Clips, Free apps on Google Play and more: mobile buzz of the week

The lines between digital, mobile, technology and apps are blurring in today’s world. We at Robosoft are keen followers of developments in this arena. Here’s a quick summary of what’s buzzing:

Apple announces Clips, a new video app

Source: Apple.com
Recently, Apple announced that it would be launching a new video app called Clips in April. The app will be similar to its iMovie app where users can combine videos, photos, music, stickers and more to create videos and share it with others on iMessage, Instagram, Facebook and other social networking sites. Within the app, Apple is introducing a new and innovative feature called Live Titles that allows users to add animated captions and titles using their voice.

Today, more than hundred million hours of Facebook videos are watched every day but ironically 85% of them are being viewed without sound. That being the case, text-on-screen can play a crucial role in grabbing the attention of users who just scroll by the muted videos. At present, captioning a video is a real pain but if captioning can be as easy as Apple claims then, we have definitely found a solution to our woes in Clips. Another added advantage of this video tool is that Live Titles can understand and churn out captions in 36 languages where other video editing tools like Facebook’s free caption generating service (available only on desktop) is limited to English.

People who love to make and share quick and fun videos with their peers would definitely be looking forward to its release.

Google to feature new apps every week on Play Store

In the year 2015, Google Play Store used to promote different apps on the store every week in its ‘Free App of the Week’ program. But, it soon disappeared, as quietly as it had been launched. Google has once more launched the section where it would feature a popular app and offer it for free for five days. Apple also experimented with similar idea and experienced great success with it.

The new section could prove to be very useful for app discoverability and app engagement. However, the feature is available only in the US at present with no announcement on when it will be available in other parts of the world.

App usage in India sees an upward growth

Last week’s report the ’State of the App Nation in India’ released by Flurry, has further strengthened the fact that India is an emerging market for mobile app industry. The report showed that India’s app usage grew 43% YoY with music, media and entertainment applications witnessing the biggest usage at 188% YoY. It seems to be the best time for the app industry to think and innovate.

Banner Image Courtesy: Edx.org