iWorld
aha forays into kids content, first animated show set for 10 Sept launch
Mumbai: Telugu language video streaming service aha has announced a partnership with Green Gold Animation to foray into kids content. The partnership will see aha launch six animated originals in the next 12 months and acquire 100 hours of content from the animation company.
aha plans to launch its first animated original “Maha Ganesha” on 10 September coinciding with Ganesh Chaturthi. The show will feature in a separate ‘kids’ section under the aha brand and will be followed by more releases on Children’s Day, Christmas, and so forth. This is the first original animated production that will be in the Telugu language, said the platform in a statement.
The first season of “Maha Ganesha” will have eight episodes. aha kids content will be available to existing subscribers at no additional cost. To attract new viewers, it will stream its first episodes for free so that kids can sample its content.
“This generation of kids have grown up with Marvel and DC superheroes. We want to bring back the stories that our grandmothers used to tell us, produced by one of the best animation companies in the world – Green Gold Animation,” said aha, chief executive officer, Ajit Thakur.
“We believe kids are an important member of the family and that we should prepare a separate pipeline of content. Our tagline ‘Our Stories Our Values’ came from aha’s positioning which is 100 per cent local,” he added.
Thakur believes that launching kids content on the platform will increase the stickiness with existing subscribers as well as bring news subscribers to the OTT platform. “If a family believes that our content is good for their kids, they will pay a premium for it,” he said.
“When we started conceptualising a kids’ original, I thought nothing better than to launch a show on Ganesha because he is the remover of obstacles,” said Green Gold Animation, chief executive officer, Rajiv Chilaka. “Maha Ganesha will feature various stories from the life of Ganesh – the story of his birth, why he cursed the moon, the rivalry between him and his brother. These stories will be told over a span of eight episodes. When you do puja on Ganesh Chaturthi, you will find these stories locally in books. I feel today’s kids’ attention span is different from previous generations, so what if we told them these stories in animation. Hence, we came up with this idea.”
Speaking about kids content on TV, Chilaka said, “The advertising monetisation of kids content on TV has not matched the viewership. There are very few brands that target kids. But in the SVOD ecosystem that’s a very different thing. We’re competing with TV and other entertainment platforms. The OTT medium allows much more flexibility in viewership.”
Currently, aha has no plans to dub its animated content into other South languages.
iWorld
X launches XChat messaging app on iOS with calls and encryption
Standalone app marks shift from “everything app” vision, adds E2E messaging.
MUMBAI: From one big app to many small chats, X seems to be splitting its ambitions. X has rolled out its standalone messaging app, XChat, to iOS users, opening up a new front in its evolving product strategy. The app allows users to connect with existing X contacts through private and group messages, file sharing, as well as audio and video calls. The launch follows a limited beta phase, where the platform tested the product with a smaller user base to refine the experience. Now available publicly, XChat marks a notable pivot from earlier ambitions championed by Elon Musk to turn X into a single “everything app” combining messaging, payments, commerce and more.
Instead, the company under xAI ownership and backed by SpaceX appears to be building a suite of standalone applications, each targeting specific use cases while expanding its broader ecosystem.
At launch, XChat includes end-to-end encrypted messaging, PIN-based access, disappearing messages, and features such as message editing, deletion for all participants, and screenshot blocking. The company has also said the app is free from advertisements and tracking mechanisms, positioning it as a privacy-first alternative in a crowded messaging space.
However, security claims around the platform are likely to face scrutiny. Earlier iterations of XChat drew criticism from experts who argued it fell short of established encrypted platforms like Signal. With the wider rollout, the app is expected to undergo fresh evaluation to assess whether those concerns have been addressed.
Beyond messaging, XChat will also house X’s Communities feature, which is being discontinued on the main platform due to low usage and spam concerns. Migrating these users could provide an early boost to adoption, effectively turning XChat into both a communication and community hub.
The move underscores a broader recalibration at X less about cramming everything into one app, and more about spreading bets across multiple touchpoints, one message at a time.
