Dial a Number to Listen to a Website with PlayText; Press 4 for Yourstory.in
A fantastic new app, PlayText is voice service which allows to you to keep a tab on news and information from your favourite sites. The service doesn’t even require a data connection as it padcasts the webpage one the toll-free number is dialled.
Developed by Shanmuga Subramanian (better known as Shan), PlayText is available on Android.
How does the app work?
- Just call +1-888-666-4013 (Toll Free number in US. India will get its soon)
- Press 4 for Yourstory.in
- The sites RSS Feed titles would be read by IVR
- The user then just needs to press a number for listening to the article.
Shan has developed his own script which he had developed for his other apps – TextOnly Browser. “The main backend is Twilio API's+textonly script,” he adds. A mechanical engineering graduate by degree, Shan always loved computers. “I was crazy about computers right from my childhood. Not taking computer science was more than a blessing in disguise as I have developed my own way of learning different languages. I got into developing apps and websites in 2006 when I was in my college Final year.” He informs.
His complete portfolio can be viewed here.
Having launched yesterday, the app is targeted at people who are not able to access websites; People who are not able to keep a tab on news due to absence of a data connection or may be also people who are not able to pay for Internet. “I will be soon trying to get a toll free number for India so that I can make it free over here as India is a really huge market for such a service,” he adds.
Monetization plans and The Road Ahead
Monetization is a must for apps but it should be done rather unobtrusively. “For this PlayText Voice service, I am planning to insert audio ads in between which would help local marketers to a great extent as they would be able to advertise their products easily and also it would help consumers to a certain extent as they would be able to find value for this money by listening to the ads.” believes Shan.
Moving ahead, “I intend to develop this as a service which would provide over content over call instead of relying on data connection. I see a lot of scope for apps like this as there are still lot of places where we would have no data connection (3G is available only in certain places, If somebody is travelling on train, PlayText is very convenient).” He says. Shan is also looking at scaling this and doing a lot more.
Download the app here and stay tuned for more.
