While Facebook Messenger became a platform only recently, its competitor with a less famous but a more succinct name Kik keeps surprising its users giving them cooler innovations. From now on, the messenger app has got a full-scale browser built in.
The innovation introduced by Facebook only now (I mean becoming a platform) was done by Kik as early as in 2011. Back then, the developers connected the SDK app to the chat. However, now recalling last experience, the head of mobile development at Kik, Mike Roberts, admits – the approach when a user has to go to the app store and install apps in order to share content in a chat, makes communication more difficult. We cannot but agree – messaging apps are created to make communication easy and fast. This is why at Kik they have decided that it is not users who have to search for content online but it’s content that must find its users.
Kik believes that users will benefit more from a browser-based platform.
This update means that now you won’t have to delay chatting in Kik to browse the Web and will be able to share services and web-pages with your conversation partners. Thus, the update provides the 200 million registered users with a full-scale immersion effect – surf the web without stopping your chat.
So what is exactly the change that Kik is offering? The Kik browser did exist before too. Indeed, the browser used to open from a side panel only as part of the chat window.
The older experience was more like a browser besides the messenger, it was not particularly chat-centric. The new design makes it easier to view content or browse the web.
Kik decided to make an emphasis on content. I believe this is due to the fact that their major goal that we have already written about before is to make users more involved with the app. Hey, man, you’ve gotta spend more of your personal time in our app! This is because time is the most valuable currency and the best indicator of customer loyalty. For this purpose, the company bought Relay GIF messenger app last year. Kik is going to add similar services to its messenger app.
In addition to the fact that the chat will be more browser-oriented, Kik has begun selecting recommended content for users, links to which will be visible upon opening the browser. This means that certain services, including stickers, memes, and the Kik point currency will become visible as you open the in-chat browser, thus encouraging you to look through more attractive content, which you will definitely want to share afterwards.
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