Hike Launches Web Platform of its Messaging App

After crossing one million weekly active users, home-grown tech start-up Hike on Thursday launched the web version of its app Hike Sticker Chat, which will enable its users to chat over their personal computers as well.

"Hike Sticker Chat has crossed 1 million weekly active users. We are now unbundling our app. Instead of focussing on just app, we are also going to multiple (platforms). This week, we have started rolling out Hike on the web. It can be used even if the user's phone is switch off," founder and Chief Executive Officer Kavin Bharti Mittal said.



He said that while working on desktop or laptop, people do not want to keep looking at their phone. "With web application, we are making it convenient for them to engage with their friends.".

The company has also started rolling out auto-backup of users' data.

"People change their phone more often, there is massive tediousness around back-up. We needed to resolve it once and for all because data is so cheap. Everybody wants back-up. Those who don't want to have back-up can choose not to have back-up," Mittal said.

To push adoption of the Hike Sticker Chat app, the company is also working on a feature to allow sharing of stickers across all messaging platforms.

Hike Sticker Chat has over 40,000 stickers available in more than 40 Indian languages and dialects. It expects to have over 1 lakh stickers across languages by the end of the year, with an aim to cover a larger percentage of every major Indian language's vocabulary.

An average user of Hike spends 33 minutes on the app with over 55 million stickers being exchanged weekly, Mittal said.

Founded by Mittal, Hike is backed by SoftBank, Tiger Global, Tencent, Foxconn and Bharti. PTI PRS

Supreme Court To Hear Plea To Ban WhatsApp Next Wednesday

Is WhatsApp the glue holding your conversations with your loved ones far away together? Is it the place where you have managed to keep in touch with your long-last school, college buddies? Well, if that's the case. Then, here's a heartbreaking news for you.

Next Wednesday i.e. 29th June would see the Indian Supreme Court hearing a petition seeking a ban on the popular messaging app, WhatsApp.

Sudhir Yadav, a 27 years old Haryana-based right-to-information (RTI) activist, has filed a petition seeking a ban on the messaging app on the argument that the platform's end-to-end encryption is providing terrorists an easy way of communication that is impossible for the government agencies to intercept. Thus, posing a massive threat to India's and the world's safety on the whole.

The petition filed states that from April this year, WhatsApp has started enabling every message sent and received on its platform with 256-bit encryption that is impossible for even the government security agencies to break into. Adding to this is the woe that even if under some special circumstances the government asks WhatsApp to break through an individual's message on the platform and hand over its contents to the government, it won't be able to produce the same as even it does not have the decryption keys.

According to Sudhir, this gives a leverage to the terrorists to use the popular messaging platform to plan and plot their inhuman and unlawful activities secretly, without coming under the government's scanner.

The petition filed also carries the name of some other popular messaging platforms such as Viber, Hike, Secure Chat and a few others, who also according to Sudhir are making use of high encryption and possess a threat to the country's security.

Yadav's PIL also mentions that in order to decrypt a WhatsApp message one needs a 115,792,089,237,316,195,423,570,985,008,687,907,853,269,984,665,640,564,039,457,584,007,913,129,639,935 key combinations, which becomes a far-fetched task for even a super computer. According to him, a single 256-bit encrypted message would end up taking hundreds of years to decrypt because of WhatsApp encryption policy.

What is going to be WhatsApp's fate is something we will have to wait and watch till next Wednesday. Keep watching this space for more updates on the issue.

[Top Image - endermasali / Shutterstock.com]

WhatsApp Adds End-To-End Encryption For All Its Users' Communications

WhatsApp, one of the largest and most popular messaging app currently in the world, decided to give its 1 billion+ users the gift of end-to-end encryption recently. People using the latest WhatsApp version in India were greeted to an intimation about the same from WhatsApp in a light yellow background yesterday morning. So, while many of you might have ended up ignoring the message and got back on your messaging spree, here's a quick rundown of what exactly it is and how does this new step from WhatsApp affect you.

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum announced the update on his Facebook page, stating that the company has been working on the feature for the last two years.

