Indus OS 2.0 World's First Regional Operating System for India

Indus OS, the worlds first regional operating system and India's second most used operating system, recently partnered with two Indian smartphone brands; Celkon & Swipe. Indus OS has an existing partnership with Micromax, and now two more brands joined the list. The OS was first launched in May 2015, on Micromax Unite 3 Smartphone and since then Indus OS has achieved a 4 million user base across more than 35 smartphones in the first year of launch. Recently Indus launched an updated version of their OS, the Indus OS 2.0 with Micromax Unite 4 series smartphones, and since the partnership with Celkon & Swipe, Indus OS will be available on other brand smartphones, beyond Micromax. Celkon is all set to launch their first device Campus PRIDE with Indus OS.

Recently we got an opportunity to meet the founders & the team of Indus OS for a discussion regarding the public demand when it comes to OS, and what's new in Indus OS 2.0. I was . really impressed with Indus OS, in a matter of minutes. Considering that it is Made in India, the team of Indus OS has done a marvelous job. The features are top-notch, especially for those people who are more comfortable with their regional language than English. Indus OS supports the regional language entirely, and not just partially like other operating systems. Some of its features are really good and designed for people who just use the phone for the sake of making calls etc. For people who are not good with gadgets, and always mess up. We'll find out more below.

What is Indus OS?

As I mentioned earlier, Indus OS is an operating system, world's first regional operating system in fact, which is made by Indians in India. According to the founders, the OS is the result of three years of research & development in regional languages & OS technology. Based on surveys & analysis, Indus OS team were able to develop unique patented technologies which help make Indus OS, one of the top-notch OS in India. According to the team, it is the first OS designed to meet the real needs of the emerging market’s regional language speaking citizens through innovation, simplification, and content. It supports 12 widely spoken Indian regional languages, along with the simple but attractive interface.

Supported Languages : Hindi, Punjabi, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Odia, Kannada, Gujrati, Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, Urdu, along with English.

What's New in Indus OS 2.0?

Indus Keyboard

The main highlight feature of Indus OS 2.0, according to me is the Indus Keyboard app. I was really impressed with it and would like to elaborate on it here. The keyboard app is specially designed and is a pioneer in regional language keyboards. It fully supports 12 widely spoken Indian languages and provides Auto-Correction, swipe translation, mantra prediction in all 12 languages. Not only that, it also brings Urdu transliteration support for the very first time in Indian smartphones. The keyboard also brings hybrid option, in which you can type in two languages simultaneously. Also instead of a jumbled up keys for regional languages, Indus keeps the letters in correct order (the way we learn in school) for easy typing (However English keyboard will remain QWERTY)

Translation & Text-to-Speech

The Swipe translation engine uses complex algorithms to translate your sentence or message between English and a regional language accurately by just swiping (Indus Swipe). Indus Swipe lets you Send a message in English by typing in regional language, as well as read an English message in a regional language, isn't that great?. This feature is active all across the OS, and can be used in SMS app, Email app or anywhere, all you have to do is swipe left to transliterate (change regional language letters to English letters) and swipe right to translate (change regional language to English)

The text to speech technology of Indus OS is available in 6 languages as of now, and they are; Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Hindi and Malayalam. This feature is available across the phone's application. All you have to do is, select the text which you want to listen in the form of speech, tap on copy button, this will make Listen buttons appear on the right side of the phone, you can tap the top button to listen the text in regional language, or tap the bottom button to listen the text in English.

App Bazaar : No Email Required

Indus OS team believes that more than 30 percent of Indian users don't have email id's and less than 10 percent users have access to credit cards. This makes them unable to download apps or purchase them, since app stores like App Store & Google Play Store require you to have an email id for accessing the content, and people who don't have email id's or required knowledge to do that, fail to download apps. Indus OS took the initiative to change this and make the process simpler, they built their very own app store named 'App bazaar' which can be accessed without an email id, Indus OS team personally got in touch with major app developers and got them to release a compatible version of their app on 'App Bazaar' - major apps like Facebook, WhatsApp etc, are already available. App Bazaar is growing rapidly with new apps being added frequently. 

App Bazaar is world's first Regional App Marketplace which allows you to download unlimited apps across categories such as Games, Entertainment, News & Books, Music & Video, Tools, Jokes etc. App Bazaar supports 12 languages and can be viewed in any of the 12 supported regional languages. You can also search for apps in App Bazaar, using your regional language.

Carrier based Payment Option

Indus OS team also took app payments process seriously and came up with the carrier-based payment option. This option allows users to purchase their favorite app for a very nominal fee (even less than Google Play Store & App store) and complete the payment process through their service provider, in that case, the amount is deducted via account balance. For example; if WhatApp app is available for Rs.5 on App Bazaar, users can purchase this app and Rs.5 will be deducted from their mobile account balance, isn't it great? Now you don;t need a credit card for purchasing apps.

Simple Interface

Indus OS sports a simple but attractive interface, the main highlight of the interface is an additional page on home screen which comes with icons of most commonly used features of phone like Phone Dialer, Messages, Camera, Gallery, App Bazaar, Settings, Contacts etc. these icons are fixed and cannot be moved, no matter what. Indus OS team thinks that a lot of time people who are not very good with technology tend to mess up their phone icons and when in need, aren't able to find them. Indus OS comes with a specially designed page which contains all basic icons (which are static) so that people can instantly get access to them whenever in need. You can also create additional screens, just like any other phone and put whatever you want there, but this dedicated page remains the same and can be accessed by swiping to the extreme left side. There is no App drawer, so all the apps will come straight on your home screen. Other than that, the OS is quite smooth & beautifully designed. Indus Messaging lets users send free text message to other Indus OS users via the internet. 

Devices running Indus OS 2.0

Indus OS 1.0 supports a number of Micromax devices, and now after the recent partnership with Celkon and Swipe, Indus OS 2.0 also supports Celkon smartphone(s) & Tablet and swipe phones, along with Micromax. Indus OS 1.0 came without Urdu & Assamese support but Indus OS 2.0 will come in all 12 languages. As of Now, Indus OS 2.0 is currently available on Micromax Unite 4, Micromax Unite 4 Plus, Celkon Campus Pride, Celkon Tablet. 

Final Thoughts

A lot of other things were discussed at the meet up with Indus OS team members, I personally had a talk with Rakesh Deshmukh, CEO & Co-founder of Indus OS regarding their future plans, improvements & the addition of new features. Rakesh told me about their plans to partner with some more major smartphone brands in India very soon, he also said that the team is in talks with some brands and something might come out soon. Possibilities of adding some new features were also discussed but I'm not going to reveal anything unless it goes official. My experience with Indus OS 2.0 was great and I would love to review the OS in near future.

For more information on Indus OS, visit their website.

Please let me know your thoughts in comment section.

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About Jimmie Luthra

Jimmie Luthra is a Mariner, Tech enthusiast, Blogger and Gadget reviewer. He is fond of technology and is usually found playing with some piece of tech. He is also a Guitarist, Music lover & fitness freak.