Skip to content

Hike Messenger launches Hike ID; now chat without sharing phone number

In a bid to offer more privacy controls to its users, homegrown Hike Messenger has announced the launch of Hike ID. The unique Hike ID will remove the need for sharing the phone number to start a chat so that privacy of users is kept safe. Also, users can easily search for anyone with their Hike ID. This will further remove the need to save a phone number before sending a message. Essentially, Hike ID is a username, similar to what other social services offer.

So, from now on if Hike users don’t want to share their phone number to chat with someone, they can just share their Hike ID. In this regard, Hike Messenger ran a survey to collect the feedback from users. According to the survey done with over 1 million Hike users, 69% of the users said that they liked to talk to people without sharing their phone numbers first.

Further, more than 72% Hike users said that they want to skip the process of saving someone’s number before chatting with them. So, Hike came up with this new username feature, which seems like a perfect solution to these two problems. Moreover, this will also safeguard the privacy of users.

On the launch of Hike ID, Pathik Shah, VP Product at Hike, said,

Privacy is at the center of everything we do at Hike. There has always been a big need from our users for features which enable them to have more control over their relationships online like Hidden Mode and customized privacy controls for profile pictures, timeline posts and status updates. These features have been extremely popular and Hike ID is the logical next step for us to make this value proposition even stronger by enabling easier discovery and control while connecting with others.

Currently, Hike users on Android will be able to create and share their custom Hike username within the next week. iOS Hike users will have to wait for a few more days for their Hike ID.

nv-author-image

Satyendra Pal Singh

Satyendra explores the latest happenings in the tech world and writes stories about those. He likes to play around with the latest gadgets and shares his views through articles. In his free time, you can find him watching movies/TV shows and/or reading books.