Why it matters to you
Messaging apps appear to be the most popular tools in our digital day and age, and now, Amazon is trying to get in on that game.
Could it be? A new messaging app from Amazon? According to new reports, the online retail giant (which has now expanded well beyond e-commerce), is working on a messaging app called Anytime. As initially reported by AFTV News, Amazon has started surveying customers about a brand new messaging tool to determine what features are most desirable and important. And as per one respondent, the content of the survey suggested that the app is nearly ready.
Anytime is described by AFTV News as an “all-in-one feature rich service that could even rival social networks.” While the primary purpose of the app would be messaging, either by way of text or calls (in both the voice and video varieties), Anytime might also allow users to share photos with @mentions, and even edit those photos with filters and “special effects and masks.” Moreover, Amazon’s new app is said to allow for group activities, too, like playing games, listening to music, and ordering food. So really, it’s like WhatsApp meets Instagram meets Spotify meets Seamless … or something like that.
And in these supremely safety-conscious times, Anytime purports to ensure the privacy of your chats, and can also let users “encrypt important messages like bank account details.” Why would you be messaging about your bank account details? Apparently because you can also use Anytime to chat with businesses, make restaurant reservations, and obviously, online shop.
To ensure quick user adoption, Amazon is apparently letting you “reach all your friends just using their name.” No email address, no phone number, nothing else is supposedly needed in order to use the app. While it’s still unclear as to how that would really work, chances are, Anytime integrates with existing social media and messaging platforms to make things easier. We don’t yet know when Anytime would launch, but it’s said to be able to work across both desktop and mobile, and will be available for both Android and iOS users.
So keep a weather eye out, friends. You could soon be chatting with your friends about what you guys want to eat for dinner and ordering said dinner all from one Amazon app.