Karaoke app SingPlus has launched a new feature to allow its users send Direct Messages in the community, making it more private and convenient to connect with music.
To send a Direct Message via SingPlus, the sender can visit the receiver’s personal SingPlus channel to tap on the message icon on the top right corner. Currently, the Private Message only allows SingPlus users to chat with texts only. More various forms will be available in the future such as pictures, covers, emojis and links. The previous versions of the app only allow users to comment and like each other publicly.
“Our aim is to connect the Africa continent with music,” said Tiger Zhang, the CEO of SingPlus, “this feature is just one more step towards the vision”. According to Tiger Zhang, the Private Message is also a long-wanted feature requested by many SingPlus users. “In fact, we’ve noticed some singles find their beloved ones in SingPlus, some of them even start international relationships because of their music stories.”
The feature is expected to allow users to share music with friends and even lovers via the community”.
The app is popular for users in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania.
WhatsApp is trialling a dismiss as admin feature that allows you to demote annoying group chat admins. Administrators currently have the ability to remove members from a WhatsApp group by deleting them from the chat.
The new ‘dismiss’ feature could let group admins take less drastic action by simply demoting other group admins to take control of the conversation.
The feature is currently in beta-stage testing on Android and is still under development for iOS according to reports.
It is unknown when, or if, the feature will make it to the mainstream version of the app and out of testing stages.
The Facebook-owned messaging app has recently made several changes to grant more power to group chat admins, including the testing of ‘restricted groups’ which allowed admins to ban other members.
As WhatsApp gives more responsibility to admins in these groups, it seems the firm is now allowing users to make sure the function is not abused.
The ‘dismiss as admin’ option could work alongside the restricted groups function in future. Users that are admins of a private chat will be able to access the feature by tapping the ‘group info’ button.
YouTube has launched an offline version of its app to its viewers in developing countries across the globe where internet connectivity is still a challenge.
The new app has a unique feature and design that allows YouTube users to download and save content they want offline giving options over quality and file size. The app also allows for local sharing with nearby users without using any data.
According to blog post from the company’s official website, YouTube Go was created to be relatable with fresh and relevant video recommendations tailored to viewers preferences; the app is designed to be offline first and improve the experience of watching videos on a slower network; it gives you more control over data usage by providing choice and transparency into the amount of data spent on streaming or saving videos. And finally, it’s social allowing you to share videos quickly and easily with friends nearby.
YouTube Go has now become available across Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. In coming weeks, it will also arrive in Senegal and Uganda. Given that it is intended for developing countries where majority of the devices are on Android, the app is available on Android devices only and not in the other operating systems.
The impact of technology on journalism is a question that has been asked and answered many times in many forums. However, we are all aware of one aspect of technology and that is it is ever evolving which means we have to keep up with it.
In this regard, the Aga Khan University School of Media and Communications (GSMC) has partnered with the Media Council of Kenya (MCK) to study how new technologies have impacted journalism. IPSOS Synovate will also participate as the implementing partner.
From the research, it is expected that we will find out about the challenges and opportunities associated with new skills adopted by journalists and their impact on news organizations.
The study will target journalists currently working in Kenya, and looking to find out about the various technologies they are using and their level of adoption as well.
“Based on the findings, GSMC will design and develop programmes that will address the gaps and needs of journalists,” said Michael Meyer, the founding dean at GSMC.
According to Meyer, the study will be an online survey targeting professionals working in various platforms including radio, print, online and television.
As it stands now, more media houses and journalists are finding it necessary to embrace new online tools such as blogs, social media and mobile apps in their work because if they don’t they will be overtaken by citizen journalism which keeps attracting more people by the day.
Today publishing news is less time-consuming, less expensive and you do not have to go and take images at the site or wait for someone to bring you’re their most cherished photo, you can just log onto their Facebook page and you will have a good photo for the story. Today, we easily carry out interviews online with our subjects and that has significantly reduced the amount of time one would use to publish a news story as you do not have to go to the field miles away to get a story. As long as they are online, bingo! You have your story.
With the uptake of all these tools there has also been a surge in fake news because anyone can get access to a blog and post whatever they want about the topical issues of the day. This has posed grave danger to the security of the country, people’s reputations, relationships, privacy and the marriage institution as well.
According to a study commissioned by the strategic communications consultancy Portland in collaboration with GeoPoll, 90% of Kenyans have seen or heard false news around the 2017 general election, with 87% reporting instances of deliberately false – or fake – news. The Reality of Fake News in Kenya, sought to quantify the prevalence and impact of false information during an election campaign in Africa.
