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Startup Digest

Mobile

April 01, 2016

Everyone is talking about messaging bots!  From big companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Skype to smaller companies, they are all implementing their own messaging bots. This reminds me the flood of 'Uber of X' startups from a couple years ago.  =)

Mobile Startup Digest is curated by:
Edith Yeung

Edith Yeung - Partner at 500 Mobile Collective Fund

Contact Edith Yeung at edith.yeung@startupdigestmail.com

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‘Fitbit for your period’: the rise of fertility tracking

Guardian

Investors are pouring money into apps that allow women to track their fertility. Can tech companies use data to change the world of women’s reproductive health?

Facebook Messenger Prepares In-Store Purchase Service

Cory Weinberg and Amir Efrati - The Information

Facebook appears to be preparing features to spur more purchases on Messenger, such as giving users capabilities to pay for items they pick up in person. The Messenger app’s data files also suggest users may soon be able to chat in “secret.”

Introducing Fiber Phone

Google

For $10/month, you get unlimited local and nationwide calling, and the same affordable rates as Google Voice for international calls.

Clippy’s Back: The Future of Microsoft Is Chatbots

Dina Bass - Bloomberg

WeChat has 20 million companies selling and marketing products; about 20,000 in China already use Xiaoice. Microsoft says it will probably sell bot-making tools as well as database and cloud software that businesses will use to run their bots. The bottom line for Nadella: He needs a lot of bots out there, ready to do helpful things for people. And to get to that juncture, he needs to start by winning the hearts and minds of software developers.

Line to launch mobile internet service, will include free access to Facebook

Steven Millward - TechinAsia

The Line Mobile SIM will give users free access to the messaging app as well as to Facebook and Twitter. That means when you browse Line, Facebook, or Twitter, view and upload photos, it won’t diminish your monthly mobile data allowance. The free data rations include Line’s online calling feature and also streaming from Line Music.

Facebook's Messenger lands first airline as chat app pushes into commerce

Jessica Guynn - USA Today

KLM Royal Dutch Airlinespassengers will soon be able to check in, get flight updates, make travel changes and talk to customer service reps straight from Facebook's Messenger chat app.

Chat bots, conversation and AI as an interface

Benedict Evans

One promise of AI is that you can get, not so much a computer that you can talk to like a person, but one that you don’t need to talk to at all, or much less - that you can remove the mental load and friction and maintenance of engaging with a computer or online service

Skype is getting Cortana and crazy bot messaging

Jacob Kastrenakes - Verge

You'll soon be able to use Skype to books trips, shop, and plan your schedule, just by chatting with Cortana. 

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