There are currently 5/5 publicly available versions of Folocard (the mobile Email templating app); 1 Web, 1 iOS and 2 Android (1 in Production and one in Beta). We wanted to take a minute to explain why that is.
Folocard was born from the idea that when people meet and exchange business cards, there is more to it than just collecting small pieces of paper with personal information on them. Folocard’s mission is to facilitate more interpersonal communication. We chose Email as the medium since it’s ubiquitous and still the main business and digital communication channel. Yes, there is Linkedin, and WhatsApp groups and Facebook chat, but Email is not showing signs of going away. Everyone has it, it’s Asynchronous (doesn’t require both parties to be on at the same time, which consumers do come to expect from chat apps).
We first developed Folocard on a Web Framework called IONIC. It allows to use web technology, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript (and more specifically Angular.js) to create apps that work across all consumer devices; Desktop Web, Mobile Web, Android, and iOS Apps.
You can get these apps on Apple App Store and Google Play now.
Then we developed an entirely new version ‘Folocard-Lite’, from scratch, that doesn’t require any download or install. You just navigate to the URL: https://app.folocard.com and you get a slimmed down version of the above apps, but the core is there. Scanning anything to find an Email address (Business Cards, Documents and even Handwritten) to compose a draft Email in the native Email client of your choice. This works on any desktop or mobile web browser; from Chrome to Safari Mobile and beyond. The technology used there is a new set of standards collectively known as a ‘Progressive Web App’ or PWA. Cool feature is to ‘save to homescreen‘ to get an ‘app-like’ experience, with an App Icon and Full Screen (no URL address bar).
The fancy Optical Character Recognition (OCR), what reads the text of the business card, is the same for all three apps. While Folocard-Lite is simple and lean, Folocard the Android & iOS apps have extensive features. From making multiple Email templates to having a log of scanned business cards and other automation settings to fit any workflow desired.
Now we are left with Folocard-Offline. Our newest creation, based on the new technology called; Flutter. This technology offers the ability to build Native Apps for both iOS and Android from one code base. It differs from the original Folocard app as it’s not web-based. This allowed for the main feature in the title; Offline. Even with no internet connection, you can queue Emails in your native Email client from business cards read by the app. Airplane mode and intermittent WiFi connections at conference/tradeshow/exhibition floors are all addressed with this capability. Of course, the Email doesn’t work without the internet, but at least the follow-up tasks can be completed while airborne or during lunch break at the big conference.
Folocard-Offline is available as an Open Beta App on Google Play and Apple App Store now. We really worked hard and added a powerful set of features to Folocard-Offline. Including;
Less we forget the killer feature of Folocard-Offline. Business card reader feature is Free and Unlimited. That’s right, we don’t use a serverside business card scanning OCR engine, it’s local on the device. It works just as well (in English – as all emails are in English) as Folocard and Folocard-Lite, just without the scan limits.
To summarize:
We welcome feedback, and hope this clarifies any questions.
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