Today Yellix, a self-funded mobile startup from Vienna hits the crowded mobile app market. Yellix offers an interesting way of connecting your Facebook friends with your mobile device. By installing the free Facebook application onto your cell phone your Facebook friends are being matched with your cell contacts – in real time. There are a number of apps out there that do this, but few pull real-time info from Facebook.
It’s not entirely clear how this is done technically but the app runs on Android, RIM BlackBerry, Symbian or Windows Mobile platforms. When you get a call the app syncs with the Facebook app and immediately lets you see who is calling, their Facebook profile picture and the last status update of that person.
You need to link your Facebook account with Yellix by giving permission to for the app to access your Facebook profile. All information is kept private and telephone-numbers are not published on Facebook, luckily. The app lets you know who your “real friends” are by displaying the “top 5 callers” on your Facebook page. The latter one might be a killer feature for spreading virally throughout Facebook. For Austrian based users the service (currently) offers another great feature.
Facebook is heading towards becoming the one-stop-shop for social networking and, since yesterday with the purchase of FriendFeed, your real-time internet experience. Most of us are on Facebook and so are the majority of our (real life) friends. Yellix enables users a slick way of matching your Facebook friends with your mobile contacts. This almost makes established syncing services obsolete. If you have your friends on Facebook, they are also going to be on your cell. Claudia Poepperl, founder and CEO of adaffix, the company behind Yellix calls it the “next generation caller ID system”.
The app does not only sync with Facebook, but also with the Austrian yellow and white pages. Technically this means that there won’t be a lot of excuses left for not picking up phone calls because you didn’t know that number. Any number or company that’s registered in Austria’s yellow or white pages directory will be displayed on your cell – supposedly without any downsides, such as pressing certain button combinations or flipping back and forth from the app to your phone book.
One major downside howver is that this first iteration won’t appear running on the iPhone. However, this is due to the fact that you can’t run apps on iPhones in the background. However, it’s likely that this is going to possible with one of the upcoming SDKs.