I know, I’m starting a debate by saying this but the fact is – smartphones have turned us into smarter beings. Yes dumb too, but largely more productive and smarter. Dumb for making us stare at the screen or just scroll through app pages without actually launching an app. But there are countless reasons that smartphones make us smarter and one of them is managing tasks. From my own personal experience, Siri has been a lifeline for me since the iPhone 4S in 2011. Well frankly it all started with flirting with Siri and then just arguing before it became a habit to ask her to set my reminders and alarms. As years passed and Siri got better with each passing year, my love err dependency on her increased.
But there was a problem or still is, even though Siri is the best virtual assistant you can get on a smartphone. It never had full support for our region, for instance you can’t book movie tickets or ask for a cab from Siri in India. And the list goes on, hence making it impossible to complete daily tasks that are India specific. Therefore, I was on a lookout for an app that helps do more and be more productive.
To my surprise, the answer was an app/service that I’d been using since it’s inception days – Akosha. Though the solution to my problem was Akosha in its new avatar as Helpchat. As the name suggests, Helpchat is a one stop app for all the help you could possibly need.
No Kidding! Helpchat does the following tasks –
- Recharge and Pay bills of your phone, D2H, Data Card
- Tech support
- Travel booking
- Find Jobs
- Holiday guidance
- Ordering groceries
- Book Movie tickets
- Ordering food at your doorstep
- Providing shopping assistance
- Helping you find the best deals & coupons
- Web check-in
- Education counselling
- Laundry
- Health queries
- Book cabs
- Stay updated with the current pollution index
- Traffic in local area
- Beauty Tips
- Best deals online
- Train & Flight PNR Status
- Daily weather forecast
- And Cashbacks
- Phew! (Well that’s just me)
Ahem! Honestly, I’d be happy if even 10% of these services were functional and could come in handy. So, I decided to try it for booking a cab a few days back, my intention was to check if the cashback really works or not.
Sitting in an Ola cab booked by @AskHelpchat at a discounted price and enjoying the free WiFi by @Olacabs #FTW pic.twitter.com/42erFckNYW
— ɐlʍɐɥɔ lıɥʞıu (@nikhilchawla) April 23, 2016
It goes without a say that Helpchat became my default cab booking app since then and I could remove the official Ola and Uber apps from my phone. But that’s not it, in its most recent update, Helpchat adds best of social (twitter, instagram, youtube) too. That means, a user doesn’t have to jump between apps to glance his/her social streams. Oh, daily horoscope too for those who wear red underpants and yellow socks according what their horoscope suggests 😉
Personally, I’ve really got used to Helpchat as my daily news digest app also. Again a respite from switching between flipboard, NDTV, BBC and others.
But there is one unique feature out of these plethora of features that I rely heavily on – The Air Quality Index. This feature is an initiative by @helpchat #RightToBreathe to spread awareness about the Air Quality index for a pollution free India.
But more importantly, Helpchat is a virtual assistant that has answer for everything you need to know. Be it plumber, electrician, beautician or any expert that you require, help is just a chat away 🙂
The Unbiased Verdict
In a very short time, Helpchat has become a one app for all service/platform for me. And I’m sure it would be the same case for anybody who starts using it. Though there are a few bugs that we would want to be squashed in the next update but overall it’s one helpful app for all.
And soon, I’d want Helpchat to help me control my IoT devices like Nest cam and Philips Hue too 🙂