Apart from fake news, technology has made many journalists throw ethics out of the window in an effort to compete with the merchant of fake news and citizen journalists. Some journalists do not allow themselves time to verify facts or even look for more decent photos. In some instances, people will post graphic photos of a dead or injured person with total disregard to their family. As expected, more people will flock to the website to see the photos and the
website will get more traffic as compared to the other news outlets. While the rewards maybe immediate or long-term, they can also lead to perennial court cases and you may have to pay billions in litigation for a fake story defamation or invasion to privacy.
Picking up from where we paused on the “Changes WhatsApp have made to revolutionize Instant Messaging” article, this sequel seeks to round things up on how WhatsApp have grown to become the biggest and most used Instant Messaging (IM) app over, how they did it and what revolutionary changes they incorporated into their platform to make them attain such height in less than 4 years after being purchased by Facebook billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg.
Let’s continue, shall we?
Voice and Video Calls
Before WhatsApp brought on voice call, then followed by video calls, several smartphone users opted for other third-party apps that offered such services for free. Apps like Viber, Skype and IMO were what most people used to place free voice and video calls, then WhatsApp happened.
Looking at things critically, you would agree with me that WhatsApp introduction of voice and video calls definitely boosted the user base of the instant messaging platform and likewise played a role in the decline in usage of Skype, Viber, IMO and the rest. This is very much understandable because why have three different apps playing different functions on your phone when you can have one that does it all?
WhatsApp has grown from not only allowing you text, but providing the liberty to do more. It is more like a lifestyle, not just an app.
Pin Chat and Star? messages
Understanding how frequent some users chat and receive messages as well as how humongous the volume of chats and messages could get, the pin chat and star messages feature came to solve such problems.
These two features, though introduced at different times, somehow play the same role but in different ways. The pin chat feature allows you easy access to your favourite chats or contacts while the star message feature allows easy access to your favourite messages or text. I compare the “Star messages” feature to “Bookmark” function of web browsers. The idea behind bookmark your favourite URLs or a website you will need later in the future is the same behind the pin chat and star messages feature. Yet another way to give instant messaging more life.
Status
Though the introduction of this feature raised quite a lot of controversy, it has however grown to become one of the biggest changes on the instant messaging platform. WhatsApp totally overhauled the old “text” status to bring life to the platform and give it a little “social media-like” touch. Apparently, WhatsApp not only wants you to text your loved ones, they want to see and have a closer feel of what I’d going on in their world through the sharing of coloured text, video and pictorial updates.
All the above features and more are some changes and more that WhatsApp have made to the app over the years which makes them trump rival and sits them comfortably on the throne of Instant Messaging.
What’s are your thoughts and contribution. Let’s hear them.
With more than a billion users all distributed across every country on the globe, WhatsApp didn’t just become everyone’s favourite instant messaging application overnight, it took some ideas and impactful changes to get to such position.
Back when WhatsApp was purchased by Facebook in 2014 for USD 19 Billion, many ridiculed the acquisition and thought that would be the end of the fun and innovation in WhatsApp. Three years later, opposite seem to be the case. Let’s have a peek at 5 changes that WhatsApp have brought on board ever since the acquisition that have changed the way and manner we message for the better.
1. End-to-end encryption
Though end-to-end encryption was only introduced and incorporated into WhatsApp sometime last year (2016), it has definitely changed the manner we text. How? Understanding how much of a deal security is in this era we currently live in, this feature has brought confidence and should I say “peace of mind” to the heart of users knowing that their chats, conversations, media, and other details on WhatsApp are protected from Mass surveillance, unlawful, unwanted and unauthorized access, as well as from hackers. Not even WhatsApp can have access your text messages; both sent and received.
Chats are protected by encryption codes which makes only the sender and receiver of messages the only eyes that can have access to texts.
Although some instant messaging apps (like Telegram) have had this feature before WhatsApp, many users prefer WhatsApp because the end-to-end encryption is activated by default unlike Telegram where users have to delve deep into some sections of the app settings to turn on encryption (something most users do not know).
As a matter of fact, there have been numerous questions asked, debates, and articles dedicated to finding out which if the two apps end-to-end encryption is more secure. Albeit most of the time no winner is announced, the cards are often in WhatsApp favour.