Koum wrote, "We’ve been working for the past two years to give people better security over their conversations on WhatsApp... People deserve security. It makes it possible for us to connect with our loved ones. It gives us the confidence to speak our minds. It allows us to communicate sensitive information with colleagues, friends, and others. We’re glad to do our part in keeping people’s information out of the hands of hackers and cyber-criminals."

For people struggling with what end-to-end encryption means, here's the answer.

End-to-end encryption is actually a secure communication method where only the people communicating have access to messages sent and received. This means, every message, photo, video, file and WhatsApp call made through the latest WhatsApp version is absolutely safe and secure from telecoms and Internet providers, cyber-criminals and hackers, or even the respective governments of the countries where the service is being used.

Further, even the company i.e. WhatsApp that has built and runs the service will also not have access to your WhatsApp content, and hence will not be able to pass it on to authorities who often request for these exchanges.

WhatsApp is using "The Signal Protocol", designed by Open Whisper Systems, for its encryption.

It is interesting to note that WhatsApp had earlier encrypted its services partially. In November 2014, WhatsApp had already encrypted its text messages but it decided to spend the last two years working on rolling out this end-to-end encryption across every single platform on which the service is available and for all communications types.

So, how does this affect you as a WhatsApp user?

Well, as a regular user, it doesn't affect you that much. It just means that it becomes all the more difficult for WhatsApp to provide copies of any of your WhatsApp communications to any law enforcement or other governmental authorities even when requested by a warrant.

While users are happy that they can now carry on with their conversations without the fear of someone reading it, some industry experts believe that the metadata could still be used for advertising purposes.

WhatsApp Adds End-To-End Encryption For All Its Users' Communications

WhatsApp, one of the largest and most popular messaging app currently in the world, decided to give its 1 billion+ users the gift of end-to-end encryption recently. People using the latest WhatsApp version in India were greeted to an intimation about the same from WhatsApp in a light yellow background yesterday morning. So, while many of you might have ended up ignoring the message and got back on your messaging spree, here's a quick rundown of what exactly it is and how does this new step from WhatsApp affect you.

WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum announced the update on his Facebook page, stating that the company has been working on the feature for the last two years.

Koum wrote, "We’ve been working for the past two years to give people better security over their conversations on WhatsApp... People deserve security. It makes it possible for us to connect with our loved ones. It gives us the confidence to speak our minds. It allows us to communicate sensitive information with colleagues, friends, and others. We’re glad to do our part in keeping people’s information out of the hands of hackers and cyber-criminals."

For people struggling with what end-to-end encryption means, here's the answer.

End-to-end encryption is actually a secure communication method where only the people communicating have access to messages sent and received. This means, every message, photo, video, file and WhatsApp call made through the latest WhatsApp version is absolutely safe and secure from telecoms and Internet providers, cyber-criminals and hackers, or even the respective governments of the countries where the service is being used.

Further, even the company i.e. WhatsApp that has built and runs the service will also not have access to your WhatsApp content, and hence will not be able to pass it on to authorities who often request for these exchanges.

WhatsApp is using "The Signal Protocol", designed by Open Whisper Systems, for its encryption.

It is interesting to note that WhatsApp had earlier encrypted its services partially. In November 2014, WhatsApp had already encrypted its text messages but it decided to spend the last two years working on rolling out this end-to-end encryption across every single platform on which the service is available and for all communications types.

So, how does this affect you as a WhatsApp user?

Well, as a regular user, it doesn't affect you that much. It just means that it becomes all the more difficult for WhatsApp to provide copies of any of your WhatsApp communications to any law enforcement or other governmental authorities even when requested by a warrant.

While users are happy that they can now carry on with their conversations without the fear of someone reading it, some industry experts believe that the metadata could still be used for advertising purposes.

Facebook Is Quitely Turning Messenger Into A Mobile Wallet

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has big plans for his Messenger app. After making the app mandatory to download to read and send messages through Facebook on mobile phones, the social networking giant now again plans to revamp the app, this time into a "Everything App".

