Indian mobile media company, Affle has launched a smartphone messaging product branded, ‘Pinch’ aimed to assist users in discovering friends through the mobile phone medium as well as offer a range of location-based services. The product will also be available across the globe.

The services include iMessenger, iContacts and iLocation Sense services converged into one enabling users of smartphones to message their friends with rich animations, pictures, emoticons and push notifications. It allows sending of messages over the data platform and thereby outdoes the tariff incurred for SMS or MMS services.

The services also serves as a Smartphone messenger allowing users to discover friends intelligently and comprehensively through phone contacts, Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerry, Android and email contacts thereby eventually offering contact and group management services.

The location-based features of the services enable users to locate and chat friends who maybe nearby and win rewards based on the journey travelled and activities with friends carried over the Pinch platform.

“Affle has successfully upgraded over 3 million SMS users to SMS2.0 in many Asian markets and we now aim to upgrade users from SMS to Pinch on Smartphones globally. Our dedicated R&D teams on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian and Windows focus on delivering the best messaging experiences with lots of utilities, entertainment as well as location services and rewards.  Our beta users enjoyed the new experience and helped us to improve Pinch significantly for this global launch.” said Anuj Khanna, the CEO of Affle.

The services support multiple smartphone platforms including iPhone 2G, 3G, 3GS, iPhone 4G (iOS4), iPod Touch, Android 2.x, Blackberry 4.x, Symbian, Web, PC.

The service is available for a discounted price of $0.99 i.e. almost Rs.45.