Holaa! A new mobile app from India identifies callers and blocks spam calls

Unveiling its 'Made in India' caller identification app Holaa!. instant messaging platform Nimbuzz on Tuesday said it aims to garner about 10 million users for this service.

Holaa!, like Truecaller, allows users to see details like the caller's name, photo and location during an incoming call live. It also helps block spam calls from pesky spammers or other unwanted callers.

Vikas Saxena, CEO of Nimbuzz, explains to Tech in Asia how this app identifies and meets specific consumer needs of the region:

 "Our experience in emerging markets gives us insights into user behavior and allows us to deliver a more optimized product. To give you an example, Holaa! is 30 percent smaller in app size than Truecaller and 30 percent less RAM intensive. This means the application can be downloaded across a wider variety of devices, including the lower end handsets, and ensures minimum impact on the phone’s battery".

It has a number of other features, such as location-tracking and synchronization of social media and phone contacts. This will raise privacy concerns for many, but the popularity of Truecaller in India suggests that unknown calls are more of a pain for phone users there. Four out of 10 calls that a pre-paid mobile user receives are from unknown numbers, and a quarter of those unknown calls are spam, points out Saxena.

Emerging markets pose some basic challenges for users, such as poor internet connectivity, and these have been kept in mind while building Holaa!. Right now it’s available for Android devices only. The Holaa! app for IOS will launch soon.