Even though yours truly may have some inside on all the latest and greatest technologies being developed, I was admittedly a late-comer to “Tweeting” and the MySpace (News - Alert) revolution of the past. As a college student at the time of Facebook's inception, that’s one social network I am always keyed into. On my stream of status updates this past week, I couldn’t help but notice the vast amount if updates providing new “Kik” messenger contact info.
Turns out lots of users have already joined the movement onto this new cross-platform IM application “Kik” that makes text messaging with users on any platform more like a face-to-face interaction.
Just yesterday alone, company officials noted 150,000 new users worldwide had joined Kik Messenger.
Not only is this possibly a record setting feat – but the free mobile IM service also had peak usage yesterday with 1 million messages an hour.
According to company officials, this is on track to be even higher today.
For all the BBM fans out there – this app takes on the same real-time capability and allows users to see when messages are delivered, read and when someone is responding.
But this app can be used on an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, most BlackBerry (News - Alert) devices, and all Android devices with a mobile data plan. Offered to users located anywhere in the world, Kik IMs use only 1Kb per message.
“The sudden surge in Kik's popularity is driving what may be the fastest-ever growth of any mobile app," said Ted Livingston, President and CEO, Kik Interactive, Inc.
As growth of the Kik app continues virally, the company said it was even forced to suspend downloads last night – and will again tonight – so their servers can be upgraded to accommodate future growth.
Kik, which was originally known as “Unsynced,” was started in January 2009 by a team of students at the University of Waterloo.
According to the company, this new Kik Messenger is just the foundation to the Kik community, which officials say will also include music, pictures and video.
Stefania Viscusi is an assignment editor for TMCnet, covering voice and Voice over IP technologies. She also oversees production of TMCnet's e-Newsletters in the areas of Internet telephony and speech technology. To read more of Stefania's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi