Yesterday Emu™ announced immediate availability of its free Google® Android® smart texting app, Emu Messenger, at http://emu.is/download, or through the Google Play Store. Their web site reports an iOS app is in the works, but with no release date.
The “smart” capability means Emu understands messages as they are being typed, combining the power of artificial intelligence with location awareness, and adds “magic buttons” for scheduling meetings, making restaurant reservations, buying movie tickets, and sharing location in real time. (see the demo video below)
The app, when installed, replaces your existing SMS/MMS app, asking if you want existing messages to just be transferred over. I found it to be pretty quick and simple to make the transfer.
The display of the Marco Polo feature in Emu’s new smart texting app.
Besides capturing and revealing contextual aids referring to restaurants, calendaring events, and scheduling movies, the app has what the developers call the “Marco Polo” feature, described as follows:
“You can share your live location in Emu for 30 minutes; we call it Marco Polo. Share with anyone – if they don’t have Emu, they’ll get a link over SMS. The recipient’s location is not shared back.
When Emu believes the appropriate response to a message would be to share back location (e.g., “where r u?”), it will show a Marco Polo button next to the message.”
Important: While Emu Messenger for Android is available in beta, at this point many of the headline features are disabled. I am trying it out with some Alpha capabilities turned on—though I might not use it much for scheduling movies, the locating services and restaurant planning features sound interesting, as well as the “snooze” mode to respond to incoming calls.
Founded by a team of industry veterans that include the former VP of Product at Siri® (acquired by Apple®) and the former user experience director of Yahoo!® Messenger™, the developers say “Emu has the DNA of both these technologies and products, blended in a new and unique way.”
I’ll be interested to see if this feels like a good fit or if these supportive features to texting are going to feel intrusive after a few conversations with Emu listening in.
