A local application company has released a new messaging app which hopes to take market share from international giants like Viber and WhatsApp.
'Fanoos' (lantern in Persian) allows users to send text, picture and video messages privately or in groups, Mehr News Agency reported on Monday.
The beta version of the application has been launched by Seraj Cyberspace Organization for devices running on Android. What distinguishes the app from similar foreign applications—such as Line and Telegram—is that it has been released on local servers.
The Financial Tribune contacted the team's supervisor at Seraj Cyberspace who said the team first started working on the app in May 2014. "With an increasing demand for messaging systems, the team felt the need to localize such technologies. That was how the initial idea for creating Fanoos originated," he said.
Sporting the motto "Fanoos for Iranian Connectivity", the app's design is user friendly and features Iranian-Islamic theme where female sticker characters wear hijab and other characters say "It is time to pray."
The team predicts that the app will generate revenues through sticker package sales. They have not, however, announced a definite price for sticker downloads so far.
Fanoos has been designed, produced and coded 100% locally. It can be downloaded for free via a direct link on the website fanoosapp.ir.
Fanoos is not yet available for download on local android application shops such as Café Bazaar, Myket, asr24.com nor on Google Play. According to the app's website, the beta version has by far been directly downloaded over 25,000 times. The developers also plan to release an iOS version of Fanoos.