2. Search Button
This feature, to me, is one of the most useful and impactful addition to the instant messaging platform. And also personally, the most used feature on my WhatsApp app. If you are the type that have so many conversations in your chats sections or you belong in so many groups, you should know how quick a message can ‘disappear’. Not disappear literally, but messages can easily be pushed very far up in your conversation. And when a particular detail in your convo is needed for maybe reference purposes, not a single person wants to go through the stress of scrolling through previous messages to obtain that particular text of interest. That’s where the search button comes in.
As long as you can remember a keyword (or a phrase) in the text of interest, finding what you need is just a click away. That’s not all, the WhatsApp team have perfected the search feature in that not only can you search for texts, you can also use it to find status updates, video and call history.
I’ll be halting here for now, but in the next article {Part 2}, we’ll look at how WhatsApp have incorporated simplicity over the years with some other revolutionary features and how you can utilize them to the best of usage. Stay glued to this page.
CrossTown Courier is a fast, reliable and affordable delivery startup in green campaign which aims at delivery services within major cities in Kenya. TechMoran caught up with the founder and CEO Mr. Jimmy Tune to find out what inspiration was the driving force behind its birth and its growth.
CrossTown essentially offers its delivery service to a niche market of different sized companies locally. It has put a lot of energy at tailoring services through a flexible model in accordance to the different needs presented by subscribing clients. The startup is unique from other companies in the delivery industry since it uses environmental friendly electric bikes as the main mode of transportation across cities.
How CrossTown Courier started
While walking as an Intern at the Ministry of Education in Mombasa the second largest city in Kenya, Mr. Tune who was in his second year of study in university had the opportunity to organize a business forum for stakeholders. Invitation letters were made and handed over to the messenger department for delivery to the respective guests invited. “We prepared more than three hundred letters to all the stakeholders including corporates, local leaders and other representatives from the national government, ” He narrates. “Just a week to the event, only a handful RSVP had been confirmed and when a follow up was made it was dawned that the department had delegated the task to a third party who had difficulties in delivering to the respective participants.”
Eventually, the event was poorly attended which was a huge loss to the Ministry’s finances. That happened to be the foundation to the birth of CrossTown Courier since there was an opportunity in the loopholes of the corporate messenger department.
How does it work?
Clients can access the services through the company’s website or app downloaded from Google Playstore for Android devices which is friendly to use, create their account and navigate through the packages offered and the categories of clients served. Customers will also be liked to their favourite eat-out spots and restaurants where they can order food and drinks and have them delivered at their doorsteps.
Business Model
As the startup operates for both big and middle sized companies with inventories to be delivered periodically, the services are customized to meet a wide range of client delivery including food, mail, small boxes, laundry and laboratory deliveries.
CrossTown faces stiff competition from other local players and also international companies like FedEx and DHL who mainly conduct their services across borders and major cities. With focus on handling local deliveries, the startup seeks to position itself strategically in the industry and also its intentions to provide affordable pricing solutions on the subscription rates will be a perfect mechanism to claim the market share.
Currently, CrossTown Courier operates from the streets of the Kenyan coastal city but it plans to take the highly demanded services to the capital city Nairobi in the coming few months.
Facebook, the biggest social media network in the world is planning to monetise WhatsApp which it bought for $22 billion in 2014.
WhatsApp with 1 billion daily users, will charge companies to use some future features in the two free business tools it is testing.
The tools, already available in some countries, help companies answer customers’ questions and send them updates. Users need to opt in to be contacted by companies.
A blog post from WhatsApp revealed that they discovered the need for the messaging platform to connect more companies to customers adding that “In the coming months, we’ll be testing new features that aim to solve some of these challenges, and make it easier for people to communicate with the businesses they want to reach on WhatsApp. Our approach is simple – we want to apply what we’ve learned helping people connect with each other to helping people connect with businesses that are important to them.”
The post further stated: “We know businesses have many different needs. For example, they want an official presence – a verified profile so people can identify a business from another person – and an easier way to respond to messages. We’re building and testing new tools via a free WhatsApp Business app for small companies and an enterprise solution for bigger companies operating at a large scale with a global base of customers, like airlines, e-commerce sites, and banks. These businesses will be able to use our solutions to provide customers with useful notifications like flight times, delivery confirmations, and other updates.”
The new features could help Facebook start building up WhatsApp as a stronger business. Also, if Facebook decides to charge businesses for services, it may help it avoid placing ads on WhatsApp.