According to reports doing round in the tech world, Facebook is soon going to give a major makeover to the Messenger App and this change will transform the mobile application into something more than just a simple messaging app. One of the major changes that we could see in the app in the coming times is the mobile wallet feature. The new code found inside the app would soon make digital transactions or even paying for physical goods in retail stores through the app a reality. This is expected to take place in the app'a forthcoming update.

Whether Facebook plans to go all out in the arena with other similar wallet services like Android Pay or Apple Pay, or whether it will take support of these services is something which is currently unclear.

But, the latter part seems to have more chances of becoming a reality as Zuckerberg in January had given a statement stating that Facebook is considering partnering with everyone who does payments.

During a conference call with investors, he had stressed on home impressed he was with Apple Pay, he said "We look at the stuff that Apple is doing with Apple Pay, for example, as a really neat innovation in the space that takes a lot of friction out of transactions as well."

Facebook has no plans to rake in more money in its account through its this move, rather it wants to encash on the current boom in the e-commerce and take its advertising business to a whole new level.

Further, in addition to the payment wallet feature, the new code also contains commands for Facebook users to make full use of the highly potential “suggested businesses” feature. This means that the social networking giant will now study its users behaviour and "likes" online and use this information to assist them towards relevant businesses on the Messenger App.

Since March last year, Facebook has already lured in around two dozen businesses to set up their official accounts on Messenger. Everlane, the clothing retailer was one of the first ones to set up its account and the app and it currently has two customers service agents communicating with over 200 U.S. customers on a daily basis about their various inquiries regarding about their shipments.

More businesses are expected to make their way to Messenger after the company's forthcoming F8 conference in April.

While Facebook seems to have the right skeleton ready, now all it really boils down to is the right execution. Keep checking this space for more update on this after the F8 conference.

Facebook Is Quitely Turning Messenger Into A Mobile Wallet

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has big plans for his Messenger app. After making the app mandatory to download to read and send messages through Facebook on mobile phones, the social networking giant now again plans to revamp the app, this time into a "Everything App".

According to reports doing round in the tech world, Facebook is soon going to give a major makeover to the Messenger App and this change will transform the mobile application into something more than just a simple messaging app. One of the major changes that we could see in the app in the coming times is the mobile wallet feature. The new code found inside the app would soon make digital transactions or even paying for physical goods in retail stores through the app a reality. This is expected to take place in the app'a forthcoming update.

Whether Facebook plans to go all out in the arena with other similar wallet services like Android Pay or Apple Pay, or whether it will take support of these services is something which is currently unclear.

But, the latter part seems to have more chances of becoming a reality as Zuckerberg in January had given a statement stating that Facebook is considering partnering with everyone who does payments.

During a conference call with investors, he had stressed on home impressed he was with Apple Pay, he said "We look at the stuff that Apple is doing with Apple Pay, for example, as a really neat innovation in the space that takes a lot of friction out of transactions as well."

Facebook has no plans to rake in more money in its account through its this move, rather it wants to encash on the current boom in the e-commerce and take its advertising business to a whole new level.

Further, in addition to the payment wallet feature, the new code also contains commands for Facebook users to make full use of the highly potential “suggested businesses” feature. This means that the social networking giant will now study its users behaviour and "likes" online and use this information to assist them towards relevant businesses on the Messenger App.

Since March last year, Facebook has already lured in around two dozen businesses to set up their official accounts on Messenger. Everlane, the clothing retailer was one of the first ones to set up its account and the app and it currently has two customers service agents communicating with over 200 U.S. customers on a daily basis about their various inquiries regarding about their shipments.

More businesses are expected to make their way to Messenger after the company's forthcoming F8 conference in April.

While Facebook seems to have the right skeleton ready, now all it really boils down to is the right execution. Keep checking this space for more update on this after the F8 conference.

After Going Free Now, How WhatsApp Plans To Make Money Now

Whatsapp is one platform that in the recent years has become an essential part of our phones and inevitably our lives. It started with the younger generations using the app but now you can people of all ages and sections of the society using it. Even the telecom companies have realised its importance and have started offering internet plans that support just WhatsApp and nothing else. In this age of technology, Whatsapp is one service that has become indispensable.

On Monday, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum announced that the company is dropping the service's annual subscription fee in an effort to remove the barriers some users faced in using the service.

