Twitter has been on a spree lately, as far as India is concerned. Last week, it announced a tie-up with U2opia Mobile, a Singapore-based startup to bring Twitter to phones without an Internet connection, with an eye on markets such as India, where a large part of the population still doesn’t have a data plan for their phones or indeed a phone which can support a data plan. And then we heard it’s going after Frrole, a Bangalore-based analytics startup.
And now it has tied up with one of the most popular apps on Android and iOS, Truecaller, the reverse-lookup telephone directory, to let Indian users find people on Twitter via their phone numbers. Truecaller works as a crowdsourced directory and shows you Caller ID for unknown numbers by cross-referencing it with other users’ phonebooks. It has also tied up with other directory services to show the numbers of local businesses, besides individuals. So now in addition to the name of the caller, users in India will be able to see the Twitter handle of the person as well as follow and tweet to them, via the Truecaller app. The tie-in comes with version 4.0 of the Truecaller app, which brings a new, more visual experience to the familiar app.
Truecaller’s CEO and co-founder Alan Mamedi said it was Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO, who made the partnership possible. Truecaller is one of the most popular apps on both iOS and Android. Currently between 10 and 50 million have installed it on their Android phone, according to the Play Store. TechCrunch reports that it has been adding a million users per week, with half of them coming from India. It goes on to say that more than 22 million Indians use Truecaller. At the moment, the Twitter integration will only be available on Android, and is slated to come to iOS sometime in 2014. “Our goal has always been to have Truecaller on available all platforms and we will continue to keep it a multi-platform product,” Mamedi said, before adding that the updated app for iPhones will be rolled out in the coming weeks, followed by apps for Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 platforms.
“Our users are gaining added value with Twitter being integrated into the app. We know that a majority of our users use Truecaller to identify unknown numbers, and we predict that the Twitter aspect will improve the quality of information Truecaller is able to provide,” the CEO said, before adding that Truecaller will be bringing other countries into the Twitter fold soon after this initial project.
And now it has tied up with one of the most popular apps on Android and iOS, Truecaller, the reverse-lookup telephone directory, to let Indian users find people on Twitter via their phone numbers. Truecaller works as a crowdsourced directory and shows you Caller ID for unknown numbers by cross-referencing it with other users’ phonebooks. It has also tied up with other directory services to show the numbers of local businesses, besides individuals. So now in addition to the name of the caller, users in India will be able to see the Twitter handle of the person as well as follow and tweet to them, via the Truecaller app. The tie-in comes with version 4.0 of the Truecaller app, which brings a new, more visual experience to the familiar app.
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This is how the Twitter integration works |
“Our users are gaining added value with Twitter being integrated into the app. We know that a majority of our users use Truecaller to identify unknown numbers, and we predict that the Twitter aspect will improve the quality of information Truecaller is able to provide,” the CEO said, before adding that Truecaller will be bringing other countries into the Twitter fold soon after this initial project.
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