It is noteworthy to add that Facebook makes most of its money off advertising and already expanded ads to Facebook Messenger and Instagram. Facebook didn’t rule out ads on WhatsApp but said it’s now focusing on the business features.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has said he expects WhatsApp and Messenger, two of the world’s most popular chat platforms.
Uber has confirmed Dara Khosrowshahi as it is new Chief Executive Officer. Khosrowshahi who was poached from Expedia Inc will replace Travis Kalanick.
Uber said in a statement: “We are delighted to announce that Uber’s Board has voted unanimously to appoint Dara Khosrowshahi to be our new CEO.
“Dara came to America at nine years old when his family escaped Iran on the eve of the Iranian Revolution. He grew up in Tarrytown, N.Y., trained as an engineer at Brown, and spent many years at IAC serving as Chief Financial Officer and in various operational and strategic roles.
“In 2005, he became CEO of Expedia, which he built into one of the world’s leading travel and technology companies, now operating in more than 60 countries. He has four children and not surprisingly loves to travel, one of his favourite trips being to the Angkor Wat temples in Cambodia where his wife Sydney said yes to marrying him.
“We’re really fortunate to gain a leader with Dara’s experience, talent and vision. The Board and the Executive Leadership Team are confident that Dara is the best person to lead Uber into the future building world-class products, transforming cities, and adding value to the lives of drivers and riders around the world while continuously improving our culture and making Uber the best place to work.
-Yasir, Garrett, Matt, Ryan, Arianna, Travis, Wan Ling & David
Khosrowshahi, 48, has been CEO of Expedia for 12 years, during which he turned it into one of the biggest online travel agency in the US.
The search for a new boss by Uber seems to have ended as the ride-hailing startup has appointed Expedia head, Dara Khosrowshahi, as its new CEO according to reports.
Uber has been without a CEO since founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick resigned in June after his ouster. He remains on Uber’s board.
The appointment of Khosrowshahi comes as a surprise because he was not among those reported to have been in the running for the position. The short list included Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of General Electric, and Meg Whitman, the head of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Mr Khosrowshahi who became the CEO of Expedia in 2005 has not publicly confirmed if he will accept the job.
Khosrowshahi, 48, would take on the monumental task of repairing Uber’s image, difficult relationship with investors, rebuilding employee morale and creating a profitable business after seven years of losses.
About Dara Khosrowshahi
Born in Tehran in 1969
Family moved to the US after Iranian revolution of the late-1970s
Forget Whatsapp, Facebook and all these minor social media applications. According to mobile app ranking Kenyans have been on the go on these dating apps and it’s a bit surprising. When you think of dating apps the first thing that comes to mind is Tinder, but even that got boring for the majority. People will always have specific needs and with every need there is an app that has everyone covered. Here are the most popular dating apps in Kenya.
Free dating app and flirt chat.
This is a completely free application where single men and women meet to date and obviously flirt. It also allows you to send messages in the blink of an eye and the best part is that you can see who has visited your profile.
2.Sugar Mommas Dating.
If you’re a young man interested in older women then this would be the right app for you. You have the option of filtering your search for sugar mommas either by location, age, gender, nationality and a lot more. Thereafter you can chat with the mommas through messaging and connecting with the ones closest to you.
I would honestly believe that this is the best apps for players. This app allows you to hide your frequently used social and dating apps. It basically helps you hide anything you wouldn’t want to be seen by other people. It can hide apps from your recent app list and basically keeps everything under control.
4.Meet4U – Chat, Love, Singles!
It is a lot like tinder only that it has games involved. You meet people that are nearby and play simple games with the people you’re flirting with. As well as that you can send voice notes and chat with the people you are interested in.
5.Mingle2: Online Dating & Chat.
This app will allow you to add as many friends as you want and also see who is online so you can start a conversation. It also gives you different match everyday, talk about options.
6.Sugar Daddy Dating App – Sudy.
This is where sugar daddy’s get their sugar babies. There are also advanced searches and filters where you can get exact location from your dates. After a verification process, sugar babies can chat with sugar daddies for free.
7.WannaMeet – Dating & Chat App.
As long as your profile proves that you are interesting you’ll see people who like and wanna meet and date you in requests section. You can always edit your profile adding your picture, languages you would like to communicate in and your actual location!
8.Tinder.
With this app you get to swipe to the left or right and just like that you can match with someone you never even expected. When you upgrade to Tinder plus you can get unlimited likes and swipe right until you are satisfied. Rewind to give someone a second chance, one free Boost per month to be the top profile in your area for 30 minutes, and additional Super Likes to stand out from the crowd
9.Black White Interracial Dating.