Whatsapp, when it started it had an annual subscription plan. It was free for one year and then there was a fixed charge in every year if the user wanted to continue. This worked pretty well for some time, but now Whatsapp has become lax in their collecting their fee for the subscription renewal. It has been observed that the users aren't being charged for even after continuous use of more than a year. When asked about the same they said that showed concern for their users and didn't want them to fear losing access and connectivity to their friends and family for so long. Also, a lot of people use Whatsapp for their professional lives as well, mostly for coordinating and communicating. This is more important to them than revenue generation at the moment.

The next question that arises is that if they are lax on subscription then what is their source of revenue. The most common source of income for most networking apps is the advertisement industry. For Whatsapp, that is a big no! Quoting them "Advertising isn't just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought." This has been their stand from 2012 itself. Advertisements are not just offsetting to the users but it a form of data mining which is something Whatsapp does not want to indulge into.

They are diverting their attention to businesses which are very actively using the service to reach out to and hear from customers. They will start working in this area now and make this their major source of revenue.

After Going Free Now, How WhatsApp Plans To Make Money Now

Whatsapp is one platform that in the recent years has become an essential part of our phones and inevitably our lives. It started with the younger generations using the app but now you can people of all ages and sections of the society using it. Even the telecom companies have realised its importance and have started offering internet plans that support just WhatsApp and nothing else. In this age of technology, Whatsapp is one service that has become indispensable.

On Monday, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum announced that the company is dropping the service's annual subscription fee in an effort to remove the barriers some users faced in using the service.

Whatsapp, when it started it had an annual subscription plan. It was free for one year and then there was a fixed charge in every year if the user wanted to continue. This worked pretty well for some time, but now Whatsapp has become lax in their collecting their fee for the subscription renewal. It has been observed that the users aren't being charged for even after continuous use of more than a year. When asked about the same they said that showed concern for their users and didn't want them to fear losing access and connectivity to their friends and family for so long. Also, a lot of people use Whatsapp for their professional lives as well, mostly for coordinating and communicating. This is more important to them than revenue generation at the moment.

The next question that arises is that if they are lax on subscription then what is their source of revenue. The most common source of income for most networking apps is the advertisement industry. For Whatsapp, that is a big no! Quoting them "Advertising isn't just the disruption of aesthetics, the insults to your intelligence and the interruption of your train of thought." This has been their stand from 2012 itself. Advertisements are not just offsetting to the users but it a form of data mining which is something Whatsapp does not want to indulge into.

They are diverting their attention to businesses which are very actively using the service to reach out to and hear from customers. They will start working in this area now and make this their major source of revenue.

Pocket Avatars - A 3D Mobile Chat App by Intel turns you into a cartoon character

In order to make your daily mobile chats more fun and exciting, Intel recently launched a mobile app which assesses your mood and facial expressions through an on face-tracking technology.

This wonder app from the Intel Company is called Pocket Avatars. It lets you use three dimensional avatars to chat with your friends but there is something more to it. The app even tracks the user’s face and expressions using the camera on the Smartphone and then these emotions and expressions are reflected on an avatar of the user’s choice during a chat.

The app is currently available for Android and iOS devices.

According to Mike Bell, who is the Vice President and General Manager of the New Devices Group at Intel, Pocket Avatars is just a fun thing on top of standard messaging. According to him, all these avatars on the app act as an alter ego for those users who don’t want or like to put their real face on screen.

Emoticons have now become a standard and monotonous tool for expressions in daily mobile chats. There have been many times that we have written 'lol', 'haha', or 'rofl' without even cracking a smile but by using the app, if the user is happy or sad, the avatar will show it. An animated chat that reflects the user’s real mood is much more engaging and fun.

The camera has the capability of capturing lighting conditions, moving faces and a range of human emotions like kisses, blinking of eyes and smiles. These recordings are then processed using an algorithm. After processing they are mapped onto an avatar of the user’s choice in real time. The app then immediately deleted all the information.

According to Intel, Pocket Avatars reflects the fun side of its research team. There is a huge momentum in the messaging and chat software market nowadays and by launching Pocket Avatars, Intel wants its share of piece from the cake. The Facebook acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion strongly indicates the boom in the market for chat and messaging software.

