Hike starts rolling out video calling, even as WhatsApp dithers in beta

CEO Kavin Mittal. Photo credit: Hike.

Indian messenger app Hike is rolling out video calling. All Android users will have the feature this week, while iOS users will get it “very soon,” says a statement from the company.

Users who have updated their app anytime since September can select a chat thread, tap a call button at the top right, and choose to make a video or audio call. “We see India as primarily a sight and sound market, and believe video calling will have a large impact on how people communicate,” says Kavin Bharti Mittal, founder and CEO of Hike Messenger.

Hike has the second largest user base in India after WhatsApp. So it is quite significant that the homegrown app has stolen a march over WhatsApp in this important feature. It remains to be seen how well video calling works on a large scale. “We’ve been in beta for a few months and the results have been really positive,” says Kavin.

It’s a puzzle what’s taking Facebook-owned WhatsApp so long to roll it out.

WhatsApp has also been testing video calls with beta versions of its app, so we can expect the feature there too. But it’s a puzzle what’s taking the Facebook-owned app so long to roll it out. Right now, some beta users can access the feature, but it works only if the receiver also has the feature.

An interesting feature on Hike lets recipients preview a video call before deciding to take it. This is useful in a country notorious for spam calls.

Hike claims that the video calling feature will work even in “challenging network conditions, including good quality 2G.” Indians are stingy with data use; so one presumes it will be mostly used where there are wifi connections.

The Indian messenger app, which claims to have crossed 100 million users in January this year, received US$175 million in funding a couple of months back from Tencent and Foxconn.