“Hype” An Opera Mini Chat App Launches First in Kenya
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- February 23, 2021
The Opera Mini Browser today launched their in app chat services called Hype in Kenya. Charles Hamel, the Product Lead at Opera Mini through their website Opera Blogs announced,
“Opera mini has launched its first chat services, Hype, in Kenya. This will make Kenya the first country worldwide to adopt its usage.”
He also added that Opera Mini becomes the first major browser to incorporate a social component that keeps the users connected to those important to them thereby increasing social media connectivity for the younger African generations that uses the internet on a daily basis.
Opera Mini boasts more than 100M users worldwide and is one of the most widely used mobile browsers in emerging markets, where populations are largely mobile-first and reliant on paid data plans. With features like Data Compression, Offline File Sharing, and built-in Ad-blocker, the app saves users roughly 90% on data use and enables safe, fast browsing where unlimited data isn’t the norm.
Why Kenya?
Hamel said their main reason for launching the app in Kenya is mainly due to the population distribution in the country. Kenyan population comprises of mostly the youth which translates to over 75% under the age of 30 and approximately 40% own smartphones. Due to this Hype will be adopted relatively fast.
The Design
Opera mini with the help of two Kenyan artists, Brian Omolo and Lulu Kitololo designed a range of stickers that most social media users are familiar with.
We are extremely happy to celebrate African culture with Hype and we are very excited with the end result and the collaboration we had with Brian and Lulu.” Hamel said.
“These unique stickers with original designs are something we are very proud of at Opera as we become the first major browser to integrate real African art and pop culture into our products.”
Hype aims at making chatting fun by bringing with it a Websnap. This a feature that enable the users to take snapshots from the web. The user can therefore edit the snaps by adding emojis, texts and colors before sharing with other Hype users
“WebSnap also allows users to smoothly share the link of the original website from which they took their snaps.
This comes in handy as users no longer need to copy links from websites and switch between apps to share the content they want.” Said Hamel.
How to Install Hype
According to Hamel, the Hype is very easy to setup. If you already are an Opera Mini user, you can check for updates in your browser’s settings. Once you update Opera Mini, you will see the green Hype logo at the bottom of the browser. Those who are not Opera Mini users, can download the latest version with Hype on Google Play store services.