With Pocket Avatars, Intel shows the willingness to dabble and experiment in new areas.  Currently, the app is available free of cost for Android and iOS users. The avatars available on the app include Lego characters; famous people and also YouTube star Annoying Orange. Some of these avatars are available free of cost while others can be bought for $0.99 for unlimited use.

The app currently offers only forty avatars but Intel has plans of adding more capabilities and avatars in future as the app evolves.

Pocket Avatars - A 3D Mobile Chat App by Intel turns you into a cartoon character

In order to make your daily mobile chats more fun and exciting, Intel recently launched a mobile app which assesses your mood and facial expressions through an on face-tracking technology.

This wonder app from the Intel Company is called Pocket Avatars. It lets you use three dimensional avatars to chat with your friends but there is something more to it. The app even tracks the user’s face and expressions using the camera on the Smartphone and then these emotions and expressions are reflected on an avatar of the user’s choice during a chat.

The app is currently available for Android and iOS devices.

According to Mike Bell, who is the Vice President and General Manager of the New Devices Group at Intel, Pocket Avatars is just a fun thing on top of standard messaging. According to him, all these avatars on the app act as an alter ego for those users who don’t want or like to put their real face on screen.

Emoticons have now become a standard and monotonous tool for expressions in daily mobile chats. There have been many times that we have written 'lol', 'haha', or 'rofl' without even cracking a smile but by using the app, if the user is happy or sad, the avatar will show it. An animated chat that reflects the user’s real mood is much more engaging and fun.

The camera has the capability of capturing lighting conditions, moving faces and a range of human emotions like kisses, blinking of eyes and smiles. These recordings are then processed using an algorithm. After processing they are mapped onto an avatar of the user’s choice in real time. The app then immediately deleted all the information.

According to Intel, Pocket Avatars reflects the fun side of its research team. There is a huge momentum in the messaging and chat software market nowadays and by launching Pocket Avatars, Intel wants its share of piece from the cake. The Facebook acquisition of WhatsApp for $19 billion strongly indicates the boom in the market for chat and messaging software.

With Pocket Avatars, Intel shows the willingness to dabble and experiment in new areas.  Currently, the app is available free of cost for Android and iOS users. The avatars available on the app include Lego characters; famous people and also YouTube star Annoying Orange. Some of these avatars are available free of cost while others can be bought for $0.99 for unlimited use.

The app currently offers only forty avatars but Intel has plans of adding more capabilities and avatars in future as the app evolves.

Tango, Mobile Messaging App raised $280 million via Alibaba

Tango, the mobile messaging app, has raised $280 million in a new in Series D funding round led by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. The investment gives Alibaba a minority stake in the messaging service.

Following footsteps of Facebook who recently bought WatsApp messaging app, Alibaba has invested in Tango messaging app. Moreover Alibaba has also introduced a WeChat competitor called Laiwang however the service isn't doing good in the market so far.

Precisely, out of $280 million Series-D funding Alibaba invested $215 million and the remaining amount of funding came from Tango's earlier investors, which include Access Industries, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Jerry Yang. Earlier Tango has raised $40M in March 2012 from investors like AI SMS, Qualcomm, DFJ and Long Sea Limited.

Tango is a mobile messaging application that allows users to text, play games and make free voice and video calls. Tango is consistently in the top 25 on Google Play and top 100 in the iTunes App Store.

Tango is available in 14 languages and has subscribers in more than 224 countries with nearly one-third of its members in the U.S.

Tango has recently announced that it has doubled its registered users in just a year and it's currently around 200M registered users and 70 million active users.

Tango's co-founder and CTO Eric Setton said the Facebook acquisition proved the value of mobile messaging services. He said the money would be used to build Tango's market share and its technology.

Tango founders tells story behind conceiving the messaging app began as something of an Apple FaceTime competitor, at a time when FaceTime was limited to specific iPhone models and required Wi-Fi to work. Tango came in with an alternative service that allowed users to make video calls on iOS or Android, and over 3G networks.