The Weekly News Wr(app) – PhonePe Favored in Rural India, First Edited Tweet Revealed, ONDC Makes Debut

1.  App adoption in rural India witnesses positive growth

Rural Indians are on a gradual path to integrating apps into their daily lives. In a joint report released by Kantar and GroupM, online consumption ranks just behind television for rural users.

The OTT app that witnessed higher usage among rural Indians was revealed to be Disney+ Hotstar with most of the users coming from Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Kerala. Its popularity is no surprise thanks to Hotstar’s huge catalog of regional content.

With respect to video, messaging, and social media, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Facebook were ranked as the most popular apps.

PhonePe was the top app in the payments category, with 19% of respondents saying they used PhonePe over the past 6 months. Most of the PhonePe users came from Karnataka (46%) followed by Rajasthan (38%).

This report is encouraging for digital India and app developers knowing that rural India is leading the internet adoption charge of the nation. Greater internet and app adoption in India leads to higher growth potential for app developers and better services for users.

Source: https://bit.ly/3SoJfO1

2. Government-backed ONDC makes Bengaluru debut

The Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), the Indian government’s way of breaking the Amazon-Flipkart hegemony, launched its beta phase for Bengaluru users.

The ONDC will help smaller sellers conduct their business on the platform without being restricted by high commissions or lack of discoverability from the dominant e-commerce players. On the other hand, buyers will have access to a vast array of sellers without having to sign up on any particular platform. This democratization of the e-commerce sector will see that fair trade ensues.

Big players like Microsoft, Paytm, PhonePe, etc. are looking to leverage the platform with their own offerings. PhonePe, for example, is planning to launch an app exclusively for e-commerce with the hopes of higher revenue and user acquisition.

The beta phase will initially be invite-only before opening to the public. Moreover, the ONDC is planning to launch in one more city by next month.

Source: https://bit.ly/3fCvQn2

3. Twitter redesigns its DM interface

Twitter is finally matching the DM experience on Android to its iOS counterpart. Android Twitter users will have access to better tweet forwarding, context for message requests, and clearer read receipts.

Users will also see a smoother UI compared to the previous box-like version. Twitter claims to have improved the scrolling experience and responsiveness too.

Earlier this year, Twitter had some of its first attempts at improving the DM experience for Android users by introducing a search feature. This feature allows users to search for certain messaging by typing in keywords in the search bar.

This was a change that was long overdue and it's now here. Try it out.

Source: https://bit.ly/3fAY01E

4. Twitter edit button closer to reality

Last week, Twitter showed the world what an edited tweet will look like. Posting from the official Twitter Blue handle, a tweet with a “last edited” sign was made public.

For now, the feature is still in testing, and it seems like the edit button will be available only for the paying customers of Twitter Blue.

Knowing the potential misuse of an edit button, Twitter is ensuring that tweets can only be edited within a certain timeframe and for a limited number of times. Moreover, the original tweet can still be viewed even after a tweet has been edited.

Source: https://bit.ly/3M2van5

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