Back from the dead: Kik Messenger returns to BlackBerry with a vengeance
In 2010, free instant messaging app Kik Messenger launched on RIM's BlackBerry platform. Gathering a million users in just 2 weeks, it was instant success—and instantly seen as a direct competitor to BBM, a vital organ to RIM's mobile platform.
Soon after, RIM ceased push support of Kik, launched a lawsuit against CEO Ted Livingston, and later pulled the app completely from App World. Kik then appeared on the iOS, Android, and WP7, but it was only a ghost to RIM users.
And now it's back.
Waterloo-born Kik Interactive has relaunched Kik Messenger for the BlackBerry OS through a clever workaround—instead of using the BlackBerry SDK and getting an app approved through App World, Ted and his team simply designed a universal Java app that just happened to work on RIM's latest roster of mobile devices.
The CEO says that the app is faster than ever and doesn't put a dent in battery life thanks to a unique way of push notifying. Kik has also tweaked how it adds friends, as that was a major privacy concern early on.
The next step? World domination, it seems. Now that Kik isn't using anyone's SDK, it created its own, so that other third-party developers might integrate the technology inside of their own app. And the fact that Kik can be used on some feature phones, or "dumb" phones, renders the possibilities endless.
Download the back-from-the-dead BlackBerry version of Kik right here.
