MAM
World’s first social media loyalty platform ‘Brandie’ comes to India
MUMBAI: After a successful run in the US and homeland Sweden, Brandie, world’s first crowd marketing platform, has entered India in partnership with 11 carefully selected innovative Indian brands. Brandie is built on the principle that consumers already endorse their favourite brands on social media and the brands can now reward them to encourage and build a network of brand loyalists on the way.
Playing on the concept of word-of-mouth marketing, the founders of Brandie have developed a disruptive model where consumers promote the brand they love on social media by posting pictures and earn rewards for it.
Brandie co-founder Pranav Kosuri said, “We believe that brand loyalty can only be achieved by empowering the consumers and engaging with them on a direct level. Our platform allows brands to directly incentivise and engage with their audience in a way which is meaningful. This sets us apart from discount platforms and other influencer marketing players.”
He further added, “India is an exciting market for us. The consumer behaviour here is very different from that of US and Sweden, our other markets. The one-month beta test gave us a lot of insights which we included into the platform before the official launch.”
Brandie has been launched with 11 carefully selected Indian brands after a month’s Beta testing, including The Bowl Company, Godrej Nature’s Basket, Raw Pressery, Anand Ahuja’s Bhaane, Pipa Bella, Le15 Patisserie by Pooja Dhingra, Olive Bar and Kitchen, Yerha, FancyPants, and Bengaluru FC.
During the one-month beta test, a closed community of four thousand users posted 15000 photos and generated 3.9 million impressions and 400,000 likes which resulted in more than 6000 rewards being claimed. The testing demonstrated an instant increase in revenue by 30 per cent and a reduced marketing spend of about 40 per cent by the brands.
The app is available on iOS and Android. Users either need to be invited to the platform by the brands or they can choose the brand they like and request to join their reward programme. The platform is channel agnostic and allows users to post on all popular social media channels such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, WhatsApp, Tumblr etc. Brandie’s photo recognition tool makes sure that the content posted by users is related to the brand, basis which users are rewarded points which enable them to get non-cash meaningful rewards from the brands like VIP access to matches by Bengaluru FC, limited edition jewellery from Pipa Bella, exclusive invites to future events by Bhaane and more. In the next six months, Brandie plans to onboard 10 more brands on the platform.
Apple rarely announces minor updates with much fanfare, and iOS 26.4 is no exception. No dramatic redesigns, no flashy keynote moments. What it delivers instead is a focused set of improvements that sharpen the experience you already have. If that sounds underwhelming, spend a week with it. You will change your mind.
Apple Music Learns to Listen Better
The biggest shift in this update lives inside Apple Music. Apple has brought AI-powered playlist generation to the app, and it works on mood rather than genre. Type something like “rainy evening at home” or “running late on a Monday,” and it builds a playlist that actually fits. This is not algorithmic guesswork dressed up in new clothing. It genuinely reads the intent behind vague descriptions and responds well.
Alongside this, a new concerts feature scans your listening history and surfaces live events happening near you. It is a smart bridge between your digital music habits and real-world experiences. Apple is quietly making the case that a music app should do more than just play songs.
Shazam also gets a meaningful upgrade. It can now identify songs without an internet connection. This might sound like a minor convenience, but anyone who has tried to Shazam something at a crowded venue with patchy signal will tell you it is anything but minor. The feature works locally on-device, which also means it is faster.
CarPlay Gets Smarter Controls
CarPlay has been updated with deeper integration for intelligent voice assistants. The goal is to reduce how often drivers need to look at a screen or tap anything at all. You speak, things happen. It is a clear step toward making the driving experience safer without stripping away functionality. The integration feels natural rather than bolted on, which is a harder thing to achieve than it sounds.
The Fixes You Feel Every Day
This is where iOS 26.4 earns its keep. Keyboard responsiveness has been improved, and the difference is noticeable immediately. Typing feels more accurate and less combative. Accessibility features have been refined across the board, with better contrast options and adjusted spacing that makes the interface easier to read without forcing you into larger text sizes.
The Health app has also been updated. It now surfaces more actionable insights from your daily data rather than just displaying numbers. If your sleep patterns have shifted or your activity levels have changed, the app now contextualises that clearly instead of leaving you to interpret raw figures on your own.
These are the kinds of changes that do not photograph well for a press release. They also happen to be the ones that make your phone feel genuinely better to use.
A Few Other Additions
New emojis have been added in this update. They will find their way into your conversations faster than you expect. Family Sharing has also been updated, with more granular control over shared payments and subscriptions. If you share an Apple account with family members, this puts clearer limits on who can spend what, which has been a long-requested fix.
What This Update Actually Represents
iOS 26.4 is Apple doing what it does best when it is not trying to make headlines. Every addition here serves a clear purpose. The AI music features are genuinely useful. The CarPlay improvements address a real safety concern. The small UI fixes accumulate into a noticeably smoother daily experience.
There is no bloat. Nothing feels experimental or half-finished. That discipline is harder to maintain than it looks, especially as operating systems grow more complex with each passing year.
If you have been holding off on updating, this is the one worth installing.
