The Kinit app is really taking shape. We already have important insights from our first phase of the private beta, and now is a great time to announce that starting from mid July and throughout Q3 we are going to run a public beta in the U.S. Believe us when we say nothing excites us more!

Ok, so you now are probably looking at your calendars and realizing that it’s more than a month away. True! There is still a lot to be done as we will explain in a second and, as always, we want to provide you with the best experience there is.

Private Beta — Phase 2

Even though we’ve learned a ton so far from the private beta, we still have a few more things we want to test.

The second phase of the private beta is running these days and includes the following experiments:

Phone Verification.

This feature has two goals: One, attach users data to their phone number and by doing so create a basic backup tool (with additional backup tools to come in the future). Second, curb fraudulent registrations and add security layers to the app.

We consider this feature an experiment because we are testing the impact of such feature on users behaviour and the way they perceive the app.

The new onboarding flow

A new earn task to test users accuracy.

Why is that important? The more accurate users answers are, the more tasks we can provide to users in the future. While filling out a questionnaire or survey is mainly a matter of user providing their opinion or data; some other tasks require accurate answers.

Image labeling task examples

Peer to Peer Kin Transactions.

The Kin ecosystem is all about getting Kin and using it in the digital world. A big part of it will be transactions between individuals that contribute in the digital world. We are about to release a lean version of this feature that enables users to send Kin to their friends, and we are super curious to find out if and how people will use it.

In the future this feature will serve also as a way to invite new people to try the app.

Peer to peer flow

Content Consumption.

I’m going to leave this feature description and purpose vague since it’s still work in progress, and we don’t want to ruin the surprise for the beta testers nor bias their behaviour. I can only say the results of this experiment are going to affect the future of the app dramatically :).

Once we have results for those four experiments, we are going to reach the end of the private beta phase and fully concentrate in our public beta readiness.

This is also a great opportunity to say a massive THANKS to all our dear beta testers who use the app day after day, provide useful feedback, report bugs and help us in this amazing journey!

Preparations for The Public Beta

The majority of the work we have to do in the next month and a half is actually preparing to go live. For that we must achieve the following:

On a business level, we are working with potential partners to provide either earn opportunities or spend offers.

As we learned from the private beta insights, earn opportunities must be available on a daily base and should include a variety of tasks. Therefore, we will go live with at least two partners that provide interesting earn opportunities for our users.

On the spend side, we already have Blackhawk Network joining our ecosystem and we are working hard with other potential partners to provide additional interesting spend offers.

On a technical level, we have three integrations to complete, Blackhawk Network and two more integrations with partners providing earn opportunities. If time will allow us, we will complete also an additional integration on the spend side.

Additionally, we are going to invest time in bug squashing to create a buttery smooth experience in the app. Simultaneously, there will be a range of technical aspects to overcome to be scalable at a rate necessary for all of our users and partners to work with.

On a product level, we are fine tuning user flows based on the beta results and placing some extra icing on top by creating awesome user experiences for the new features to come.

The second phase of the private beta will help with shaping the future of the Kinit app. According to the findings we will make sure the public beta will include the best features and experience for our users. We will share more details on this one in a separate post.