HeyAnita launches push audio content

HeyAnita today unveiled a new push content delivery service built on the technology of its Rapid Message Service (RMS), a multimedia platform designed to work with any handset’s messaging capabilities.

Called Content Delivery Service (CDS), the software delivers audio content directly to a phone prompted by a text message. For example, a customer could request daily headlines or a news wrap-up sent as voice messages directly to his phone. Whenever a new message was a ready an SMS short code is sent to the customer’s phone, briefly describing the audio content. If the user accepts the prompt the handset connects over the voice network to the RMS gateway, which then delivers the audio content immediately.

HeyAnita vice president of marketing Mark Willingham said the CDS technology is a way to push MMS content on users without worrying about the capabilities of their handsets. “Current MMS solutions don’t work for everyone,” Willingham said. “If it’s not acceptable for your voice service to work only 60% of the time, why is acceptable that other features only work 60% of the time?”

By allowing for the fact that almost all handsets on the market today can receive some sort of text messaging content, CDS allows carriers to ensure that all of its customers can use an MMS service regardless of whether they are capable of receiving all of its multimedia capabilities, Willingham said.

The service scales the content based on the technological capabilities of each handset—info CDS tracks and manages through the RMS platform—allowing customers with more advanced features on their phones to receive graphics or streaming along with the audio content, but not prohibiting handsets with lesser capabilities from receiving at least the audio message. Most MMS solutions today simply don’t transmit the message if a phone is incapable of receiving the full multimedia message, Willingham said.