Hike voice call

After reports that WhatsApp will be
launching a voice-calling feature soon,
we’ve managed to get screenshots of how
India-based instant messenger Hike will
also be adding such a feature to its
service.
The news comes after Hike recently
acquired US-based voice-calling company
Zip Phone for an undisclosed amount. Zip
Phone, a one-man startup founded by Anuj
Jain in the US, is a voice-calling app that
works globally.
According to sources, Hike Messenger’s
voice-calling feature could be coming very
soon to the app, within the next few days.
The service will be optimised for 2G
networks in India as well as trying to
ensure minimum bandwidth usage so that
data costs don’t go through the roof.
Hike’s voice-calling. which will require
Internet access, shall be more data efficient
and thus work well even on networks where
Internet connectivity is poor. Given how
poor and patchy Internet connectivity still
remains for many in the country, this
feature of Hike could make it stand-out
from the crowd. The service will be
available globally. Hike has officially refused
to confirm these rumours.
The voice-calling feature on messaging
apps is something we might hear about a
lot in 2015. Facebook-owned WhatsApp
had revealed plans to launch the feature
last year but that didn’t happen.
Interestingly it was reported that one of the
reasons for the delay was because
WhatsApp was finding ways to
implement voice calling services in areas
where Internet connectivity is poor because
3G services and Wi-Fi access is restricted
in many parts of the world and
consequently 2G services are still more
important.

In December, however, 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.
While WhatsApp remains one of the most
popular apps across the world, Hike has
also done fairly well. The Indian-app
managed to crossed 35 million users since
it’s launch in December 2012 which is
quite impressive for a new brand in a
highly-competitive market.
“India has almost a 100 million active
mobile Internet users and that number is
growing rapidly every year. That’s the
market, which we’re building for. The rate
at which hike messenger has grown in the
last 18 months is phenomenal and is a
strong testament of the right direction in
which the product is steering,” Hike
messenger founder and CEO Kavin Bharti
Mittal had said in a statement when the app
had crossed the 20 million mark.
While WhatsApp has close to 700 million
users, up from the 600 million in August
2014, Hike in India has proved to be quite
a worthy competitor. The Indian
smartphone user has apps like WeChat,
Viber, Line, SnapChat, which are all offering
instant message via Internet. Viber, Line,
already offer free voice-calling over
Internet. It remains to be seen how Hike’s
user base will grow once this feature is
rolled out.