EverythingMe‘s contextual launcher aims to customize your Android home screen so that you get exactly what you need every time you switch on your phone. It’s the results of years of work on mobile discovery. And today, the app is available globally.
It’s been a long road for EverythingMe. As co-founder and CMO Ami Ben-David reminded me last week in Paris, the team behind EverythingMe pitched at TechCrunch Disrupt NY in 2011. At the time, it was an iPhone app to improve the mobile search experience.
“But the number of search queries are decreasing on mobile,” Ben-David told me. So that’s why the startup started working on something completely different — context.
You might get the Kindle app when you’re at home in the evening, and the Twitter app when you’re waiting at the bus stop in the morning
When it comes to mobile startups, it’s still a brand new world. Modern smartphones only hit the market in 2007, and countless of developers started providing content for this new platform. Hundreds of thousands of apps are now available at our fingertips.
Yet, this is also a challenge. You may have 150 apps on your phone, but chances are that you only use a dozen of them. “Nobody swipes to the third page of apps,” Ben-David said. This is where EverythingMe is useful.
Here’s how it works. When you switch on your Android phone, you will get four apps that are relevant to the time of the day, your location and more. For example, you might get the Kindle app when you’re at home in the evening, and the Twitter app when you’re waiting at the bus stop in the morning.
Sometimes, you are looking for something in particular beyond these four apps. For example, you might want to get the latest world cup results. This app might not necessarily show up in your top four apps as you don’t open the world cup app all year round. EverythingMe automatically organizes apps in smart folders. You will find the world cup app in the “Sports” folder, maybe in the “News” folder as well.
In these smart folders, you will get information cards so that you even get info without opening and app. And below, you will find the relevant apps depending on the category, as well as app suggestions from the Play Store. You won’t have to micromanage your phone to organize apps anymore, and you won’t miss on this cool new app you installed and forgot a few minutes later.
Finally, EverythingMe replaces the search engine of your phone. For example, if you contact someone very often, his or her name will show up at the top.
The team of 65 has received $37 million in funding over the years, and has attracted millions of downloads in its test markets since February. This contextual launcher also powers Firefox OS. Overall, EverythingMe is all about learning about your habits to make your phone even more personal.