Its as straightforward as it sounds. You are basically on an app like tinder but now to meet people of the opposite race.
10.BeNaughty.
This app is unique because it also has room for gay and lesbian people. It has free chat rooms for people who do not want anything too serious but are looking for something playful and perhaps fun.
11.Tagged.
It has a 4.1 rating on Google app and has over three hundred million users world wide. I mean that is enough dating for the rest of your life. It is said to have good algorithm which will match you instantly to someone who is similar to you based on your interests.
In this day and age where everyone has an app and our app stores are filled with millions of products, it is hard to know the difference between a real and a fake product. This is why we are excited to have this new Entrupy app that will enable your smartphone to know the difference between real and fake products.
The problem with some products is that some have counterfeit versions of the exact same product. Researchers from New York noticed that many genuine product owners are faced with the issue of their products affected by duplicated products. Product creators are still faced with the challenge of how to stop counterfeit trafficking which currently represents seven per cent of the world’s trade today.
So how exactly does it work? It provides a non-intrusive solution that can detect authentic versions of the product created by the original manufacturer and fake versions of the product made by counterfeiters. It does so by deploying a dataset of three million images across various objects and materials such as fabrics, leather, pills, electronics, toys and shoes. It is said to be 98% accurate and has been able to verify the authenticity of everyday objects.
A music streaming app, JOOX, that allows South Africans stream and download music has been launched by Tencent Africa.
The app comes with features, such as a rich locally curated playlists that provide a soundtrack for every mood. The application offers both a free and paid VIP experience providing offline music listening to save on mobile data. An additional feature allows for three different streaming quality options enabling listeners to manage their data consumption on-the-go.
Commenting, Brett Loubser, CEO of Tencent Africa Services said: “JOOX has seen tremendous success, surpassing its competitors to become the number one music streaming app in all four markets where it has launched. With the combination of a proven emerging markets content model and the experience of our local team, JOOX will provide a truly accessible and mobile-first experience for South African customers.”
JOOX has also secured relationships with all major international record labels ensuring that music lovers are able to stream all their favourite global hits and back catalogue. Two of such international record labels are Universal Music Africa and Sony Music Entertainment Africa.
Speaking on the partnership, Sipho Dlamini, the MD of Universal Music Africa said: “At Universal Music Group, we are working closely with digital distributors around the world to provide more consumer choice and competition in the market. With its intuitive and engaging features, JOOX has created a compelling mobile music streaming service. Working with local artists, Tencent Africa has paid close attention to the listening habits of South Africans and developed a service that has the potential to resonate with music fans across this ‘mobile first.”
“JOOX is differentiated by a compelling feature offering and we’ve observed the service to be both intuitive and engaging,” says Sean Watson, Managing Director Sony Music Entertainment Africa.
Customers who download JOOX will get their first month VIP access for FREE, as well as having access to an ongoing Freemium option. Paid VIP monthly access thereafter will cost R59.99 while two weeks’ VIP access will cost R29.99. JOOX is available from both the Apple iOS and Google Play stores.
Kenyan software engineer George Waweru, has developed Telegram bots that allow users to conduct an opinion poll and receive instant results on how the candidates are performing.
With his firm Goldwebafrica.com, the engineer and his team developed a series of bots under MyVote 2017 as a new and innovative way to conduct credible opinion polls whilst reducing the costs of conducting such polls. The bots cut out costs for traveling, analyzing data and other human resource related costs that are normally incurred when doing traditional polls.
“Kenya is going into the electioneering period and I thought that it is a good opportunity to develop the Election polling Telegram bots as a way of showcasing some of the applications that telegram bots can be used for, as well as to make people aware of what bots really are” Waweru told TechMoran. The bots are tailored for every county in Kenya plus some popular constituencies in the country such as Westlands, Langata, and Starehe.
The bots are currently offering polls for presidential, gubernatorial, senatorial, women representative, member of parliament and member of county assembly positions with actual data of the candidates from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
How to Participate in the Polls
You will simply need Telegram installed on your phone then you can search for your county or constituency and then append 2017Bot at the end. For example if your county is Nairobi, search for Nairobi then append 2017Bot at the end so that you will have Nairobi2017Bot. Once you have found the bot on telegram click on “start” so that you can interact with the bot and start the polling process. The bot will guide the user on how to conduct the opinion poll and once the user has voted, the bot will send the results to the user in form of a chat showing how each candidate has performed.
