Announcing Finalists for the Android Developer Challenge!

Originally posted on the Google Africa blog on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 | 10:27 AM

It is our pleasure to announce the finalists of the Android Developer Challenge, Sub Saharan Africa. It was great to see so many developers get involved -- we received hundreds of applications from 19 African countries. Our judges really enjoyed evaluating the apps, and it wasn’t easy for them to select only 28 semi-finalists. Here they are by category and country:

Entertainment / Media / Games

• Human Droid, Kenya - a game that lets players battle one another virtually while in the same physical location.
• What’s Happening?, Kenya - an events and entertainment finder in Nairobi that could be customized for other cities.
• Matatu, Uganda - a two player competitive card game.
• Slate Racer, South Africa - a time trial racing game.
• Gliese - South Africa, a 2D platformer game.
• Bawo Board Game, South Africa - an app for a popular African board game.
• Afrinolly, Nigeria - an app to watch African movie trailers and track the stars.
• Ha!! Buggy, Senegal - a fast-paced racing game.
• Ayo, Nigeria - an app for an ancient board game of strategy from West Africa.

Social Networking / Communication

• SMS Tweetbox, Kenya - an app that connects smartphone and non-smartphone users through SMS.
• Seekika, Kenya - a mobile audio storytelling application.
• Olalashe, Kenya - an open source SOS and alerting mapping app.
• Dribble, South Africa - a geo-social networking service that allows users to leave location-based messages.
• Cnectd, South Africa - a cross-platform mobile messaging app for smartphones.
• Setswana Phrases, Malawi - a phrase dictionary of the Setswana language.
• Nomad, Togo - an app that pushes notifications for a social network called Oasis.
• TextOnMotion, Nigeria - an app that allows you to navigate and text at the same time.
• Yandda!, Nigeria - an app that engraves your signature at any location for others to discover.

Productivity / Tools / Local / Geo

• GPS Tanzania Guide, Tanzania - a tourist and business guide to Tanzania.
• Shoppers' Delight, Kenya - an app that assists shoppers, comparing prices across several supermarkets.
• Rush Hour, Kenya - an app that helps drivers navigate the streets of Nairobi with speed and safety.
• Wedding Plandroid, South Africa - an app that makes planning a wedding easy and helps to get brides and grooms ready for their big day.
• Booka, South Africa - an app that helps locate nearest car dealers, book a car in for a service, and track the progress of a service request.
• SpotIt, South Africa - an app that lets users find and report animals while on safari.
• UniDayz, Ghana - an app that helps university students better manage and prioritize their coursework.
• Breeze Through Service, Nigeria - an app that enables services providers to improve the quality of their services and strategic business decisions.
• Wise Africa, Republic of Guinea - an African proverbs crowdsourcing app for Android.
• Esoko, Ghana - a market app for agricultural goods that allows users to track inventory and find the best price.

These finalists will be awarded a new Android mobile device, and will have the opportunity to make their applications even better with help from Googlers from around the world, who will provide mentoring and advice to teams. Finalists will have until August 30th to submit final versions of their apps. You can find more about how we chose these apps, and about the competition, here.

Thanks so much to all the teams that participated. We are really excited about the future of app development in this region and can’t wait to see what else you create.

Posted by Bridgette Sexton, Program Manager, Developer and Technical Outreach, Google Africa