Paytm Stops Its WeChat-Inspired Messaging Service
Tuesday, December 4, 2018 IST
Paytm said it stopped its messaging service a little over a year after its debut as scaling up the app would have added to the costs of the digital payments platform.
Paytm Inbox—that allowed users to not just send and request money, but also chat using the app—was inspired from China’s Tencent-backed WeChat to take on rivals such as WhatsApp and Hike.
While Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma confirmed that the chat function has been removed, he told BloombergQuint that the company plans to release it after upgrading the feature with social content.
When BloombergQuint checked the chat function within the native app, the instant messaging feature couldn’t be found. Paytm’s “Inbox”, which claimed 120 million monthly active users as of June, is now more of a news and entertainment vertical, and allows users to play games and stream live channels.
This comes at a time Paytm’s another feature “SMS Inbox”, which the company touted as a spam-proof inbox, irked users as it sought permission to compose or delete SMS, including personal and financial details, as well as locate phone and monitor calls.
Paytm in September had introduced the feature on its app to integrate mobile SMS with it. The e-commerce company had said it uses proprietary machine learning algorithms to classify SMS into personal, transactional and promotional categories. This feature, however, mainly operates as an SMS organiser and less as a chat option.
Related Topics
Related News & Articles
Threads will allow users to automatically share their status, location, battery life and more with friends
Recently posted . 862 views . 1 min read
Countless traffic violators are caught each day in India for various reasons. Some of them try to escape the fine and flee the spot. Here is one such video from G...
Recently posted . 1K views . 2 min read
Chinese technology enterprise Lenovo has partnered with Paytm to make sure hassle-free cashless transactions in an effort to benefit computer consumers who...
Recently posted . 699 views . 10 min read
Popular social media application WhatsApp has stopped working on older iPhones and Android handsets to ensure that it could continue to introduce new features and s...
Recently posted . 676 views . 15 min read
Instagram has today announced a new standalone app called Threads which is aimed at interacting more with your close friends on Instagram. Similar to the 'Close...
Recently posted . 811 views . 4 min read
Trending News & Articles
Tata Harrier’s three-row seat version in works, details out
Recently posted . 2K views . 0 min read
Rolls Royce cars are extremely luxurious. While there are many expensive pieces of equipment in Rolls Royce cars, their most relaxing feature is the silence that ...
Recently posted . 2K views . 2 min read
The following list of India's Top 5 Mobile Charger manufacture Brand 2019
Recently posted . 2K views . 0 min read
XUV300 is the latest entrant in the compact SUV segment.
Recently posted . 2K views . 0 min read
More in Electronics & Gadgets
You'll probably be hard pressed to remember, but before Samsung's onslaught of announcements today, Xiaomi also unveiled the Mi 9. This phone also has a tra...
Recently posted. 687 views . 1 min read
For starters, Android users are advised to download apps only from the Google Play Store.
Recently posted. 722 views . 0 min read
LG has silently announced a new smartphone. Dubbed X5 (2018), the device is powered by Mediatek's MT6750 chipset with octa-core 1.5GHz processor, and comes wi...
Recently posted. 561 views . 1 min read
Recently posted . 922 views
Recently posted . 858 views
Recently posted . 1K views
Recently posted . 1K views
Recently posted . 1K views . 253 min read
Recently posted . 954 views . 24 min read
Motorola has started sending out press invites for a product launch event on June 6 in Brazil. While the invite does confirm a smartphone will be the star of the ...
Recently posted. 644 views . 1 min read
From Google Interpreter Mode to games you can play, did you know about these features of the Google Assistant?
Recently posted. 602 views . 0 min read