In 2022, gaming is no longer a mere form of entertainment – it is a way of life. When the pandemic locked the globe indoors, people turned to what was most easily available to pass the time and gaming picked up like never before. However, in its most traditional sense, gaming is far from inclusive. For example, can younger, newer, more diffident players enjoy its benefits with as much ease as everyone else? Unfortunately, till recently they could not. The WAFA voice-centric platform is here to change that.
Launched by Muhammed Aqib T P, this service was created with the mission to build a voice-centric socio-gaming platform that is easily accessible to all users. Aqib says, “WAFA creates a sense of belonging, imparting an ideal user experience to its community. It is a place to connect, hear and be heard. From allowing people to create their own rooms, be a moderator, participant or even take a seat in the audience with other passive listeners, to providing premium features of customized virtual gifts, user profiles and various other in-app purchases, WAFA is in a class by itself. Our aim is to create a virtual world that combines the best of all worlds and creates a riveting and enthralling experience to everyone in the metaverse.”
An alum of MSRIT, Aqib has a B-Tech in Electronic and Instrumentation Engineering and has a vast professional portfolio. When the 4G revolution hit India, voice-centric platforms became a reality, which gave Aqib the idea to create WAFA, whose voice chat feature offered gamers a crystal clear, seamless chat service. Its unique offerings and services allow users to find like-minded people to interact with and create memories together.
“There was a time when gaming was merely about playing games. In-game chatting, although widely used, was not user-friendly for group communication due to its limitation regarding the number of people joining in and its inability to have passive listeners. But gamers have since realised their desire to talk to their gaming friends even when they aren’t in a game. This included interactions that ran deeper than traditional in-game chatting. But now, with audio/voice chat, customisation of virtual gifts and effects, and excellent user support, gamers have access to a superior user experience,” he explains.
As of date, WAFA has been installed over three million times. Their user base mainly consists of Hindi speaking gamers followed by Tamil, Urdu, and Telugu, in the age group of 18 to 35. Over the next six months, the team plans to broaden its reach by focusing on Indians living in the Middle East region.
Their offerings include a localized user experience that supports multiple communities consisting of highly engaged and interactive users. They also include recommendation of rooms based on language and interests, and voice-centric localization of the product in terms of UI. Referring to Yalla and Roblox as direct competitors, WAFA claims to be a strong blend of the two as it combines a voice chat room with a virtual universe.
One unique feature that Aqib highlights is their content moderation. He shares, “Since computers are unable to successfully filter speech, our team takes content moderation very seriously. We use human intervention to judge the context of conversations. WAFA has more than a hundred content monitors to listen in on channels in real time, and thousands of rooms are being carefully monitored. The platform and community focus on casual conversations rather than controversial topics like politics/religion, thus maintaining a pleasant atmosphere throughout. Yet, users still have the choice to voluntarily submit complaint reports at any time.”
Having made their way to one of the top 20 grossing apps in PlayStore India in just one year, WAFA has witnessed tremendous growth. Their most popular service is the feature for User Room Battles which have their own gamification aspect. The average time spent by existing users on the app is 1.9 hours while the average time spent by new users is around 20 minutes. Looking ahead to the future, Aqib is developing a virtual world and environment in the metaverse that will provide Indians with excellent real-time social interaction, making it a virtual party – one that every gamer will be most happy to attend.
The writer pens lifestyle articles for various publications and her blog www.nooranandchawla.com. She can be reached on nooranand@gmail.com.