A pointless rip-off of a pointless app: Meet Yup, India's version of Yo!

We've already discussed before how pointless the Yo app was and even though the app has seen some new features like the ability to send links, start Hashtags and follow third-party services, the idea of just 'Yoing' people borders on lame. Of course, when there's an idea that creating some serious buzz in America, an Indian rip-off is never far behind. So now Gurgaon-based Nucleus Research has launched its own version of the Yo app and called it Yup! Yup that's right, they didn't even choose a name which started with a letter other than Y. The app which is currently available on Android, is going to be available on Apple and Windows Phone 8 soon. Interestingly when you head to the developers' site, it takes to you to a bunch of terms and service which point out that any copyright violation will be dealt with in a court of law. The irony is hard to miss. According to a press release, the company has also roped in singer Yo Yo Honey Singh as their brand ambassador. Take that Yo, Yup! has the singer whose name might have really been useful for your brand. Also if you download the app, he will be your first (and possibly only) friend on the app. Honey Singh had this to say at the launch of the app, "I am excited to become a part of YUP!team as this gives me an opportunity to engage with my fans in a unique way. My fans can now interact with me and share their feedback by just Yupping me anytime, anywhere. Join Yup! to become a Yup Star." Put away that bottle of vodka and we suggest your start Yupping to Honey Singh on your mobile. So what does the app do? Well you can send a Yup! to your friends once you download the app and convince other friends to do the same. According to the company, here are some scenarios in which you can send or say Yup: 1) Yup! to say Good morning – receive Yup when your coffee is ready.2) Yup! when you reach home, work or getting late at night.3) Yup! when work is done – bank, office task or you finish a meeting.4) Yup! if you making a plan. And of course who can forget the most useful one "Yup! to interact with Yo Yo Honey Singh." The app allows also you to send more than a Yup, but you'll have to add contacts and can't do the same with just the two default contacts (Honey Singh and the Yup team.) [caption id="attachment_232386" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Catering to different degrees of neediness[/caption] The things you can send to your contact other than Yup are "Miss Me?, Love Me?, All Ok? Coffee? Let's Go? Reached? Can Talk? Party?" So each of the messages you send via Yup! will have a crazy question mark at the end and we can't help but wonder why. Somebody should point out that Miss me and Love me with a question mark at the end sound just so damn needy or creepy depending on who sends it. Since Yup! has so many uses, we came up with two other scenarios in which you can rely on the app. When the girlfriend/boyfriend is harassing you on WhatsApp or Hike with questions like "Are you leaving me? Are you cheating on me?" Just reply with a Yup! It will definitely revolutionise break-ups. When your boss asks if you're quitting, just send a Yup. If like you feel Yup doesn't have enough swag, we suggest you use Yo. So what does the app look? Exactly like Yo. Yup, true story. The UI is like Yo, down to the colourful blocks for the various buttons.  Even the purple and green colours are taken down from Yo and so is the font. So how is it like to use the app? Well after sending a 'Yup' to Honey Singh, we waited a while for a reaction or some kind of a response, but got nothing. Maybe we should have sent him a Yo. Even a bot saying 'Yup' back in place of Honey Singh would have been nice but sadly it was not to be. Given that the app is a total rip-off of the Yo app, (which itself has limited uses) it's a little surprising that the company expects to have 50 million users by the end of 2015. Whether or not Yo will try to have the app removed from the Play Store remains to be seen. But we won't be surprised if it's booted out before it hits the ambitious goal of 50 million users.