Although today’s mobile devices are more computer than telephone, calls haven’t gone the way of the dinosaurs yet. Local company Technology In Progress (TIP) Solutions doesn’t just want to preserve voice communications—it wants to improve them. To do so, the company offers a suite of call management apps.
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TIP’s latest innovation is CallSnap, an Android app that lets users respond to incoming phone calls with a text. Rather than answering a call at an inconvenient moment or simply ignoring it, CallSnap allows the user to send a photo of what he or she is doing, accompanied by a text with a message such as, “Can’t talk right now!”
“In light of the popularity of photosharing and interactive apps, and our focus on ‘all things phone call’, the idea to reply to a phone call with a photo came to us in a brainstorming session one evening this winter,” says TIP President Michael Unetich. “CallSnapTM is photosharing with a really legitimate purpose! So it’s really a no-brainer that we should offer such a call management tool.”
The benefit, Unetich says, is that CallSnap allows the user to acknowledge that they saw the call without actually answering it. He expects that the app will attract younger users who are eager to share what they’re doing at all times. Selfies, anyone?
Unetich says, on average, 1,500 users have downloaded CallSnap each day since the app launched last week. With an upcoming advertising campaign in the works, he hopes to see that figure triple.
The app was unveiled at the CTIA 2013 Thought Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, where TIP CEO John Braun participated in a showcase competition called Startup Throw Down. Beating out 12 other companies, TIP went home with top prize from the Wireless Innovation Open Mic event.
“It’s always nice to win when you’re up against your start-up peers because it validates what we’re doing,” Unetich says. “It helps alleviate that feeling that many entrepreneurs know where you wake up every day feeling that you must have gone crazy because you feel like you’re one of only a few people that see the potential in what you’re doing.”
Though CallSnap is young, TIP Solutions has big plans looking ahead. First among them is bringing its app to iOS within the next two months. A bit further down the line, Unetich wants to see TIP’s pre-embedded features—such as a home screen button that allows a user to put a call on hold before answering—in two million Indian phones by the end of the year.
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