UC Browser unveils open add-on platform for Android
UCWeb, a leading provider of mobile internet software and services, has just launched the 9.2 version of UC Browser for Android, unveiling an open add-on platform to achieve an advanced personalized browsing experience. With the announcement the company plans to draw upon its user base of 400 million users and work with app developers to develop this open add-on platform
Personalization for users: With this 9.2 version, UC Browser provides an open add-on platform that allows users to customize the functions of their browsers. Add-ons can be added or removed as you please. The first group of individual add-ons can be seen on the panel. Four of them have been made especially to meet the needs of a large amount of users. Their features are as follow:Facebook photo uploader: This add-on shares your photos to Facebook much more easily, and allows you to upload multiple photos at once. An added benefit to this add-on is that it can turn on the function of Facebook push notifications, so you don’t miss any message from your friends.
Save web pages as PDF: To cater to a growing need for saving high quality mobile web pages, UC Browser has created an add-on that allows you to save webpages as PDF files to better preserve their content and allow for easier file transferring. These files can be quickly accessed through the browser’s Download Management system.
File Unzip: Helps you open RAR or ZIP files on your phone. They can be extracted with the ‘Unzip’ add-on.
Webpage Translator: Taking advantage of the Google Translate and Bing system, this add-on supports more than 70 languages, allowing you to break through almost all the language barriers you need! This add-on supports both whole page translation and individual word translation.
More innovative add-ons can be found on the add-on panel by pressing the “+” button.News for developers: The add-on platform is expected to be officially open to third party developers soon. This opening aims to encourage more third party developers to create a wide array of customized feature add-ons for UC Browser. With a user base of over 400 million users, the add-on platform offers the opportunity for each of these users to enjoy a more personalized mobile browsing experience catering to each of their specific needs.
The add-on platform enables a bi-direction communication between UC Browser and the Android system’s services. In this environment, data sharing is much easier, and the UC Browser API has been standardized, making it more accessible to third party developers via SDK. Programs created by developers can be used in all operating scenarios of UC Browser.
The platform was developed on the basis of feedback of users, and research on users's favorites. For example, they did a survey to capture users' favorite behaviors on mobile browser includes SNS and news reading, and that was the insight behind releasing the Facebook Photo Uploader and Webpage Translator. The spokesperson for UC Browser says they get much feedback everyday from Facebook, customer service systems and email. There are periodic surveys also done to know more about users' favorites from time to time. The browser is currently free and they do not have any plans to charge for the service.