding and solving the next grand challenge.
5G to Disrupt Test Processes – 5G innovation doesn’t stop at design. Test and measurement solutions will be key in the commercialization cycle, but 5G requires a different approach to test than previous wireless technologies. Find out what it’s going to take to make 5G a reality.
3 Mandates of the IIoT– The proliferation of smart and connected ‘things’ in the Industrial Internet of Things [IIoT] provides tremendous opportunities for increased performance and lower costs, but managing these distributed systems is often an overlooked challenge. Explore the three necessities for successfully managing your ‘things’.
Effects of Electrification– The vehicle electrification trend goes deeper than a global shift from internal combustion and hybrid vehicles to fully electric powertrains. Consider implications beyond the increasingly complex vehicle itself, including new demands on supporting infrastructure.
Breaking Moore’s Law – The constant pace of innovation has tracked remarkably close to Moore’s law for decades, despite a few minor revisions and much talk of its death. But now, the more than 50-year-old observation is facing health challenges again. Find out what that means for the future of the semiconductor market.
Truecallerhas announced the addition of a new spam filtering feature for its iOS app, which will seamlessly filter out SMS and MMS spam from iMessage and send them directly to a junk tab.
Similar to junk email, which is filtered into a designated spam folder, you will no longer have to waste time deleting unwanted messages manually from your device, allowing you to communicate safely and more efficiently with those that matter.
Truecaller blocks more than 100 million spam SMS and text messages each week globally, and with its ever-growing community, iOS users will now be able to filter out junk SMS with the most powerful spam blocking app.
On a weekly basis approximately 82 million spam texts or SMS are received by Indian users, out of which 24 million are automatically blocked.
We are always looking for ways to increase safety while communicating. Now, iPhone users will have a powerful tool to automatically filter junk and spam SMS, which has been highly requested by our users.
Along with recent releases such as Flash Messaging and Google Duo powered video calling, this is another in a long list of new features within the popular Truecaller app, which makes it a one-stop communications platform with a smart dialer, caller ID, and spam blocking service that is already used by more than 250 million users globally.
Truecaller has announced that it will be launching Truecaller Ads Manager, a self-serving platform for its ads, and soon be enabling advertisers to launch six-second videos on its platform.
Truecaller Ads Manager will open its unique ad inventory to small and medium businesses. The platform will enable small and medium sized businesses to manage their ad campaigns running on Truecaller’s ad platform proactively, enabling scale to reach a larger audience in a personalized manner.
As video consumption drives mobile usage in India, the move will allow marketers and advertisers to achieve top-of-the mind recall and increased brand awareness. The six-second video ads will further help them drive purchase intent and deliver contextually relevant messages to their audiences.
Truecaller Ads has grown as a platform with over 300 per cent the past 12-months, and has recorded 200 million impressions on its ads, in India alone. Following this growth, the move further strengthens Truecaller’s commitment towards inherently engaging their users with their partners.
Commenting on the launch, Ted Nelson, Chief Commercial Officer, Truecaller said
We are excited to launch Truecaller Ads Manager as it will give small & medium sized businesses an easy way to utilize our unique ad platform. With this launch, we aim to fast track programmatic advertising in India. Also, with the consumption of video content across entertainment and media soaring in India, this is a great opportunity for businesses to showcase their brand to their consumers by leveraging video content to reach their audiences.
Having launched many updates earlier this year, Truecaller is expanding its frontiers to add more value to the lives of its customers and partners.
Kruzr, positioned as the world’s first technology powered smart driving assistant launches their operations in the United States and United Kingdom, to address the problem of increasing number of deaths and accidents resulting from mobile phone usage while driving. Kruzr, a startup promoted by co-founders Pallav Singh and Dinesh Fatehpuria was conceptualized and designed on the principle of ‘safety first’ when it comes to driving.
The launch comes after several months of ground research and development to understand and address the requirements of the region. Following the success of their launch in India, the founders have decided to tap these markets considering the immense potential where the per capita adoption of cars is extremely high.
The smart app that leverages multiple technologies including pattern recognition, machine learning, natural language processing etc activates when one starts driving. The app then automatically manages incoming calls and messages to the owner [driver] with the personalized bot interacting and alerting inbound callers that one is driving at the moment and hence can leave a message for deferred attention.
