At Teknowledge, we pride ourselves at being able to handle any type of app development project. Even so, the idea of making yet another social networking app did not really interest us at first. That was, of course, until Rajiv, the concept developer of Talk Nah!, explained the basic functionality he wanted in this app. Once we got the hang of what the app would be like, we were properly hooked!
Selecting Teknowledge Software For The Talk Nah! Project
“Although I was confident that my social networking app idea was unique, there were certain reservations. There were so many apps in the same category at the app store – and making my app stand out was likely to be a challenge. It’s a good thing that my idea was utilized in the best possible manner by the developers at Teknowledge, led by their talismanic CEO, Hussain.”
— Rajiv Maharaj (Head, Sky IT Ltd; Founder, Talk Nah! app)
After Rajiv had explained the app to our team of iOS developers online, we sent him a detailed free app quote. Within the next couple of days, all the terms had been agreed upon, and we moved on to the actual implementation stage.
Why iOS Over Android?
This was a question we had posed to Rajiv at the very outset. After all, the success of any app hinged critically on its reach, right? Soon enough, we found out that he and his team had a systematic rollout plan already in place for Talk Nah! The initial release of this mobile social networking application would be followed by an improved Version 2 (sometime in the first half of 2015), as well as an Android version.
“I found Rajiv’s strategy of testing the waters before plunging headlong for the Talk Nah! project to be interesting. It made a lot of sense to release an iOS-only version first, and monitor the response of targeted users to it. Based on that, the updated version for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch will be chalked out – and a version for Google Play Store will also be released.”
— Hussain Fakhruddin (CEO, Teknowledge Software)
With well over 8 years of experience in the line of cross-platform mobile app development and around 650 apps in our kitty – Teknowledge is at a position to handle the Android project of Talk Nah! as well.
USP Of Talk Nah!
“Was the underlying idea for Talk Nah! sound enough? Absolutely. Would it be able to stand out from the thousands of social interaction apps showcased at iTunes? Frankly, I wasn’t very sure.”
— Rajiv Maharaj (Head, Sky IT Ltd; Founder, Talk Nah! app)
Rajiv agreed with the app developers working on the project that Talk Nah! needed to have a really interesting USP, which would set it apart from other iOS apps in the same genre. Several ideas were floated, discussed and trashed at our drawing board…until the concept of ‘anonymous interactions’ was brought to the table. Make no mistake, this feature has turned out to be probably the most loved feature about this social app.
“During those early days of the Talk Nah project, I was practically obsessed with trying to find out how this app could be given a different feel. There were literally a couple of sleepless nights. As soon as the idea of anonymous social connections was floated, there was a general consensus that this was it.”
— Hussain Fakhruddin (CEO, Teknowledge Software)
So, How Does Talk Nah! Work?
Talk Nah! had been conceptualized by Rajiv, and created by our app development team, as an application that offered a whole lot more than general social networking and IM apps. On this iPhone app, users have been given the option to share their thoughts and opinions about anything under the sun, without ever having to disclose their identity. HD images and other media files can also be shared with ease. There is an additional option to mark any conversation as ‘Favourite’. This feature is, in essence, similar to bookmarking a website, and people could return to their ‘Favourite’ conversations later on, at their convenience.
“Apart from the intriguing anonymity feature, I wanted Talk Nah! to be a medium via which users could view and rate each other’s posts and comments. Hussain and his developers created a very nice interface for the app, making the task of rating comments really easy.”
— Rajiv Maharaj (Head, Sky IT Ltd; Founder, Talk Nah! app)
The Fun Element Of Talk Nah!
“There was a very fine line in making Talk Nah! a fun social networking app, and letting it seem too frivolous. I realized that there wasn’t much scope to play around with the color themes and general UI of the app. That’s why Rajiv and I decided to make the names of some of the features rather chuckleworthy.”
— Hussain Fakhruddin (CEO, Teknowledge Software)
If you have not already used Talk Nah! on your handset, the term ‘Bodow’ might seem strange to you. However, this funny word (borrowed from, of course, ‘bowdown’) actually refers to the act of rating up a comment on the Talk Nah! comment. Similarly, if someone does not like a comment posted by another, (s)he can simply mark it as a ‘Failure’. As the Talk Nah! community grows in size – the maze of ‘Bodow’-s and ‘Failure’-s would surely get more interesting.
Inclusion Of The Search Feature
At first, including a ‘Search’ option was not considered necessary for Talk Nah! Later on though, Rajiv pointed out (and we realized too) that it might well happen that a particular user does not find any of the existing topics/conversations in the app to be interesting enough. A ‘Search’ box would enable him/her to look up the stuff (s)he loves with the minimum of fuss – and would enhance the functions of the app as well. In the end, we did include searchability in ‘Talk Nah’.
“My focus was constantly on bringing the users of Talk Nah! up close and personal with topics of their interest. In addition to the live feed option on the individual walls, the top-rated and currently trending topics could be viewed under separate tabs. The addition of searchability was yet another attempt to help people discover topics that they love.”
— Rajiv Maharaj (Head, Sky IT Ltd; Founder, Talk Nah! app)
Starting Out With Talk Nah!
The last thing we wanted for our all-new social networking and conversations app was any type of problem in its downloading, installation and usage. With a size of meagre 4.7 MB, we made sure that the app would never hog phone memory and bandwidth. After installing the app on iOS device(s), all that people had to do was choose a unique username, and select their country – and they were good to go. Anonymity was guaranteed during conversations.
“While working as a mobile app entrepreneur for the last 8-odd years, I have learnt one thing. The more confusing the download and installation procedures of an app are – the greater is the risk of users not bothering to try it out. Me and my team of developers made sure that using Talk Nah posed no such complications.”
— Hussain Fakhruddin (CEO, Teknowledge Software)
We decided that users would not have to separately register on the app either. That’s another potential hassle avoided!
There’s A Lot Of Room For Further Growth
A draft screen of the app (later changed)
The overwhelmingly positive response to Talk Nah! has delighted Rajiv (of course), but the man has no plans to rest on his laurels in future. Researches have been already initiated by him and his team at Sky IT Ltd., to make a list of probable new features that might be present in Version 2.0 of the app. It will be a challenge – and a challenge that everyone at our mobile app company would relish – to make Talk Nah 2.0 just as Rajiv chalks it out to be.
Talk Nah! is available for free download at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/talknah!/id898534516. In our portfolio we have quite a few IM and social networking apps – but Talk Nah! is easily the one we had the most fun while creating!