If there’s one pattern that we’ve witnessed over the past year in India, it’s users migrating from one app to the other. It all began when the Indian government banned TikTok, which led to exponential growth and adoption of TikTok-like apps. Then came WhatsApp’s privacy policy update that made users switch from WhatsApp to secure messaging apps like Telegram and Signal. If you’ve been keeping up with the latest tech trends, you might have already heard of a new Twitter-like app named ‘Koo’. Today, we’ll be taking a look at what Koo offers and discussing if you should try the platform.
What is Koo?
Koo is a micro-blogging platform that focuses on India, with a vernacular push. As the company puts it, Koo is the ‘voice of India in Indian Languages.’ You can use Koo on Android, iOS, and the web. The standout feature of Koo at the moment is support for Indian languages. As of this writing, Koo is available in English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, and Marathi, with support for other languages slated to come soon. Moreover, Koo is one of the winners of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Innovate Challenge that urged Indian developers and companies to build apps that would help fill the gap of banned Chinese apps.
- What is Koo?
- Koo Features
- Isn’t this just Twitter?
- What about Privacy?
- Should I use Koo?
If you’re a Twitter user, it’s safe to say that you’ll find almost all the features here. You can use your phone number or email address to sign up for Koo. Once you’ve created the account, you can voice your opinions, follow people, send messages, and browse trending hashtags.
On Koo’s home page, you can browse your content feed from the ‘Feed’ section and discover new accounts on the ‘People’ section. The People section has a bunch of filters to help you find accounts that might meet your interests.
Posting Koos
Unlike Twitter that has a 280-character limit, Koo lets you post with up to 400 characters. However, there is no option to continue your post as a thread without leaving the compose interface. As a result, you don’t get a tweetstorm-like experience here. To create a new Koo, tap on the floating action button or use the box on the home page.
From Koo’s profile settings, you can set your name, username, bio, and other details shown in the image below. You also have the option to link your other social links including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. There’s a toggle to show or hide your phone number, gender, and marital status in your profile.
Short answer: Yes
Long answer: It’s complicated. The features and the essence of the platform stays true to what Twitter offers. In fact, apart from the presence of Indian languages and editing posts, you don’t have anything that’s truly a new feature. That said, we can’t accuse that Koo is just a Twitter rip-off because of a few reasons. Firstly, Koo is still somewhat new to the game and like any startup, it needs time to build features. While the platform has caught up with Twitter by adding common features that users know and love, we’ll have to wait to see if Koo will bring new unique features.
You might have read headlines with allegations questioning if Koo is a Chinese app and data leaking concerns. Let’s start with the first claim. Koo is the product of Bombinate Technologies Private Limited. Apart from Koo, Bombinate Technologies has another service called ‘Vokal’. While Shunwei Capital – a Chinese investor had invested in Vokal, Koo’s CEO revealed last week that the investor will be entirely exiting.
Use it if you:
- no longer want to use Twitter (there’s no point in using both of these platforms at the same time)
- are looking for a Twitter-like platform in your language
- crave a feel-good factor for supporting an Indian app (if you’re into that)
Don’t use it if you:
