Trails (left) and Dialapp (right) want to help you out.
Be ready, Android users. The creator of the popular personal analytics app ‘Friday’ ແລະ Android’s Siri-like app Iris has launched two new Android creations. They’re also smart apps that try to second-guess what you’re doing; the newcomers are called Dialapp, a smart dialer, and Trails, which gives a map view of your life events.
If you use Friday app, you might have tried Trails already. It’s a map view of your movements and routes throughout the day, which happens automatically without having to check-in. Trails integrates those movements with details of your phone calls, messages, music, photos, Android system events, and locations. Trails used to be an add-on for Friday app that involved signing in to your Friday account; but now that has changed and Trails is a standalone app which you can choose to connect to Friday app.
We asked Binil Antony, the co-founder of app maker Dexetra about the aim with the new standalone Trails apps:
Context is the next big thing and has a lot of potential in defining the future of smartphone [usage]. Context lets any device behave in accordance to the situation; rather than being redundant which is the case at present. With Friday, we offer the same thing but found that users are a bit skeptical at first. We want to let them get a taste of the power this proposition has. [Previously], users needed to sign up for Friday to use Trails. Now, we have taken out this barrier and it’s now open for all.
Binil’s focus on context is evident in the other new Android app called Dialapp. It’s designed to replace your Android phone’s standard dialers – and to be a much more intelligent one. It predicts whom you will call based on the context, such as your location, time, previous conversations, etc. It then gives you suggestions for people you’re likely to call at the very top of your contact list.
How is Dexetra’s best-known app, Friday, performing? Binil tells us that “Friday has more than 180,000 users in the system who have collectively created 200 million bits of data of their life in the cloud. We have also started serving contextual suggestions and have pushed more than five million of them so far”.
Both of the new apps has been gaining popularity since launching late last month. Trails has 40,000 users so far, while Dialapp has more than 5,000. You can grab Trails ແລະ Dialapp in the Google Play store; both are free.
(Editing by Steven Millward)