Pune based IntouchId is a cloud and mobile based solution that allows people and businesses to securely maintain and share their contact information.
Just update your contact info in one place and all your contacts and customers automatically see the updates directly in their mobile’s phonebooks. Conversely, your address book is always up-to-date since it is being managed by the contacts themselves. The auto updating address book is always at your fingertips – visible directly in the native address books across the devices, software and services you use such as your mobile or an online/offline email client.
How InTouchId Works
A unique IntouchId is assigned to every person and business makes sharing contact info a snap – just type a few letters/digits and the accurate, complete and auto-updating contact information is accessible to you. As IntouchId is only used for initiation of sharing and not for the actual communication, it is spam-safe and share-able in public.
Essentially, InTouchId is trying to transform your phone book to a network represented in the cloud and a central place to manage relationships with other people and businesses.
And along the way, we are making a few things history, such as managing contact information and getting out of touch! [Sarang Lakare, Founder of InTouchId]
Is IntouchId trying to do too many things? They are trying to be a)new contact book, b)identity management service (a better version of QR code?).
Here is a brief QnA with Sarang on IntouchId USP and how it differs from other services
The USPs are different based on who the target is.
– For individuals, the USP is that they never need to manage contacts ever again. The contact info of their contacts (people as well as businesses, institutes, etc.) is accessible when and where they need it. Also, getting contact info of another person or business is also a snap: just type their IntouchId and you get their contact info (The ID could be on a hoarding, outside a shop, on biz card, email signature, advertisement, etc.).
Not only do you get the current contact info, it is automatically updated across all your devices as and when the other party changes/updates their info. The converse is also true, now individuals have control over their contact information, an in turn, on who/where/when can someone reach them.
For example, you can choose professional contacts to see one number and personal contacts to see another, so you don’t get work calls on your personal mobile. Or you can choose not to give your mobile number to a business who spams you, etc. It also gives you freedom to change numbers without bothering about MNP. For example, if uninor-uninor is now free. You can just buy a Uninor sim, give that number the label “Uninor” and start calling others on their uninor numbers as well as let others call you on your Uninor number and both parties save money!
– Similarly for businesses and institutes, the USP is that their customers see their accurate and updated contact information all the time. BSNL lines go down, or businesses switch planes or add more phone number and today there is no way for them to let their customers know what their current and latest contact info is – without the customer having to take the pain of searching or visiting their website – especially painful on mobiles.
Although these might sound like multiple things, they are all connected to one value preposition eventually: keeping you connected with those that matter to you, across the various mediums of communication that we use today: phone, email, social networking, IM, etc, and over time. There are 2 key things lacking due to which people loose touch over time: a. There is no standard way of keeping contact information up to date, and b. There is no easy way of connecting with someone on the go.
For doing this, we have the platform where an individual or a business can securely store their contact info, define access rights and build connections – all this under a single Intouch ID. We are building plugins so the contact information is visible directly where it is needed – in your mobile’s phonebook or email client’s address book, for example. A lot of focus is on the mobiles as they are taking over as the primary device of communication and so its more important than ever that the address book we use is always up to date.
—
You can have a personal profile and also a professional profile and depending on the relationship with the other person, you can share the profile details.
Feedback to the team:
1. Profile filling is a web1.0 thing, unless it’s a B2B business. Consumers won’t fill up the looong profile form you have put up as part of the process. Figure out a use case when the person ‘skips’ the profile filling part.
2. Notion of different relationships/levels/circles – I think its too complicated to say ”share my professional profile with this person as he is in my inner circle (and is not a friend)”. That is, simplify the relationship definition part.
Having said that, this is an interesting perspective on contact book and the thin line between friends and acquaintance that has cropped up thanks to Facebook and LinkedIns of the world. But given the competitive nature of this business (identity management), InTouchId needs to ride on one USP and not have multiple ‘If not this, then that’ cases, as the pain point they are solving isn’t a stated one.
Invites for Pluggd.in readers:
– Hop here, or
– simply install the app from Android marketplace (and register).
– Try out few InTouchIds: BSNL Help, Pune Rickshaw Complaint Info, Pune Airport contact info.
Watch this introductory video which explains InTouchId product.
