Indians are excelling in technology. India is becoming one of the top hubs in technology. There are several apps built by Indians that you have been using regularly without realizing they were developed by Indians. Here is a list of android apps developed by the Indians.
LinkedIn Pulse
It was built by two Indians Ankit Gupta and Akshay Kothari who were students in Stanford University. When they had to develop a product in just eleven weeks, they developed an app called ‘Pulse’. They both designed and launched the app in six weeks. The app allows you to checkout on the recent trends with professionals in the world. The users were able to see news from various sources in one place. It was a huge success. In just three years the app had more than three million users. The team that started with just two grew to twenty five. However, they felt they were missing a key component, the identity of the users. That is the main reason why they joined LinkedIn. LinkedIn paid a whopping amount of $90 million that is a huge sum. Many of you may not know that it is the Pulse that powers lots of content in the LinkedIn homepage.
Paytm
‘Paytm karo’ are the two words that you hear very frequently in this era of cashless transactions. Paytm app has changed the payment method completely. It was launched by Vijay Shekar Sharma in 2008. In a decade the app had more than 250 million registered users and is the most popular digital payment platform. It is approved by the RBI as an e-wallet. Initially it was started as a payment platform for a few transactions like mobile recharge and shopping. Today you can make all types of payments like electricity bills, water tax, train, flight and bus tickets, hotel reservation and many more. This innovative app is not only popular in cities but also in small towns. It is not only accepted in supermarkets but also by pushcart vendors. The best thing is that it is accepted in 16 countries. The success story of the dedicated team of Paytm is very inspiring and impressive.
Makemytrip
It is a leading travel app and used by many people because it allows you to plan all your trips without leaving the comforts of your home. The app was developed in India and the company was founded by Deep Karla, an alumnus of Ahmedabad IIM. It is a Guragaon based startup. The initial phases were not easy. The company was started in 2000 as a travel company to cater the needs of Indian community living abroad. It was made available to the Indians in 2005. However, the app was launched in 2012, seven years later. The very next year in 2013, the app was one of the top 5 most downloaded apps. From then there was no looking back. Many new features were continuously added regularly to improve the user experience. Makemytrip, which started as a small office, is now one of the leading travel companies and has one of the most popular and most used apps.
Zomato
Zomato app is a successful food delivery app that is not only popular in India but in 19 more countries including UK, New Zealand, Canada, UAE, Poland, Lebanon, and South Africa etc. The company was founded in the year 2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah, alumni of IIT Delhi. The idea of food delivery was conceived when they saw their colleagues waiting for a long time during lunch hours just to have a glance at the menu card. Seeing this, the duo got the idea of uploading the menu card on the company website. From their office the idea expanded to the whole city and then to other cities and later to other countries. It was originally named ‘Foodiebay’ and then became Zomato a couple of years later. The app was launched in 2012. The app services that were once available in limited cities are now available in small towns. The pandemic has taken the popularity of the app to another level. The success story of Zomato has lots of ups and downs but the launch of the app helped them to reach new heights.
Dailyhunt
Dailyhunt, the leading news app was founded by Virendra Gupta. It is a top news app not only in India but also in many more countries. It is actually the #1 app in 19 countries. It was developed by Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekar Sohoni, ex-Nokia employees. It was launched in 2009 in the name Newshunt and in just two years it had 18 million viewers. It was renamed Dailyhunt when it was acquired by Umesh Kulkarni and Chandrashekar Sohoni in 2012. They introduced many innovative features to the app that made the app very popular. Now the download of the app has exceeded 200 millions. One of the key factors of its success is that it supports 15 languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi, Bengali, Kannada, and English etc. Daily Hunt that started as a small app has more than 200 techies working in an entire floor of a building.
Aarogya Setu
This is the app developed and launched by Indian Government to fight Coronavirus. Several million Indians have downloaded the app and the app has played an important role in India’s fight against Covid. The meaning of aarogya setu is ‘bridge to health. The app lets the users know if there is any Corona-affected person near them. If you have been near an infected person in the past two weeks, the app calculates the risk of your infection. It was made mandatory for the government employees and private sector to download the app to reduce the risk of spread of the virus. However, it created a controversy as some people argued that downloading apps cannot be made mandatory. There were concerns about the security of users. However, the developers argued that no third party can access the data and no personal information was exchanged after registration. Regardless of the controversies, the app was a success.
Ludo King
It is a board game app developed by Vikash Jaiswal who is the owner of Indian Studio Gametion Technologies Pvt ltd. He loved to play digital games right from his school days. He developed a video game for a project while he was doing his bachelor’s degree. It was ranked the #1 in the Top free games in Play Store. In 2008 he started his own gaming company with a meager rinvestment of 2.5 lakhs. It was after seven years that Vikash developed the game Ludo King. His aim was to trigger the childhood memories of people and make them nostalgic. His plan worked and it became a huge success during the lockdown when people started to play the game with his friends and relatives. The game is easy to play and fun to play for people of all ages. It can be played on multiple platforms like android, iOS, and desktop.
Chingari
Chingari was developed in India as a replacement to the TikTok app. It was developed completely in India by Sumit Gosh and Biswatama Nayak after the prime minister’s made the call ‘vocal for local’. It hit millions of downloads in no time as India is witnessing an anti-china sentiment. Just like TikTok it allows the users to record and share short videos with funny filters. It also has a direct messaging feature to let the users stay connected. In addition to video sharing it also has other features like playing games, accessing news and checking weather forecasts. The app has made several updates to improve the user experience. The app was one of the winners of Atma Nirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge. However, the app did not succeed overnight. It became a hit after TikTok was banned in India. Chingari today has more than five million daily active users on the back of more than 25 million downloads. This is a stunning success.
360 Panorama
If you are a Facebook user you should have surely come across 360 degrees pictures shared by your friends. It is really exciting when you can move the picture in all directions to have a realistic view. This is made possible by an app called 360 Panorama. It is a simple app with powerful features. It was developed by Occipital, an Indian firm. It has more than 15 million downloads and most of the users have rated the app with 5 stars.
Many more Android apps developed in India like Sharechat have created a sensation. They are proof that Indian apps are as good as apps developed in advanced countries.