A few months ago, two other Kik team members and myself spoke at the Kin Ambassador Event where we gave a sneak peek into Kik’s plans for integrating the Kin SDK. We believe that establishing Kin as a pillar in our product strategy will help us create better experiences for Kik users. Today, we’re releasing the first of these Kin-powered features: chat themes.

Why we’re focusing on personalization

Kik has an active and diverse user base that wants better ways to express themselves in their digital worlds, including personalizing their Kik chat screens to reflect their shared interests. In fact, 70 percent of users requested customization features, like personalizing their profile and chat backgrounds.

We realized that we couldn’t cater to the niche needs of our communities or provide topical content fast enough to keep up with our larger competitors. The team had difficulty scaling to meet the requests of users who wanted more unique features that other apps offered. For us, Kin provides a clear path to bring personalization options to our users, and it allows us to reward them for improving the experiences of others on Kik.

The product

We wanted to build Kin into Kik products that people already use on a daily basis. Chat themes were the perfect option because they provide an immersive shared experience for users and help them personalize the areas within the app where they spend the most time.

These personalization options were also a fit for Kin because we could rollout free themes to all users, while simultaneously testing premium chat themes with a smaller, controlled group. Real consumer use of cryptocurrency doesn’t exist today because of the technology’s nascent nature, and we wanted to ensure that we have a simple and seamless experience before bringing it to all users.

Entering the Kin Marketplace in Kik

Our easy-to-use feature will gradually introduce our audience of digital natives to the complex world of cryptocurrency, and this will be the first transactions run on the Kin Blockchain. Users in the test group just have to open Kik, tap the + icon and enter the Kin Marketplace where they will complete a quick tutorial to earn Kin for the first time, followed by additional opportunities to earn by watching a tutorial or completing polls and quizzes. Users can then spend their Kin on premium versions of the new chat themes.

What’s next?

This integration is only the first step in scaling Kin’s capabilities in Kik, and it lays the foundation for other opportunities that can be unlocked with the token. As the Kin team continues pushing the boundaries of blockchain technology, Kik will be able to expand its features powered by cryptocurrency and bring them to more users.

This is only the beginning of our work with Kin. We look forward to experimenting with more features and seeing how we can further leverage Kin to unlock product opportunities and improve user experiences on Kik.