Earlier this month, we had managed to get screenshots of how India-based
instant messenger Hike will also be adding a voice-calling feature to
its service. Now, the company has officially announced free voice-calling over
2G, 3G and Wi-Fi across the globe in over 200 countries. Rumours about Hike
working on a free voice-calling feature were true after all.
It should be noted that the new feature has
been introduced within a month of the company acquiring ZipPhone, a free
calling app. Hike calls have been optimised to consume very little
data, giving its users more calling minutes per MB of data, claims the company.
Commenting on the launch of the calling
feature, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder and CEO, Hike messenger, said “While
building free hike calls, we kept two things in mind. Firstly, India is a very
cost sensitive market and as a result we’ve ensured that our service is
extremely efficient on data. It means our users can pack in more minutes per MB
when calling on hike. Secondly, we’ve made hike’s free calling service
available globally in over 200+ countries. Hikers from India can now speak with
their loved ones in India and across the world for free.”
Launched in December 2012, Hike had
reported over 35 million users in August, 2014. It has raised
$86 million from Tiger Global and BSB, so far. Most of its user base is
under the age of 15 and residing in India. Some of its popular features are
Hike Offline that lets you message your friends even when they’re offline,
Hidden Mode that hides your private chats with a password and also several
regional stickers.
The free Hike calling feature is currently in
beta on Android, as the platform contributes to over 90
percent of Hike’s user base. The company plans to roll out iOS and Windows
versions by the end of this quarter.
The voice-calling feature on messaging apps is
something we might hear about a lot in 2015. In December, screenshots
with WhatsApp’s voice-calling feature were leaked. The screenshots
showed that the calling and chatting functionality will appear on separate
screens. Call logs, dialling and contacts screen were also seen in the leaked
screenshots. Another interesting feature that is rumoured in WhatsApp is
call-recording and playback. What is unclear is whether these features on the
app will be paid or whether users will have to start paying for WhatsApp once
the new features are rolled out. More recently
another report claimed that WhatsApp will integrate ‘Call via
Skype’ feature to its app.
