 "English can take a back seat")
Sticking to 'Make in India' in the truest sense, the home-grown Indus OS was recently in the news for rapidly gaining market share. In the age when the iOS-Android war doesn't seem to end, an indigenous operating system coming to the forefront is a nice change. Currently, Indus OS is available on 35 Micromax models.
Fortunately, I got my hands on a Micromax Unite which runs Indus OS. The feature that sets it apart from other operating systems is that it comes with tools and apps that can be operated in regional languages.
While exploring the OS, I couldn't find any kinks. Instead, what I found was the vast variety of languages it supported. The Indus OS supports 12 regional languages, including Hindi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati and Tamil. The phone comes with a separate set of settings for the OS, wherein the user can select the language of their choice. Once that's done, one can message, call and even browse the internet in the selected language.
Indus OS also lets one translate any text from English to the selected language (and vice-versa) with just a swipe. However, that is only available in the default messaging app and you need either a data or Wi-Fi connection. I selected Bengali as my preferred language and found it extremely easy to translate text from English. But unlike the Google app, it only translates text from English.
The OS shares a similarity with the iOS. Much like iMessage, the Indus OS lets you message other Indus OS users for free. And just like its iOS counterpart, a data plan or a Wi-Fi connection is required for it to work. If there's no active internet connection, the app sends message across like an SMS, on which network charges will be levied.
Indus OS does overshadow one aspect of other similar operating systems. It boasts of an app store with about 25,000 apps and games. The app store is easy to navigate through with easy-to-understand categories. The OS also changes the app store's default language to the user-selected language.
On a whole, the Indus OS is definitely a handy tool for people more comfortable with their native language. By overhauling the entire operating system, it becomes easy to not only converse with people, but also use the phone in your preferred language.
