Mxit, the South African mobile social network, announced today the release of Mxit 7 for feature phones, to be followed later in the week by versions for iPhone and iPad. The launch forms part of a phased rollout which will see Mxit 7 available on Android and BlackBerry devices in the coming weeks, and Windows Phone early next year.
Mxit 7 will run on more than 8,000 devices, including tablets and embraces the capabilities of each platform to offer an immersive chat experience that feels native to each one.
Feature phone users on Nokia Asha devices will now get messages even when they are offline, and everyone will enjoy a more engaging chat experience. The new chat tab feature allows for users to switch easily and quickly between multiple ongoing conversations with friends and groups.
Mxit 7 for iOS has been rebuilt from the ground up for iOS 7, and features such as Doodlechat and Backdrop make for a fun and immersive chat experience. Mxit 7 for iPhone and iPad will be available in the App Store on 15 November.
“Our users love to chat, so we improved the chat experience across all versions of Mxit. We’re also building on the things that made Mxit great in the first place – the fact that we can reliably deliver half a billion messages every day – and extending that with new features like group chat,” says Vincent Maher, Chief Product Officer of Mxit.
Key features for J2ME (feature phone) users:
• Groups: easily create groups, chat with multiple friends and share photos and sound clips.
• Chat tabs: quickly switch across multiple group and private chats.
• Richer profiles: profiles on feature phones look better than ever with larger cover images and extended profile information.
• Offline messages: feature phones that support push notifications will now receive offline chat messages.
• Automatic upgrades: users will be informed when new versions of Mxit become available, bringing this traditional smartphone feature to lower-end phones.
• Data light: Mxit 7 uses even less data and is lighter on memory usage than previous versions.
Key features for iPhone and iPad users:
• New for iOS 7: Mxit for iOS 7 has a crisp and simple new look and is one of the only chat apps native Apple’s newest operating system.
• Backdrop: drop photos from your Photo Stream into the background of any chat window.
• Doodlechat: draw picture doodles on the screen or on photos and share them in chats with friends and groups. Friends can add their own doodles to the picture.
• Voicechat: quickly and easily record and send audio voice clips and messages in chat.
“Mxit 7 is the result of our renewed focus on offering an affordable and rich chat experience that bridges the gap between feature and smartphone users. This is a significant rollout for us, but it is only the beginning – there is plenty of innovation to come,” says Mxit CEO, Francois Swart.
For further information or to download Mxit 7 visit www.mxit.com. Follow Mxit on Twitter via @mxit or join the conversation using the #Mxit7 hashtag.
About Mxit
Mxit is a South African created mobile social network. It has 7.4 million monthly active users, of which 6.5 million are in South Africa. Being device agnostic, over 8,000 different handsets and mobile devices can download and access the Mxit platform. By acting as a gateway to functions not otherwise available on feature phones, Mxit affordably bridges the gap between feature and smart phones
