We are rolling out a major change to the Live Stream today.

We introduced the concepts of the “prop” roughly two years ago. Since then you’ve given almost half a billion props (449,432,170 to be precise) to your fellow users’ postings. Some were given to recognize the content of a post as interesting, motivating, or funny. While even more were given in the hopes of gaining the poster’s attention. They have become an important part of the Live Stream dynamics; an important part of Nearby.

A few months ago we released a new reward system called Kin. The number one complaint about the system has been that there wasn’t much to do with it yet. Now there is.

We are replacing the “prop” with Kin. Now when you want to recognize a post, you are able to quickly thank the poster by giving them 1 Kin. All other dynamics remain the same. You will still see the number of Kin that have been given to the post’s creator. You can still see who the givers were. The placement of the button is even the same.

There are a few differences you should be aware of though. You will no longer be able to “prop” a post unless you have at least 1 Kin available. Keep in mind that Kin is free and easy to earn within the app. For the time being, there will be no change to how the Windows Phone, iPhone, or website operate, as they do not have Kin yet.

You should also keep in mind that Kin is stored on your phone, not on our servers. You will lose your kin if you lose your phone, delete the app, or clear your data. To help with this, there is a new backup/restore feature so that you can save your Kin when transferring devices. You’ll find this new feature by selecting the gear icon in the upper right of the Kin Marketplace screen.