The local instant messaging application Hi App officially opened its doors to the public on Tuesday (20/10) yesterday. As newcomers, they are quite optimistic that they can reap the cake in the “one-sided” instant messaging business because it is controlled by outside players.

Previously, in DailySocial coverage, one of the sources said that a reason for local messaging application has yet to dominate in the country is that it has failed to create a network effect, and this is the fundamental part of a messaging application.

The network effect is an effect that makes users and the people around them use the same application to communicate with each other.

Hi App suggests that in order to create this, it depends on the features offered. Hi App’s Managing Director, Michelle Kusuma said, this feature is very important, and its development will surely not happen overnight.

“What elements are missing in our society that could revolutionize the way we communicate with each other? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question and it will always develop,” Michelle told DailySocial.

The current and future development of the Hi App relies heavily on comprehensive data analysis and market research to determine which features will be particularly useful for the Indonesian market. The company will conduct surveys and interviews with various groups of people to get a better understanding of the communication problems faced by many people in Indonesia.

Also, collaborate with communities according to their segmentation, therefore users can try and recommend Hi App to the people around them.

In Indonesia, there are currently several messaging applications made by local developers. Aside from the Hi App, there are ChatAja, liteBIG, Catfiz, and others. There are some platforms introduced in the market and ended up losing.

Hi App feature and target

Currently, the features included in Hi App are translator, chat organizer, file sharing, light, and dark mode.

Hi App’s Product Specialist, Fanny Febriani Susilo explained, the translator feature was introduced for Indonesians who often interact with other people who do not speak Bahasa resulting in an obstacle when communicating. The available language is currently Indonesian to English and vice versa.

Next, the chat organizer feature separates personal and group chat rooms, therefore, they don’t get mixed up like similar existing applications. This is adjusted to the characteristics of Indonesians who tend to be communal, such as eager to talk and share information in groups.

In order to support user flexibility in sharing files, Hi App provides a maximum shareable file capacity of 100 Mb. Users can share documents, photos, and videos in their chat rooms.

Another aspect is, Hi App uses end-to-end encryption by default for every message it sends and it never saved user messages on the server in their regular format. This is to ensure data protection and user privacy.

Also, it implements a secure end-to-end identity system using phone number authentication via OTP verification. Fanny said that the Hi App application was designed to be very light to be used smoothly on various types of cellphones, both low-end and high-end.

“This application can be installed on mobile phones with a minimum operating system Android 5.1 Lollipop and iOS 11.”

Michelle continued, currently, Hi App is only operating in the B2C segment, then starting to enter the B2B. “The Hi App development team is currently working on a next feature which we hope will help businesses adapt.”

She cannot disclose this feature, but she ensures that the feature will be designed by considering the synergy between the formal and informal business sectors, especially in terms of support for the micro, small and medium enterprises sector.

As this launching, she expects that Hi App will be able to attract at least more than 700 thousand downloads by next year. “The ETA will probably change as we release more features and analyze more market data going forward,” she concluded.

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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian