(RealNetworks Photo)
RealNetworks today announced a new product called Kontxt that is designed to help mobile carriers figure out how to prioritize text message delivery.
The service is focused specifically on “application-to-consumer” messaging, rather than texts between people. Kontxt uses “advanced machine learning algorithms” to identify the content and origin of messages and sort messages into categories to help decide which ones are more important. A two-factor authentication message, or a notification of a Uber or Lyft driver’s arrival, for example, would be prioritized over a promotional message, which could be delivered during times of low network traffic. The service can also block fraudulent and spam messages.
RealNetworks said the service targets mobile carriers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and others, message aggregators that act as middle men between companies trying to send messages to customers and carriers and groups that transfer messages between carriers.
As more companies rely on text messages to communicate things like airline updates and delivery statuses with customers, providers are working to find ways to funnel that traffic through their networks without slowing everything down. In an announcement of the new service, RealNetworks cited figures from mobile research firm Mobilesquared, saying that the volume of messages from apps to people will double to 3 trillion by 2020.
RealNetworks’ three divisions focus on consumer media, mobile services and games. Kontxt falls under the mobile services umbrella and joins other programs like Metcalf, which helps mobile operators send messages to customers across carriers.
Consumer media is organized around RealPlayer. The games division consists mostly of GameHouse, which RealNetworks acquired in 2004, and brings in revenue through selling games, ads on game sites and micro-transactions within games.
