All the currently popular social networking sites are built for desktop Web users, with mobile extensions coming in as an afterthought. There is a need for a mobile-friendly social networking solution which not only takes into consideration the limitations of mobile handset interfaces but more importantly makes use of the unique features that are common across the mobile communication devices, such as contacts (vCards), MMS, Flash SMS and calendaring (vCal or iCal).

SmartMS™ MyLife is the first social networking platform that is designed from ground up for the mobile world. It allows users to enjoy all the services that they typically get from a web-based social networking service, directly from the phone plus more.

MyLife sees the mobile phone as the hub and repository of a person's digital life, expressed in the form of text messages, videos, pictures, calendar events and phone contacts. MyLife allows user-generated content from the phone to be stored and published on personal mobile portals and enables a user's phone contacts to be transformed into a social network for content sharing.

MyLife's multi-channel interface takes into consideration various types of mobile devices that are out there in the marketplace, ensuring that users with only very basic phones can still enjoy the majority of the social networking services, through the use of SMS keywords.

Using MyLife, the mobile operator can tap into a user's entire social network, lifestyle and his so-called user-generated content. Social networking has never been easier.

MyLife is the most comprehensive platform currently available for mobile operators to deliver the next generation of value-added services that not only makes use of user-generated content but also leverages on the inherent viral-capability of social networks for achieving maximum exposure and impact.

The SmartMS™ MyLife social networking solution is made up of 3 main architectural components:

• MyLife Platform - Provides the core functionality which are common across all mobile value-added services. Enables user-generated content to be captured, stored, managed and accessed using SMS, WAP or Web channels.
• MyLife Services - These are an an extensible set of value-added services that makes use of the underlying infrastructure of content database and social network, enabling users to interact in many interesting ways
• MyLife Connectors - Social networks become even more powerful when combined. MyLife connectors are available for the platform interface with other social networks that currently exists, such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster

The combination of these three architectural components provides the mobile operator with unprecedented flexibility in tailoring any social-networking related applications and services to their users.

All MyLife services can either be hosted by the cellular operator themselves or externally by KChannels. The solution only requires connectivity to the operator's SMS and MMS gateways via the Internet or a VPN.

The essential requirements for the deployment of MyLife are:

• An assigned shortcode from the operator.
• Connectivity to the SMS-C, directly or via a gateway using SMPP, UCP or any HTTP-based protocol.
• Connectivity to the MMS-C, directly or via a gateway using MM7 or any HTTP-based protocol.
• Charging interface for subscription or premium transactions.
• MSISDN header-tagging from operator's WAP gateway.

The MyLife backend is built using a multi-tiered architecture which can be scaled incrementally as the number of subscribers grows.