Microsoft has had a big month so far this October especially with the well-received reveal of standout hardware products like the Surface Book and HoloLens.
At its core, however, Microsoft is still a software company where its fortunes were built on the Windows operating system. As more users shift into a mobile-centric world (where Windows is not a major force to be reckoned with like Apple's iOS or Google's Android), the company has had to shift its strategy.
That strategy is to get off its Windows high horse and be where the users are even if its with the competition. Brand name Windows software like Office and Skype can be found in both Apple's App Store and Google Play. In fact, Microsoft seems to favor Android more by flooding its market with other apps like Arrow Launcher, Translator and Send. The company even bought out the makers of the popular Android lockscreen app, Echo Lockscreen.
This time, Microsoft is giving Android users something quite incomparable to their previous offerings and may even come off as unremarkable — a dialer app. Yes, when most users don't even think twice about changing up the dialer app that originally came preloaded on their smartphones, here comes Microsoft with exactly that. Aptly named Dialer, this seemingly bland app was developed for users where 2G and 3G networks prevail.
That's why its first being tested in India where smartphone users there will be able to make calls on their slower networks.
"As part of the ongoing improvements to deliver the best experience possible to our users, we are always innovating and occasionally test out new features and functionality on small groups of users in different markets," the company commented online. "If you live in India and have an Android phone and would like to get involved, sign up to our Pre-Release program via the Skype Community page. We have no specific news on product announcements planned in India to share today."
Developed by Microsoft's Skype team, the Dialer app does offer a few extra layers of advanced functionality than most other native dialer apps. For example, Dialer will be able to pull up information about a caller on-the-fly and even block known spam callers. On top of that, the app can also dig into your contacts to find more info about them, businesses and nearby places such as subway stations.
Android users itching to change up all their native apps can look forward to the public beta of Dialer going in the wild next month, and hopefully an official release sometime mid-December.
Photo: Scott Akerman | Flickr
