One of the significant features of our smart phones is the contact log. So many people all saved in the palm of our hands, but there are several issues that surface when trying to maintain a stable contacts list on your phone. Nothing can piss you off more on a busy day, with a ‘smart’ phone when you’re unable to call the person you want to, because you don’t have their updated numbers.
Problems related to the contacts may arise when you change your phone, or operating system, have duplicates of the same contact, old numbers of people etc.
An all Indian team steps into the App market with an app that resolves contact updating and transferring problems. 6degrees, is an app that creates backup of contacts on the cloud, which lets you access them from any other device. The exciting feature of this app is that; it allows you to create an online profile which when updated will automatically change in the contact lists of others who are using the same app and have access. How does this work? Well, the contacts are all behind an encrypted wall, which ensures privacy from other users even though it’s on the cloud, but only selected few on your trust list can have access to your contacts. The user will also have access to their lists helping in updating his own contact list. This is great for making and maintaining networks with mutual friends, colleagues, and also for professional use.
The founders of the App Niranjan Rao and ArunSamudrala had been discussing the issues of maintaining contacts, updating them and having duplicates on their contact lists this discussion landed in the invention of the 6degrees app. They noticed that they weren’t the only ones facing the problem, and there was a need in the lives of smart phone users to solve this issue. The USP of 6degrees is that it makes contacts live, “That’s our USP – the concept of a Live Contact. Your Live Contact recognizes its counterpart on your friend’s phones and updates them whenever you update the “mother” contact on your phone. So now you own your contact details even on your friends’ phones,”explains Niranjan Rao. There’s no doubt the Indian duo figured out a true problem and provided a spot on solution, but there’s always a downside to every App!
There are two main issues here, Firstly, for the app to fulfill its purpose a decent amount of people have to be on it, they have to also share their list with you. And if one person changes the contact details wrong, it gets updated wrong on everyone’s list! Secondly, since it requires the cloud, you need to have internet connection to access the updated contacts. The founders are optimistic about their App, according to their numbers, every user is satisfied and is pooling in more users to share their contacts. The app has over 1 million contacts from 85 countries stored on the system, and it has also been translated into 6 languages due to increased and widespread demand.
The 6degrees app is available for Android users.
