Aviate (mobile app)

How to make mobile phones adapt to their user’s needs, rather than the other way around.

Entrepreneur Mark Daiss, his cousin Paul Montoy-Wilson and his friend William Choi, both of whom worked at Google, wanted something more from their phones. Rather than have to search for what they wanted, they wanted the phone to offer them that information, when they needed it and based on what they were doing at the time. The three got together in 2011 to set up Thumbs up Labs and, earlier this year, launched their first product that does just that- called Aviate. It’s an android-based mobile interface that intelligently organizes your phone, taking contextual cues from the time of day, where you are and your app usage patterns.

Here’s how it works. Once you install the app, Aviate automatically categorizes your apps into collections such as music, news, productivity; a restaurant etc. and recommends new apps based on your download and usage patterns. This is the home screen that changes automatically through the day, depending on the time and location. So, when you reach for the phone on waking up, tap the orange house icon at the top of your screen for the weather, a calendar and to-do apps. As you head for work, Aviate can detect you are on the move and show traffic conditions and give directions to the office, and the work space gives you email, Google Calendar and Drive, among others. If you are shopping or out for a meal with your friends, you can pull down information from the red space on what’s nearby, restaurant reviews and so on.

Daiss says the app saw over 100,000 installations in the first week itself and several users are signing up every minute, which makes him confident that by next year. Aviate will have over 1 million users. Still, he does have some ideas- people are willing to pay between 50 cent and $5 to get their apps installed, Daiss points out, and Aviate generates app installations through its recommendations. Another revenue source could be through directing people to different search services, for which Aviate would earn a free each time.