PingChat! becomes Touch, delivers real-time social collaboration to Android, BlackBerry and iOS (video)
13 million PingChat! users will soon find their cross-platform instant messaging companion taking on a more social and interactive life. Today, Enflick is announcing a new platform for communication known simply as Touch. In addition to being available as a separate download, existing PingChat! users will be presented with an upgrade that maintains their existing user names and contacts. Rather than working from predefined lists or blasting messages to all contacts, Touch allows users to determine specifically who to share a message or photo with, and also bring new friends and family members into the conversation on-the-fly. The program also shows when someone is typing, and the push-style system allows users to see exactly when messages have been read. The free app will launch today for Android, BlackBerry and iOS users. Sorry, Windows Phone fans, Enflick has no immediate plans for your platform, although it promises to continue to monitor demand. Be sure to check out the full gallery below, along with a quick video and the full PR after the break.
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Makers of TextNow and PingChat! Launch First Mobile-Centric Social Connectivity Platform to Support Closest Interpersonal Relationships
"Touch" Delivers Instantaneous, Intimate and Seamless Connectivity, Enabling Users to Keep in Touch with Innermost Circle of Family and Friends On-Demand from Mobile Devices
WATERLOO, Ontario – December 5, 2011 – The inventors of TextNow, the leading free and unlimited picture and text messaging application, and PingChat!, a free cross-platform instant messaging application, today launched "Touch," the industry's first mobile-centric interpersonal connectivity platform designed to support users' closest personal relationships. Touch redefines online interpersonal connectivity with one "go-to" platform that can be easily downloaded onto mobile phones to facilitate real-time communications that are entirely seamless, intuitive and intimate, allowing users to keep in touch with their innermost circle of family and friends on-demand. With Touch, Experiences can be immediately, privately and selectively shared with individuals' most significant relationships – as opposed to blasting hundreds of acquaintances or groups with specialized common interests.
The Touch Experience can be downloaded immediately at touch.com. Existing PingChat! users will also be upgraded, establishing an initial customer base of millions of users on the Touch platform from day one.
"We want to give people the power to instantly connect with their closest friends and family – whenever they want, right from their mobile phones – and to make that Experience unlike anything else that exists today," said Derek Ting, co-founder and CEO, Enflick. "With a design focused on emulating our real-world personal interactions, Touch takes online connectivity to an entirely new level, transforming the way that we can keep in touch with the relationships that are the most important to us."
Touch Delivers the 'Magic Touch' for Staying Socially Connected in a Mobile World
The Touch platform makes it fast, effortless and reliable to connect with users' most significant relationships. As a mobile-centric social connectivity platform, Touch can be easily deployed and accessed on mobile devices and includes the following unique features:
• Ability to share Experiences as they happen by easily capturing and delivering photos;
• Typing indicators so users can instantly see when their connections are typing for real-time conversations;
• Visual alerts showing when text and media messages are delivered and read;
• Capability to quickly add multiple conversation participants for spontaneous group chats; and
• Profile pages that allow friends and family to look back and reflect on a journey of mutually shared Experiences.
Social networking growth on mobile devices is surging. The mobile social networking user base, currently accounting for approximately 1.1 billion worldwide, is set to grow at 11.8 percent CAGR over the next five years to reach 1.9 billion users, according to a new market research report entitled "Mobile Social Networking 2011-2016" recently published by Market Publishers, Ltd.
Touch fills an emerging need for mobile connectivity solutions and is a natural technology evolution that leverages Enflick's extensive social networking expertise gained through its highly successful TextNow and PingChat! applications, which combined serve more than a billion impressions per month and enjoy over 21.5 million users worldwide.
The result is an Experience that integrates seamlessly into users' lifestyles, allowing them to focus on staying in touch rather than figuring out how to get in touch.
Touch supports iOS devices (OS version 3.0+), as well as the Android (1.5–2.3) and Blackberry (5.0+).
