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Ayoba, the African messaging app, has announced the launch of a new version of its android app (0.38) which offers users access to voice and video calling

This comes as the app celebrates its second birthday on 4 May 2021 with a user base of 5.5 million monthly users and an award for Best Mobile application late last year. The updated app is already live and in use, and is quickly proving popular, with thousands of calls going out across the world every day.  

“Users have been asking us to support Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls pretty much since day one,” said Nolan Wolff, head of Ayoba. “All that’s required is for both parties to upgrade to the latest version of the Android app. This is available immediately from the Google Play Store and our website at ayoba.me.”

Ayoba has also launched ‘ayoba lite,’ allowing users to message contacts from within a standard web browser, either from their desktop or a compatible smartphone. Ayoba lite is designed as a ‘space saver’ for users who are short on memory space on their device and prefer not to download the app. 

“Ayoba lite has been built as a progressive web app (PWA),” explained Wolff.  “This allows us to provide much the same core functionality as our full-featured Android app but contained within a standard web browser. This makes Ayoba accessible to a very broad audience and we expect to reach an entirely untapped market segment. The initial Beta version of the PWA is independent of the Android app but it will evolve to allow a user to easily switch between platforms.”

The company recently reassured its users that it's not possible for messages in the app to be read by anyone, or shared to any third parties. The app features peer-to-peer private messaging which are end-to-end encrypted.  A user’s contacts and location are only available to other users if explicitly shared by the account owner. Users can feel confident that their private data will remain private, and is treated with the utmost care and respect. 

In partnership with MTN, MTN customers are automatically allocated free data to use Ayoba features. Allowances range from 50MB daily to unlimited usage, depending on the country (with the exception of Benin).  Free data allocations can be used for all activities available in the app – including messaging, browsing, gaming and listening to music and customers can also download the app data free at the website.

 

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