Alibaba Backed Quixey Launches Its Android Launcher In India

There are over a million apps on Google’s Play store. But cell phones cannot accommodate so many apps altogether.

Out of the total space in the mobile phones, over 50% is occupied by utility apps like email, chat, text, call, pictures and most used apps like ecommerce, cabs, grocery, restaurant finder and others.

So how do app-makers ensure that customers choose their app/platform over a million others and download it.

The US-based mobile technology startup Quixey answered this problem by releasing  its android launcher by the name ‘Launch by Quixey’.

It helps in app discovery and content search without downloading the native app. Touting as an alternative to Google’s mobile search engine, the startup is using the latest technology around deep-link technology or app crawl and their patented Deep View cards technology.

With Launch by Quixey users have access to four powerful primary functions, these include:

• Apps: Gives easy access to all of your apps within one searchable hub, recommends apps that a user is most likely to use that moment, and provides simple tools to add and manage app folders.
• People: Suggests contacts to call, text, message or email based on usage patterns at certain times of the day and serves as a single location for management of these communications.
• Search: Quickly finds exactly what you want on your phone, including apps, contacts, messages, settings and more, while at the same time providing the most comprehensive deep search for apps and functionalities not necessarily downloaded.
• Cards: Presents a stream of local and relative content for a specific user from across all the top apps—even if they are not downloaded on the device

For an anecdote, presume that you are looking for a pair of shoes online. You could make a quick search at Quixey and select the product. If the product is available on an ecommerce platform, say Flipkart, then Quixey launcher will direct you to the product page within the Flipkart app. Or, if the user does not have the mobile app on phone, it will take to a webpage or an app-page, with a link that would ask to install the app.

Launch By Quixey is currently in Beta. In next few months, it plans to capture user behavior and build algorithms to personalise user experience. Quixey has partnered with Askme as a marketing partner and holding talks with other ecommerce players for strategic partnership. In one year, it expects to receive over 10,000 downloads.

While speaking at the launch, Tomer Kagan, CEO and co-founder of Quixey said, “It’s not the interface of a phone that drives user experience, but the intelligence of the software behind it.  Users will find that Launch allows them to tap into all the power of software on their devices rather than manually going from one app to another. It’s a reimagined Android home experience that combines machine learning and the mobile technology we’ve been developing for years”

Quixey was founded in 2009 by Tomer Kagan and Liron Shapira. It had raised roughly $145 Mn in funding by Alibaba, Softbank, Atlantic Bridge, Goldman Sachs and more. Last year, it acquired Bangalore-based Dexetra, a mobile development company funded by Sequoia, Qualcomm and Paytm (One97).

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