Slated to appear on all major mobile platforms, Samsung's new ChatON service, which will be unveiled in September, seems to be a direct take on iMessage, or BBM, which, however, are proprietary, and the rumored pan-Android Google Talk expansion.
ChatON can be run on Android, iOS, BlackBerry and bada OS devices, as well as on featurephones. Windows Phone was conspicuously missing from the news piece, but we will wait for the official presentation to see if it's included. ChatON should be showcased at the IFA Expo this week, and is supposed to go live in 120 countries and 62 world languages.
The featurephone version will be more basic, allowing users to do group chat, or share text, images, video, calendar entries, voice messages and contacts. The smartphone variance tops it off with a few perks like the so-called Interaction Rank, marking how active a user is at ChatON, as well as user profile comments. There will also be an Animation message, which combines text and audio. Have a look at the brief ChatON presentation in the video below.
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The service itself is not revolutionary, there are plenty of cross-platform messaging apps, like WhatsApp Messenger, but the sheer fact that it comes from Samsung shows how dedicated the manufacturer is to further differentiate itself in the mobile business, by slowly building its own ecosystem, and delivering on its promise to focus on software. Now if it could only get those new hires to start working on TouchWiz asap.
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Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena from 2010 to 2025, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.
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