Bangalore: GupShup Messenger, a mobile app recently launched by GupShupTechnology, is leading a wave of product innovation emerging out of India. While the products are built for a global audience, they’re designed to also meet the unique requirements of the local market. GupShup Messenger app uniquely enables users to reach everyone – both their friends and followers, on both smart- and feature-phones.

The GupShup app includes many innovations targeted at the Indian mobile user. Indian users find regular smartphone-only messaging apps restrictive since they don’t reach the large base of feature-phone users. GupShup solves this problem by sending messages on either data or SMS depending on the recipient’s device. Indian users need messaging tools that allow them to share their thoughts in uniquely expressive ways. GupShup includes a vast library of emoticons that reflect local themes, designs and culture, and even offers the unique ability for users to create and upload their own emoticons. Indian users will be able to save on SMS expenses by leveraging the embedded free SMS capability in the app.

Price-sensitive Indian users worried about data consumption will find that GupShup is optimized to have a small download size and low data consumption. Indian devices with low memory will still be able to handle the small footprint of the GupShup app – only 2MB for the Android version. Indian mobile users sensitive to battery usage will find that the GupShup app is optimized to reduce battery consumption. The first-time user experience has been simplified with help screens so that even the most novice user will not have a problem.

“GupShup Messenger app is designed for the unique technological and lifestyle needs of mobile consumers in India and other emerging markets. Our product innovations will enable Indian users to reach everyone they want and express themselves more naturally”, said BeerudSheth, Co-founder & CEO of GupShupTechnology. He added, “We listen carefully to our users, find innovative solutions and bring them to life with great design and engineering.”

The GupShup app works on Android, iOS, Blackberry and Nokia S40 platforms. The app, along with the previously available SMS and web interfaces, enables GupShup users to now send and receive messages from every mobile and web device. Smart-phone users send / receive messages using the data channel, while feature-phone users send / receive messages using SMS. If the message recipientdoes not have the app,GupShup will deliver a text message to them free of cost. In a way, that's unlimited, free text messages bundled into the app – the app user need not buy an SMS plan.

The app combines public and private messaging in one place – enabling users to reach every friend and follower. By combining public and private messaging in the same app, users can seamlessly switch and easily share messages with followers and friends respectively.

The GupShup service is used by over 65 million users that have created over 5 million communities. Existing SMS users of GupShup that migrate to the app will still maintain their profiles, history and relationships with other users. The service, previously known as SMS GupShup, will now be known simply as GupShup, reflecting it’s extension beyond SMS.

GupShup was part of the nominations in the Global Mobile Awards 2012 under the category ‘Best Product, Initiative or Service for Underserved Segments’.

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