The Future: What Next After the Elections?
“I am looking to extend the idea of doing polls using Telegram and Facebook Messenger bots into the business world and explore other areas where such ideas can be implemented, ”he said adding that he plans to do sponsored polls for individuals, government institutions, and corporate institutions.
Diamond Trust Bank Kenya (DTB) has partnered Mastercard to roll-out the DTB Masterpass QR app in Kenya, a mobile payment solution that will enable millions of businesses to accept fast and secure digital payments from consumers just months after Kopo Kopo announced a similar deal.
Mastercard aims to impact over 250,000 micro, small and medium enterprises across eleven markets in Sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years. Kopo Kopo will be working with DTB to ensure the solution reaches their full network, meeting the needs of merchants working across various sectors in the country.
Unlike Lipa Na M-Pesa, Masterpass QR allows customers to just scan and pay instantly as if they had their credit or debit cards. The firms are signing up merchants for acceptance then focus on getting as many consumers as possible to fight cash, slow Lipa Na M-Pesa and cards. Masterpass QR enables them to accept digital payments anywhere, anytime.
Users of the DTB mobile banking platform will be able to safely pay for in-store purchases by scanning a Quick Response (QR) code displayed at checkout on their smartphones, or by entering a merchant identifier into their feature phones. Consumers don’t need to carry cash or their physical bank cards – rather they can pay immediately using the DTB Masterpass QRapp on their mobile device anywhere that Masterpass QR is accepted.
Currently Masterpass QR is being introduced at key Kopo Kopo merchants in Nairobi, but there are plans to ensure the solution is accessible across the country. Additionally, the interoperable solution can be used in markets outside of Kenya, and Mastercard has started to introduce the solution in multiple markets across the continent.
“The mobile solution will not only eliminate the merchants’ reliance on costly point of sale devices, it will also remove the dangers and logistical issues of handling cash on daily sales. Kenyan merchants who previously didn’t have access to electronic payment tools can now be financially included ensuring they are able to track and monitor the businesses cash flow immediately,” says Nasim Devji, Group CEO and Managing Director at DTB.
Devji adds that DTB customers will be able to use their mobile banking app to access Masterpass QR, and conduct their day-to-day banking needs directly on their device.
The roll-out of the solution forms an important part of the Mastercard commitment to impact over 150,000 MSMEs in Kenya this year and additionally supports the company’s global goal of connecting 40 million micro and small merchants to the formal financial economy, helping them to move beyond cash by the end of 2020.
“We’re passionate about giving small businesses the tools they need to grow and prosper, and we see the mobile device as a way to financially enable millions of merchants in Africa. The use of mobile solutions is not expected to decline in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially if you consider that by 2022 there will be over 1 billion mobile subscribers in the region according to recent research,” said Ken Kinyua, CEO of Kopo Kopo.
mGiving, a mobile giving solution has launched to enable religious organisations to easily receive offertory and alms or givings of various types such as tithe, offering, first fruits, donations from members anytime, anywhere directly from the comfort of their phones, laptop, smart devices.
Developed by MobileCraft Nigeria, mGiving has already signed up Winners Chapel, Christ Embassy, Fountain of Life, RCCG Open Heavens among others which have thousands of members who use mGiving daily from their various church branches . The platform also provides a seamless platform for organisations to distribute their media materials such as books (hardcover and ebooks), sermons (MP3, CD, vVCD, DVD) among others.
mGiving is 100% FREE to both church leaders and congregants who download and customize the app for their own use. Users access comprehensive reporting, automatic settlement into their bank accounts, 24/7 support, no hosting fees or developers needed. A transaction fee is charged only for successful transactions.The platform currently supports 100+ currencies and at the moment powers a global church with 4,000+ branches and millions of members in every country of the world. mGiving has ZERO setup fees and can be deployed anywhere in Nigeria.
Africa’s Cellulant Group, a digital payments’ service provider that prompts, collects, settles and reconciles payments in real time, recently released Mula app, an operator neutral payments app targeted at the continent’s growing mobile-first generation and especially Kenya’s burgeoning mobile internet users.
Simply put, Mula app, which is still in beta, aims to simplify bill payments and airtime purchase easy by aggregating all the available payment platforms in one place in this case M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money (not yet), Visa and Mastercard, local bank mobile platforms among others. There is no promise of PayPal and bitcoin yet.
