Source: Midday

The world’s second most preferred method of communication, the text message is all set to change

Priyadarshini Nandy

No matter how high end your mobile phone is, messaging has always been a simple transaction between you and the service provider. But all that is changing fast…

You can now read a quick bit of news while you wait for your service provider to send the message to the recipient. You can also write in colour and express yourself beyond words – just by sending an SMS.

While this would’ve been incredulous even a year or so ago, the world of short messaging system is all set for a new revolution.

Welcome to SMS2.0 – A radical improvement on the existing messaging platform.

A new technology that’s rapidly gaining popularity, SMS2.0 has redefined content consumption on mobiles and has created one of the largest inventories of advertisement and content on the mobile phone. Mobile users, especially the youth are now experiencing something very different. The SMS2.0 mobile applications offers features like colour messages, fun emoticons, appeal, auto signatures and more. Users can also customise their messaging experience.

What is it?
SMS2.0 is an innovative content delivery platform with enhanced messaging services has been launched to revolutionalise the mobile Internet market in India. He unique messaging technology has converged messaging, content, search and marketing into one seamless application. SMS2.0 resides as the default SMS application on the handsets. It enables an interactive, non-intrusive, media on the mobile phones, and gets consumer to discover a host of relevant content services on their mobile handsets. This innovation has been welcomed by the consumers, service providers, and leading content providers, creating customised content and advertising campaigns for this new media.

This Next-Gen technology innovation in the mobile media space has brought about a paradigm shift in the mobile user interactivity.

Anuj Kumar, executive director, India and South Asia of Affle, the company to currently which holds the patent to this product in India, believes this will completely revolutionise the way people use the SMS. “If a user can get all the information like news updates, stock market info and other customised content for free on their phones, their interactions with the mobile phone would be much higher. Even for advertisers, they get to reach their target audience without being very intrusive. We have currently tied up with Airtel, where the customer has to get in touch with the service provider and install the application on the phone,” he says.

“Every time a person types in a message, he gets a ticker at the bottom of his compose page where he can get some preset information. Again, when the message is being sent, a web page opens up, giving him more details on the same subject. This way he has more use of his phone than to just send and receive messages,” he further adds.

What do you get?
You are privy to an interesting SMS experience with new features like colour messages, fun emoticons, appeal, content and fonts of choice among others. You also have instant access to information, jokes and other news of interest. Here, you also get to discover the best of MMS, IM and email features. The application sends the same message seamlessly to a phone number or an email address. And finally you’ll have easy ways to attach pictures, audio, video files with messages that Affle will make available with their next version very soon.