Mxit, the instant messaging (IM) service popular with teenagers, is to release version five this Monday and it expects some 50 000 people to download it on the first day.
Just over a year old, the Mxit service has been downloaded onto 1.8 million cellphones. Mxit claims it receives about 8 000 new subscribers a day.
V5 skips one level as an unauthorised version (v3) had been circulating within the community.
Herman Heunis, Mxit MD, says: "The response to the beta version we tested in early August was phenomenal. We put the WAP site link out to a few selected users and within a day the news of the beta version had gone viral and there were over 3 000 downloads. If this is the response from a closed group test then we can expect a fantastic response to a public announcement to the whole Mxit community."
Mxit v5 adds new features and functions to the IM solution. The most significant is the ability to send and store files from text messages to pictures and ring tones. The files are limited to 150KB, which is slightly more than the size of a ring tone and the equivalent of the size of most mobile games.
"This functionality is phone-dependent, but as the penetration of more advanced phones increases we will see more people using this functionality," Heunis says.
Heunis says files can only be shared between contacts. This means that users will only be able to send and receive files from people they have actively accepted as contacts and with whom they are willing to communicate. Users will not be able to post files in open forum chat rooms for security reasons.
Other new functionality includes:
* The ability to store up to 50 files on the Mxit servers. Users can retrieve and forward files to individual contacts or a contact group of up to 10 members
* The ability to personalise the Mxit interface with a choice of skins
* An emoticon menu for the easy use of the full range of emoticons when chatting
* An online status menu to enable users to change their status to online, away or do not disturb
* The ability to SMS to a Mxit contact. The user will be charged normal SMS rates by the cellphone network provider.
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