Archive for Android Apps

Lookup messaging app for local shopping lets consumers chat with shops

new chat appLookup is a free messaging app that allows consumers to send messages about their shopping needs to local shops & businesses & get back an instant reply.

Obviously, it only works when the business or shop in question is a participating merchant using the app.

This calls for a managed rollout, so the Lookup messaging app is being launched with participating merchants in Bangalore, as a start.

It’s not hard to see the appeal of a messaging app for local shopping, as long they can get shops & businesses to hop on board. It eliminates the last remaining online-to-offline jump & makes it entirely eCommerce.

Instead of finding a business using search & then calling them up via telephone, the app allows you to message your query or interest in a product or service & hopefully get back an instant response.

You can make use the app to make reservations at bars, pubs, hotels, restaurants & more. You can likewise book spa, salon, hospital or clinic & other such appointments.

You can get information about prices, product availability, deals, timing of brick & mortar stores, etc.

You can even share a picture & get back an answer. For example, you could send a scan of a medical prescription to a pharmacy & ask if they have the medicines, how long they’re open &/or whether they can deliver to your place.

As a business, you can be available as a verified business on Lookup by using the “Claim your business” option in the app’s Settings menu.

Lookup is currently available as an Android app for Bengaluru (Bangalore). Hatchery Software, the company that developed the app, expects to expand to other cities soon.

The Bangalore-based Hatchery Software Pvt. Ltd was founded in 2014 by Deepak Ravindran. The company has received funding from Infosys founder Kris Gopalakrishnan.

Click here to download the Lookup messaging app on your Android device.

 

Image Credit: Google store/Lookup

 

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Verbally dictate your SMS or e-mail, this app shall do the rest

Write SMS and e-mail by voice is a messaging app that allows you, as the name indicates, to write & send an SMS or e-mail using just your voice.

The messaging app requires you to have installed Google Voice Search, & as such the app is available for Android powered devices. All you have to do is select a contact from your address book, & then speak your message into your smartphone.

Some Android versions may not be able to load the contact list by voice using this app. If so, update your Android version & sync contacts with your Gmail account to make it work. In any case, you should at the very least be able to speak your message.

The interface is simple enough to use. There’s a tab for contacts, & another one which will start converting your voice into text.

There are write, delete & send tabs, & you can choose a language. The app is available in 6 languages, including English, Italian, French, German, Spanish & Portuguese.

You can use it while driving or in any place where your hands are busy, but you want to send a message anyway. It’s a useful application & free, but hardly new. Siri & a bucketload of similar clones already let you use voice commands for everything from messaging to calls, reminders & even controlling your phone’s camera by voice.

The developer of the Write SMS and e-mail by voice messaging app is Palermo, Italy-based VeSaDev. Previous similar apps by the same developer include Auto reply & read Message, which reads incoming messages out aloud, & sends off an automatic reply to each one.

Both the Write SMS and e-mail by voice & the Auto reply & read Message app are available as a combined Message 2 in 1 (premium app) that reads incoming messages aloud, & you can set it to send off an automatic reply or disable this function & send your own message to the contact by voice.

Click here to download the Write SMS app on your Android device.

Image Credit: Google play

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