Sweden-based startup Truecaller made its name as a nifty mobile app that helps people fielder out unwanted phone calls and messaging, but now it is making a..
Sweden-based startup Truecaller made its name as a nifty mobile app that helps people fielder out unwanted phone calls and messaging, but now it is making a move to become a platform.
At a press event in India, Truecaller’s largest market based on its 150 million users, the company announced a series of partnerships, including a tie-in with Google which will see the U. S. firm’s Duo newly launched video calling feature integrated into the Truecaller app.
The Truecaller app, which is dedicated to battling annoying calls, is about to become much more than that. In addition to the Duo tie-in, Truecaller is boosting the app by integrating Truemessenger , its two-year-old service for making messaging smarter and managing spam.
Now, in India, Truecaller for Android will go from being a dialing app alternative to a service that can handle calls and also manage SMS and make video calls.
But that’s not quite all, Truecaller is also introducing payments, too.
The company has partnered with ICICI Bank to enable peer-to-peer payments between Truecaller users. ICICI Bank is providing the technology behind the service, Truecaller confirmed. Beyond holding the requisite licenses for the service, the bank is using India’s UPI payment system to enable it. Truecaller Pay will open to users of any bank in India, both parties said.
“India has played an important role for the innovation we bring to our users. As our product has matured, so has India as a market which made it more organic than ever to build more meaningful services on top of Truecaller,” Alan Mamedi, Truecaller CEO and co-founder said in a statement in TechCrunch
So, video calls, text messages and payments — that sounds like the basis of a mobile platform in line with services like WeChat in China, Line in Japan and Kakao in Korea.
