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Micromax's sub-brand YU Televentures has announced a software based assistant facility named AroundYU with an unusual treatment that allows Yutopia handset users to book cabs, order food, buy stuff and much more all in a single app screen. This is kind of a different service, which has not been endeavored by any of the Indian phone makers so far. It cannot be considered as an app, as it comes built-in within the device's Cyanogen CM12 operating system. The exclusive YU has been added as a fact that neither the feature will be available with any other Cyanogen devices such as OnePlus One nor it can be downloaded via Google Playstore. Though, it will be made handy on other YU smartphones too, said YU, on their note.
Accessing AroundYU is pretty easy as it is an always-on feature that opens up by swiping from the left side of the home screen, much similar like HTC BlinkFeed and Google Now cards. Albeit, it works in a different manner than the two. Instead of updating you with the latest news, scores etc, AroundYU lets you to order food, cabs and buy stuff. What it actually does is to grab your phone's location and gather all the information in a card-based form. All the options are available on the top. You only have to select a category and enter the name of the place you want to travel or name of the commodity you are looking for.
YU is having a collaboration with various service providers like for Ola cabs booking the rides, Ixigo for flight and hotel booking, E-commerce websites like Amazon and Snapdeal for buying stuff, IRCTC for railway enquiry. Other than this, it displays a number of small traders and vendors and offline taxi providers.
While the whole concept looks quite impressive, some betterments are needed to be done in the categories. For example, when booking for a bus gets done, the page will be navigated to a third party booking site called eTravelSmart, which is not at all mobile optimized. It is appreciable to visualize something beyond just bare hardware and software, but YU has to work a bit more on its design to make the AroundYU available to a wider audience.
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