Moya Messenger is a new mobile messaging app that allows users to communicate without incurring data costs.
The app, developed in South Africa by biNu, provides #datafree text messaging that works even when a mobile user has no airtime or data balance on their smartphone device.
“We are profoundly motivated by the positive social impact of enabling ubiquitous #datafree mobile messaging, developed in Africa, for Africans”, says Gour Lentell, CEO of biNu. “We do it by utilising telco reverse billing which allows us to pay mobile messaging data costs.”
biNu has reverse billing agreements with MTN, Vodacom, Cell C and Telkom, and has built a technology platform that enables partners and customers to make their apps and websites #datafree for end-users.
Lentell adds: “We definitely see a place for a challenger like Moya where the data-cost barrier of mobile messaging is removed completely for South African consumers, particularly in an era of #DataMustFall and increasing pressure on consumer incomes.”
Moya Messenger was built using proven, industry standard open-source messaging technology, and adapted to be #datafree.
The app offers unlimited texting, group chat, end-to-end security with automatic encryption of all messages, and automatic contact discovery that allows users to connect with others also using the Moya app. Moya users are always logged on, and messages are saved when their phones are switched off.
While message attachments like photos, videos, voice notes and documents are supported, sending media attachments is not #datafree – however, users will be pre-emptively warned when they will incur mobile data costs, or need to switch to WiFi to send media files.
The commercial model around Moya is to provide rich, programmatic access to businesses and enterprises of all kinds so they can engage at scale with their audiences through messaging, without a cost implication for their users, members and customers.
“We see opportunities for organisations to benefit from a #datafree platform, for example financial institutions delivering customer support and document exchange; trade unions and political parties wanting to communicate with their members; government agencies to disseminate information and implement service delivery; NGOs for reaching target communities, and the FMCG sector to reach their audiences,” Lentell says.