We were at the Hike Press Event in Delhi and Kavin Bharti Mittal shared a set of phenomenal new features added to the fastest growing free cross-platform messaging app ‘Hike’. The update offers its users expressive and fun stickers, ‘last seen’ amongst circle of friends, walkie-talkie and Hike Offline, which enables users to send messages even when the recipient is offline.
Now let’s visit each of these features in detail:
- Expressive & Fun Stickers: These stickers take emoticons to the next level, and if you have used Hike, you would know how cool there emoticons already were. But with stickers added to the arsenal, Hike gets way cooler than the competition. The stickers not only includes standard sms acronyms likes LOL, GTG or XOXO but also Troll/Rage Faces and even bollywood stars to add glitz and glamour 😉
- Privacy & Last Seen: On all the other messengers we have used, we always had privacy issues. We won’t name the most commonly used messenger but the fact that it doesn’t pay any heed to privacy issues simply puts us off. After ages it gave us the option to disable ‘Last Seen’ time stamp but even that is flawed as it either switches of for all or switches on for all. That’s where Hike hits the bullseye as it let’s you decide who sees when you were last online. You can drill down individual level and set the filter. Bravo!
- Walkie-Talkie: Though standalone walkie-talkie apps are not something new on smartphones but adding it to a slick messenger like Hike is like a cherry on the cake. With this additional feature now users can skip the typing and leave voice messages to each other. Walkie-Talkie feature comes in quite handy whilst you are driving or in no mood to type.
- Hike Offline: At the press event Kavin mentioned a very common occurrence amongst smartphone users, he stated that a large majority of smartphone users switch ‘Mobile Data’ off some to save battery and some to save data costs. Whatever the case maybe, its a fact and we agree to him. Now the question is – what happens when somebody sends you a message on a service like iMessage, Whatsapp, Nimbuzz, WeChat or Pinch etc and you’ve switched off Mobile Data? If you haven’t tried it yet then go ahead and check, it shows as failed, not delivered, cross etc in services/messengers mentioned above. But with Hike Offline thats a thing of the past and the way it works is seamless. For example – I send a Hike message to ‘Kavin’ and Kavin has kept his mobile data off, HIke will auto-detect that Kavin won’t be able to receive the message through data channel hence re routes it through the traditional SMS way. Not only that, when Kavin replies to that text, it comes to me in my Hike chat keeping it effortlessly simple. Bazinga!
- Lastly, the fifth and the final reason why to choose Hike over other messengers is not a feature or the fact that its available for free across the mobile platforms including BlackBerry now. The reason is the philosophy of BSB, taking inspiration from the likes of Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Jony Ive etc. This approach to achieve the best and challenge it once achieved will not only do wonders for BSB as a company, Hike as a product or its family but more importantly the consumer as they will always get the best. At the end of the day as a consumer we want the best as we deserve it. And this survival of the fittest theory is the reason why we see 5 million plus downloads in 6 months for Hike when it had to compete with established players. Hats off to Made in India with Love – Hike 🙂
If you are still not convinced on trying Hike, we suggest you test it for yourself:
iOS -> https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/hike-messenger/id568038211
Android -> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bsb.hike
Windows Phone -> http://windowsphone.com/en-in/store/app/hike/b4703e38-092f-4144-826a-3e3d41f50714
Android -> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bsb.hike
Windows Phone -> http://windowsphone.com/en-in/store/app/hike/b4703e38-092f-4144-826a-3e3d41f50714
Nokia Ovi -> http://store.ovi.mobi/content/336961
Blackberry -> http://get.hike.in/bb/
