Apps

hike offers free voice calls

by VARINDIA 2015-01-29

hike messenger has introduced free “Hike Calls”. This feature will allow hike users to call each other for free, over 2G, 3G and Wi-Fi and across the globe in over 200 countries. The introduction of hike calls has come in within a month of hike making its first acquisition – a free calling app – Zip Phone. hike calls are optimized to consume very little data, giving its users more calling minutes per MB of data. Given that a majority of the mobile-internet users of India are still experimenting with data and are not on a high-bandwidth connection, this optimization becomes critical for the Indian market. Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder & CEO, hike messenger, said “While building free hike calls, we kept two things in mind. Firstly, India is a very cost-sensitive market and as a result we have ensured that our service is extremely efficient on data. It means our users can pack in more minutes per MB when calling on hike. Secondly, we have made hike’s free calling service available globally in over 200+ countries. Hikers from India can now speak with their loved ones in India and across the world for free.” The free hike calling feature has been launched in beta on Android, which contributes to over 90% of hike’s user base. The iOS and Windows versions are slated to release by the end of this quarter.