Ciafo Announces Wayr, An App For Sharing Location Over SMS - When You Want, With Whom You Want

Nov. 4, 2011 - PRLog -- Bangalore based consumer web products startup Ciafo has launched its second product Wayr, a location sharing mobile app that works over SMS. In addition to standard location sharing, Wayr provides support for scheduling updates many hours into the future, giving consumers a new choice compared to the either one-time or always-on location sharing available till now.

While popular location sharing apps have existed for a while now, majority of them have had three big pain points – users need to have internet connection, they need to be opted-in, and they need to be using the same app at both the ends. Wayr has created a disruptively simple solution for this painful problem. By communicating location over a SMS/text message, Wayr has ensured that the location can be shared even when the receiver does not have the app installed, or even when an internet connection is unavailable. And given that location message can now be delivered even to non-smartphones, Wayr has increased the reach of location sharing apps by a long yard.

Amarpreet Kalkat, the chief designer for Wayr said “We were very clear from the beginning that we wanted to build an effective utility. There are many lifestyle location sharing apps on the market, so we wanted to build something that works in scenarios where they don’t.”

Usefulness of Wayr
Wayr is built with two sets of customers in mind – consumers and small businesses. For consumers, Wayr is handy in multiple scenarios. It acts as a safety tool for women who need to travel at odd hours and as a useful option for parents who might want to keep a check on their child’s whereabouts. It is also a trustworthy companion for lone travellers who need to keep their family and friends automatically informed about their location, without having to message them up every hour.

For small businesses (SMBs), Wayr provides one simple benefit – cost. The SMB no more requires costly GPS devices, or monitoring supervisors. As long as the mobile staff member can run Wayr on his phone, the business owner can get a simple SMS with periodic updates on the location of the staff member. The app could as easily be used for tracking consignments, as long as a phone running Wayr is along with the consignment.

Wayr is currently available for Nokia devices and can be downloaded from http://store.ovi.com/content/203981

Wayr Lite
Wayr Lite is the free version of Wayr. It provides the user with the same core functionality as the paid version of Wayr does, but without the automated scheduling option. Wayr Lite has been available on Ovi Store since July 2011 and can be downloaded from http://store.ovi.com/content/159569

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Ciafo is a technology startup based out of Bangalore, India. Founded in 2010, it primarily builds consumer focused web and mobile web products. Prior to Wayr, Ciafo has released Travelomy ( available at http://www.travelomy.com ), a next-generation travel guide for South Asia.

For more information, please visit www.ciafo.com.