Pallav Singh, Cofounder, Kruzr added
The per capita adoption of cars in the United States alone averages close to 800 as opposed to India which is around 167. This large adoption coupled with the heightened awareness of driving safety in these markets provides ample opportunity for a product like Kruzr. Team Kruzr have also taken into account the high speeds in which cars are driven in the West, increasing the probability of accidents and collateral damage.
According to a recent report in the US with regards to driving and accidents:
The National Safety Council reports that cell phone use while driving leads to 1.6 million crashes each year.
Nearly 330,000 injuries occur each year from accidents caused by texting while driving.
1 out of every 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving.
Texting while driving is 6x more likely to cause an accident than driving drunk.
Answering a text takes away your attention for about five seconds. Traveling at 55 mph, that’s enough time to travel the length of a football field.
Texting while driving causes a 400% increase in time spent with eyes off the road.
Of all cell phone related tasks, texting is by far the most dangerous activity.
94% of drivers support a ban on texting while driving.
74% of drivers support a ban on hand-held cell phone use.
How Kruzr works
Kruzr is a free mobile app, which can be downloaded by anyone on to their smart phones. It is the ideal driving assistant, always with you and protecting you on every trip short or long. Kruzr has been meticulously designed and requires zero effort from drivers. Once it is set up, Kruzr runs in the background and kicks in when driving is detected. It detects driving within 30 seconds and activates automatically. The smart app then handles all calls and messages and only allows the important communication to filter through. Only those calls that pass the ‘Extremely Important’ muster will reach and alert the driver immediately.
On receiving an important call, the driver is advised to slow down and park the car to be safe. Important message notifications are buzzed and displayed only when one stops, like at a signal. In this scenario, reading and replying to even important messages becomes totally safe and harmless even during a trip.
A light and easy to use application, Kruzr helps cut down distractions by more than 95%, thereby reducing road accidents and fatalities as a direct fall out. Currently the app is free for everyone to download and use.
Kruzr : Enhancements in future releases
The Kruzr team is also currently working on developing other new age technologies to further enhance the capabilities of mobile devices with an aim to ensure better safety on roads. These include complete voice interface and automatic crash detection. Voice interface will ensure that the driver never needs to look at the phone or take his hands off the steering wheel to get anything done on the phone. With automatic crash detection, the app will automatically detect accidents and we will ensure medical help reaches the accident site ASAP.
Kruzr for Android can be downloaded from here, iOS version is coming soon…
Building upon its core proposition of being a complete communication platform, Truecaller will be rolling out two new features – Number Scanner and Fast Track numbers with its upcoming Android release 8.45 in the coming week.
Number Scanner – Now you will be able to use the Truecaller app to scan a number directly from business cards, websites, street signs, shop fronts or anywhere you need to quickly lookup a number or store it to your contacts. This will enable users to have the proper resources to receive relevant information quickly, digitally and in their surrounding physical environment.
Scan & Pay – Users in India will also be able to scan a number and pay directly using Truecaller Pay – this is a more convenient way of making quick payments as opposed to scanning QR codes. You could be out for lunch with a friend, in a store, or even looking to pay bills – this will be beneficial to our users who are always on the go and lessens the need to carry cash or cards.
You can now send or request money, recharge, or even Flash Message any contact from your native phone book.
Truecaller has also launched Fast Track numbers, a service which integrates toll-free numbers for emergency services like police, fire, medical care, women’s helpline, roadside assistance, as well as essential categories like banks, couriers, airlines, railways, and insurance, all integrated directly into the app, accessible by the user without an internet connection.
These also include extremely useful ‘Bank Balance Check’ numbers that enable a user to check their bank balance via a return SMS from their respective bank via a missed call service. Located in the search bar, the in-built contacts will help users make phone calls at critical moments with a single tap.
Commenting on the feature set expansion, Narayan Babu, Director of Product & Engineering at Truecaller said
As a product made by the community and for the community, our commitment to our users is to constantly add features that enable them to stay ahead of the curve. These new features make Truecaller even more relevant in the real world. When you see an important phone number, you can directly pull it into your phone with Truecaller and use it, in seconds, to connect or make a payment. Also, during critical moments you can reach out to the right company, person or service with a single tap with Fast track numbers.
*Currently, Fast Track numbers will only be available in India.