On mobile payments, Cellulant group is not new as it pioneered the purchase of ringtones using SMS codes from newspaper adverts over a decade ago. Let’s look at how it stacks in this new age of multi-network digital payments. I had downloaded the app and signed up after I was sent an SMS code earlier as I was part of the testing crew. That process needs no explanation and can be done in a few seconds depending on your internet connection. After signing up, let’s look at the interface.
First a look at the app’s interface.
Interface
The app interface is definitely one of its strong points. I personally like the light blue and white colours. Your bills and transaction history are well laid out in detailed lists that are not cluttered. I hope that geeks at Cellulant will personalize the app according to a user’s frequently used options. So that is I buy airtime more often than I pay for other bills, airtime comes first at the top.
Having bills in red could be a great way to highlight them but my little history with colours shows danger and I wouldn’t want to use Mula when all the bills are shouting at me every time. A cool colour would be more inviting. Mula’s work is not to shout at me to pay the bills, its to help pay them and the more I use Mula, the more I make Mula happy. If I were the developer I would have the bills in light blue like the sky when its brighter but without the stars.
Tapping on a transaction presents you with virtual receipt that even has the zigzag bottom as if it was cut off from a thermo roll. Cellulant does a great job of having a proper menu for the app namely Home, Airtime, Pay, Banks and lastly History. The menu is placed in a convenient location at the bottom of the main screen and are easy to access.
The app has a handy tutorial mode when you first open it; it guides you through the interface features step by step. Through the guide in the demo, a user can see the actual interface in the faded background. The tutorial is perfect.
The icons are very close, you keep pressing the wrong one
My only issue is that the ‘add favourite bill’ function is too close to the customer support button that you will, most of the time, press the unintended one. I think these icons would have been better placed on the side menu instead. Another issue I have with the menu is that it contains links to Mula’s social media pages; that is not the best design I must say and literally, it shows Mula is more interested in unreal social proof than daily happy users evangelizing the app to their friends and family by word of mouth.
Functionality
Yes, that is the whole list, very limited
The app, through the Pay tab, lets you set up bill details for utilities from providers such as Kenya Power, Nairobi Water and NCC Parking. There are also three TV and internet pay bill accounts namely DStv, GOtv and Zuku. This is a very limited list and is holding back the growth of platform but it’s still early and Cellulant might be on-boarding more clients.
For bills that are listed, like Zuku, the application picks your bills from your SMS inbox and lists them on the Home tab. It intelligently knows which bills are due and it sends you reminders before the deadline, all you have to do is press ‘Pay’ and enter your PIN, then it completes the payment. Isn’t that cute?
For airtime, you buy it across platforms from M-Pesa or your bank account. Our only problem is how does Mula make its money if it does these for free. Mula does not let you input custom bills such as rent to your agent or another internet provider, it is indeed very unfortunate but not the end as the app offers a place to describe what kind of bills you would want added to their menu, it’s called ‘Wishlist’ under the profile section but, the developer team need to add suggestions to prompt users to add whatever bills they frequently pay. I imagine many people would like to be paying their rent via the app with just a single tap, or even sending money to their favourite betting sites like Sportpesa or Betin with the same convenience.
You can share bills with other people
In addition, you can have someone else such as your guardian or roommate pay a bill for you via ‘pay with another number’ option. The recipient will receive an alert and once they approve it, the payment is completed. This feature is great for sharing bills with other people accordingly. Unfortunately, there is no option of splitting a bill amongst various people for instance those roomates that share a service such as Zuku or electricity. You will have to send a request to each person, one at a time.
You can also buy airtime for various service subscribers such as Airtel, Safaricom and Orange in the Airtime tab. This too can be paid for by other people. Also, if you buy a specific amount of airtime at set intervals such as daily or weekly, you will only need to be pressing the ‘buy again’ button, in the History tab, to conduct the whole transaction. Once you pay a bill or buy airtime, you are bombarded with very many texts, two from your service provider, two from Mula and sometimes even more, not to mention app alerts too.
Still under development
The Banks tab will let you pay bills directly from your bank account, the operative word here is ‘will’, that’s because the feature is still under development. I guess Cellulant put the tab there to let you know they are working on it but some might take it to mean that they are promising things they have not delivered yet.
The customer care is very responsive
On a positive note, in case you get stuck on the app, there is a very helpful support team that is very fast in responding to your queries.
