TeleNav Opens Location and Nav to Mobile/Web Devs
This is a little cool. TeleNav, Inc. the location-based services provider behemoth, is releasing APIs enabling developers to connect such things as such as turn-by-turn directions and location sharing to mobile and web apps. The APIs called TeleNav Connect and TeleNav Share, are available through the TeleNav Developer Platform.
“We have made it easy for developers to use our APIs across all mobile platforms and give users access to location sharing from any mobile application or website,” said Dariusz Paczuski, vice president of marketing for TeleNav. “When a developer wants to help their users drive to or share a location, they won’t have to ask themselves which operating systems they can and can’t support. With the TeleNav Developer Platform, they have one simple solution to deliver a consistent user experience whether they develop their app for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Phone 7, or any other major mobile platform.”
According to the company, the platform helps developers reach more than 17 million TeleNav subscribers and enables smooth navigation and location sharing across all major mobile operating systems on hundreds of devices supported by the network’s U.S. carrier partners: AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular, as well as a limited number of devices on the Verizon network.
TeleNav Connect
The Connect app-to-app API makes possible a “seamless” process for launching one of TeleNav’s location-based services from within their application. For instance, says TeleNav, an application providing restaurant information and reviews can use the TeleNav Connect API to include a “Drive-To” button within each listing. If the user chooses this option and is a TeleNav subscriber, TeleNav’s turn-by-turn navigation application will launch and guide the user to the restaurant’s location. In addition to voice-guided, turn-by-turn navigation, developers can use TeleNav Connect to launch maps, driving directions, real-time traffic, and drive-time local search results from within their applications. But again, users have to be a TeleNav subscriber (nothing’s free).
Some notables are already taking advantage:
“WHERE is all about helping people discover where to go. TeleNav Connect helps our users get ‘from WHERE to there’ by enabling us to deliver an enhanced, seamless user experience,” said David Chang, vice president, Products, WHERE, Inc. “The integration of the API also allows us to demonstrate to local merchants that our application not only helps consumers discover their business, but also drive to their front door.”
“Utilizing TeleNav’s API allows us to deliver a unique experience to users of Prompt, the punctuality app, by enabling turn-by-turn directions from within our application. The API closes the loop for our users – when there is unexpected traffic, Prompt notifies the user to leave for a meeting early and TeleNav will guide them there,” said Julian Bourne, founder and CEO of Proxpro, Inc. “Because TeleNav has such broad device support and a large user base, we can use the API to offer this enhanced experience across all of the mobile platforms for which we develop.”
TeleNav Share
This API helps users send an address from a website or a mobile app directly to their phone (like you can do with Google Maps). Developers can mobilize addresses on their Websites by using the API to place a “Send to Phone” option next to address listings. When a user clicks on this option, they are able to enter phone numbers and instantly send the address to their phone or share it with friends.
TeleNav has launched a developer portal to support all this (http://developer.telenav.com).
“Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for developers to offer the best search, navigation, and location experience for their users, and we feel the APIs and developer resources we offer help them do just that,” said Paczuski. “Developers need points of differentiation in the crowded app market to grow their user base and reduce churn. Seamless navigation provides that differentiation and ensures a positive user experience with both the developer’s application and TeleNav’s location services.”
This post originally appeared on Locl.ly.