New JioPhone to be launched with USB tethering, Facebook and YouTube apps

After a considerable wait, the JioPhone shipping has finally debuted. The early buyers of the device will be able to get their hands on it within mid-October as the company is all set to deliver six million units of the JioPhone by Diwali.

Despite being a feature phone, the JioPhone comes with several interesting features that make it a smart one. To be specific, it has 4G VoLTE support, a web browser, a voice assistant and the Jio suite of apps such as JioMusic and JioCinema. However, this smart feature phone misses out on some features such as dedicated applications for YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and a USB tethering option.

It looks like Reliance Jio is all set to add these features to the JioPhone. We say so as a report by 91mobiles claims to have spotted the new JioPhone that runs a new version of the Kai OS. This model of JioPhone appears to have dedicated Facebook and YouTube apps. There is USB tethering option to let the device connect laptops to the internet. However, this upcoming model in question appears to miss out on the Wi-Fi hotspot functionality. The other interesting feature is the ability to uninstall applications.

According to the report, Reliance Jio is believed to release a software update to the existing model of JioPhone that will bring a new app store to the device. From this app store, users can install YouTube, Facebook and more apps on the phone. The one thing that remains to be unclear is if the device will get the USB tethering feature.

Previous reports have tipped that Reliance Jio is working along with Facebook to bring WhatsApp to the JioPhone. While we know that the discussions are going on, there is no confirmation regarding the same. One thing that we knew is a lite version of WhatsApp will be included in the coming months.

For now, we do know when exactly these features mentioned above will be rolled out to the JioPhone users and when the new JioPhone model spotted online will be launched.