Pros
Clean interface with uncluttered lists
Intuitive navigation with startup tutorial
Bill payment reminders are helpful
Automated transactions are done with only one single tap
Collection of bill information from SMS is very convenient, you don’t have to type it in
Very fast and efficient support team
No login needed, only a code sent to your number
Cons
Very limited list of support bills
No option of making custom bill such as rent, betting sites etc
Transactions fail every now and then
No bill splitting feature amongst multiple people
Some interface icons are too close together such as the help and ‘add favourite’ icon
Only two pay TV providers are listed Multichoice and Zuku the majority of them such Startimes, Bamba and the rest are left out
Some features are still under development such as the banking option.
Edly, a new cloud-based platform has launched in South Africa with an aim to raise the standards of education by lightening the load for SA’s stressed teachers.
Edly, developed by DataDIGEST, comprises three integrated apps based on the insight that better results are achieved when parents, teachers and students collaborate. The edly Behaviour and edly Attendance apps allow teachers to easily track, record and share with other teachers class attendance and student behaviour, while edly Note! sends real-time reports to parents.
According to DataDIGEST CEO David de Villiers: “We believe teachers are the key to a great education and that’s why we develop solutions that empower them in the classroom. Here in South Africa, social challenges and syllabi that keep changing are just some of the challenges teachers face. With edly we hope to at least help lighten their administrative load.”
Villiers says that Edly will open its platform to more developers to integrate more apps to save teachers time and make their job easier.
The platform is highly customisable, so schools can create their own unique presets to suit, for example, their particular code of conduct.
“DataDIGEST is passionate about education, so for us it’s a fantastic achievement to be able to contribute to its development through edly. We look forward to seeing the platform grow and giving every teacher in South Africa the opportunity to experience its positive outcomes in their schools,” concludes DataDIGEST COO Alastair Christian.
Today, several high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised, displaying messages featuring swastikas.
According to a tweet from Twitter support, the company identified an issue caused by a third-party app affecting some users, but wouldn’t specify whether this was directly related to the hack.
We identified an issue affecting a small number of users. Source was a 3rd party app and it has been resolved. No action needed by users.
BBC North America, Amnesty International and the European Parliament were among the Twitter accounts impacted by the hack.
The hack is a good reminder to check your Twitter account and determine which third-party apps have access. To do this from a web browser, click on your profile picture in the top right corner, and go to “Settings and Privacy.”
Scroll down along the left navigation menu until you get to Apps. Clicking on that will show you what apps have access to your Twitter feed. Now’s a good time to start cleaning up.
If you see an app you haven’t used for a while or just aren’t comfortable using any longer, you can revoke access. For example, my account still allowed access to TwitPic, which shut down in 2014. Oops.
Also, before you allow any service third-party access to your Twitter account, make sure to confirm it’s legit. When in doubt, deny access.
Our services have been temporarily disabled. The #twitterhack should be contained from our side. Report any other activity to #Twitter.
HitPesa, an affordable advertising platform that connects business and personalities to prospective audience based on location, age, and gender has gone live to deliver adverts to your phone so that you earn instant cash or airtime.
Available on Android, HitPesa allows businesses and individuals to advertise a product or service to a targeted audience either by location, age, gender then asks the users to send feedback about the product or advert then reward them with cash or airtime instantly.
“The adverts are sent to users phones. Advertisers get feedback and a free website. HitPesa reward viewers for paying attention,” Evans Ndegwa of Muva.co.ke told TechMoran.
Ndegwa says the firm didn’t just come up with he platform to make money.
“We were inspired by the need to access an affordable, convenient advertising platform that could help us access certain demographics who are interested in our business. We wanted to reach users by location, gender and age that is relevant to our business,” he said.
Targeted at users in Kenya for now with plans to expand to other markets across Africa, HitPesa allows users to sign up for an account by proving their names, phone number, gender, country of residence, age group to allow the firm to accurately deliver custom adverts to users. When a HitPesa user interacts with an ad and gives feedback to the advertiser directly, he is she is rewarded in either cash or airtime which accumulates the more ads one interacts with.
The firm is now signing up as many users as possible to act as both advertisers and viewers. Advertisers will gain by having an affordable platform able to reach hundreds of users in their location and a certain age unlike conventional advertising which requires one to pay thousands of shillings for an ad to the general mass.
“We are taking on conventional ways of advertising such as radio, TV, posters among others which is expensive and non-specific. Even when you look at Google ads, YouTube and Facebook ads, they are yet to be specific to a certain location in Kenya. They generalize by town but with HitPesa we can target users by residential estate,” Ndegwa told TechMoran.
