tech2 News Staff

While the popular WhatsApp-Facebook deal has been hitting headlines all over, our home-brewed desi messenger, Hike, has crossed the 15 million user base. Hike messenger is a free messaging app – just like WhatsApp – from Bharti SoftBank, has shown rapid growth as it had just 5 million users just nine months ago.

Founder Kavin Bharti Mittal told The Indian Exress, “Despite the proliferation of instant messaging apps in India, hike is growing faster than ever. We’ve observed that the youth, today, want to move away from mass platforms to a place where they can express more, within a closer set of friends. Hike is that destination.”

The report also highlights that 80 percent of Hike user base is under the age of 25. In fact, the messaging app is focusing on the youth market by offering some interesting features. The app lets users get in touch with others even while they are offline, via SMS. The feature is called Hike Offline and has been especially crafted for the Indian users, given the possibility of moving in and out of Wi-Fi zones and low network zones.

Some other unique features of the app include the “Last seen privacy” function. This allows users to choose who can view their “last seen” and “status updates”. While Hike has had this feature for a while, other messaging services like WhatsApp are only now testing out this feature in their apps. The app also comes with localised sticker packs such as 'Things Indians Say' and a playful Bollywood pack.

Hike is competing with the slew of messaging apps such as LINE, Viber, Wechat and others.