Cameroon: IM app OnDjoss wants to conquer the world

By : Adoni Conrad Quenum

Date : lundi, 24 octobre 2022 10:50

In Africa, and possibly in the rest of the world, instant messaging apps are getting more popular. Local entrepreneurs have decided to create alternatives to the foreign apps that have dominated the market up to now. 

OnDjoss is an instant messaging app developed by a Cameroonian eponymous start-up. It allows users to chat through instant text messages, and audio and video calls. 

"Ondjoss is an instant messaging app made by Africans for the world. It is about providing Africans with a powerful messaging app that they can identify with. The aim is to later compete with similar well-known apps worldwide but, we want to conquer Africa first,” indicates Ondjoss founder, Valere Tchapda.

The mobile app is available for Android devices only. Some users criticize it for being a carbon copy of WhatsApp but, Valere Tchapda says it is not. She explains that unlike other messaging apps (Whatsapp notably), other Ondjoss users can not access other users’ phone numbers in groups they belong to. They can only see usernames. With Ondjoss, users can also send heavy files of up to several gigabytes and save messages to recover later when they misplace their phones.

 In 2022, a new feature was added to the app. The feature, called Kongossa, allows peer-to-peer messaging for enhanced privacy. 

To register or create an Ondjoss account, users will need to provide their phone numbers and create pseudos. Then, they can chat with their contacts, who also have Ondjoss accounts. The personal data scandal that hit U.S firm Meta and its messaging app, WhatsApp notably,  positively impacted OnDjoss userbase. It claims more than 125,000 users and Playstore data shows 100,000+ downloads. 

Adoni Conrad Quenum

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