Developer(s) | Mxit (Pty) Ltd. |
---|---|
Initial release | 2005 |
Stable release | |
Operating system | Windows, Windows Mobile, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, Java ME, Symbian S60 |
Type | Instant Messenger |
License | Freeware |
Website | www |
Mxit(pronounced "mix it") was a free instant messaging application developed by Mxit (Pty) Ltd. in South Africa that ran on over 8,000 devices, including feature phones, Symbian S60, Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone and tablets. [1]
According to a study by consultancy World Wide Worx, Mxit had 7.4 million monthly active subscribers in July 2013, of which 6.3 million were South Africans. [2]
The company announced its closure in a statement on October 23, 2015. [3] All of the company's intellectual property and technology assets were donated to The Reach Trust, an independent public benefit organisation. [3] While initially the organisational changes did not affect the mobile social network, and users were still able to access and use all its services, in September 2016 it was announced that the service would be closing on September 30.
Mxit was founded by Herman Heunis whilst in Stellenbosch in 1997, he then established Swist Group Technologies and focused primarily on the mobile telecommunications industry, developing software and providing system support to large Telco's. In 2000 Clockspeed Mobile, a research and development division of Swist Group Technologies, developed a Massive Multiplayer Mobile game named Arya. The game was SMS based and was not successful due to the high cost of SMS since GPRS was still not widely implemented. In 2003 the game was reassessed and the MXit concept was conceived by Herman that same year, MXit has evolved to become a major IM player in the South African arena thereafter. [4] In April 2004 Clockspeed Mobile became independent and on July 1, 2006, became MXit Lifestyle (Pty) Ltd. [5] In January 2007, media giant Naspers acquired a 30% stake in the company for an undisclosed amount. [6] In 2013, competitor 2go overtook Mxit in term of users across Africa. [7]
In September 2011, Mxit was acquired by South African investment group, World of Avatar. [8]
Following the abrupt resignation of then boss, Alan Knott-Craig, Jr., Francois Swart received the nod from Mxit to become the new CEO (Mzekandaba, 2013). [9]
Former First National Bank CEO Michael Jordaan was announced chairman of the Mxit board in September 2013. [10]
The shutting down of Mxit was announced on October 23, 2015, in a public statement by the company after user numbers dropped dramatically over the last 2–3 years. Competition from other social platforms such as Blackberry Messenger, and, later, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger along with Mxit's own lack of technological advances in the social arena attributed to the company's closure. The donating all of its intellectual property and technology assets to independent public benefit organisation The Reach Trust was announced in the statement issued by the company. [3]
In September 2016, active users of Mxit were notified that the service would be closed on September 24. [11]
Mxit was first released as a mobile phone instant messaging client, and required Java (J2ME) and internet connectivity via CSD, GPRS, 3G or Wifi to run.
Originally built for feature phones, versions were also released for BlackBerry, Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile devices and tablets. [1]
In addition to one-on-one and group chat functions, Mxit offered public chat zones, as well as apps and a games ecosystem. [1]
Mxit was available on a variety of mobile and computing platforms, each independently developed for the platform. Those were:
Platform | Last version | Release date | Third party |
---|---|---|---|
Java ME | 7.1.0 | November 12, 2013 | No |
BlackBerry | 7.0.1.389 | January 27, 2014 | No |
iPhone | 7.2.0 | April 5, 2014 | No |
Android | 7.2.1 | April 23, 2014 | No |
Windows Phone 8 | 1.0.3.1 | December 6, 2012 | No |
Windows Phone 7 | 1.0.3.0 | May 25, 2012 | No |
Linux | 2.9.0, Pidgin | June 23, 2011 | Yes, Pidgin only, bundled plugin |
Microsoft Windows | 2.9.0, Pidgin 2.0.1, MXit Evo | June 23, 2011 December 13, 2010 | Yes, Pidgin, bundled plugin |
Mac OS X | 1.0 | August 31, 2009 | Yes, Adium only, separate plugin [12] |
Mxit operated in many international markets. Mxit was officially supported in Malaysia, India, Indonesia, United Kingdom, United States, Nigeria, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and South Africa. In August 2007 Mxit commissioned their European Data Centre located in Frankfurt, Germany. The purpose of this server farm was to take over most of the international traffic from the South African servers. [13] In September 2010, Mxit launched in Kenya, making it the first country outside of South Africa to have access to the full range of features.
On November 4, 2014, Mxit scored 0 out of 7 points on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's secure messaging scorecard. It lost points because communications are not encrypted in transit, communications are not encrypted with a key the provider doesn't have access to, users can't verify contacts' identities, past messages are not secure if the encryption keys are stolen, the code is not open to independent review, the security design is not properly documented, and there has not been a recent independent code audit. [14]
AIM was an instant messaging and presence computer program created by AOL, which used the proprietary OSCAR instant messaging protocol and the TOC protocol to allow registered users to communicate in real time.
BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of smartphones and other related mobile services and devices. The line was originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company BlackBerry Limited from 1999 to 2016, after which it was licensed to various companies.
Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be used for the bootstrapping of capable wireless connections. Like other proximity card technologies, NFC is based on inductive coupling between two electromagnetic coils present on a NFC-enabled device such as a smartphone. NFC communicating in one or both directions uses a frequency of 13.56 MHz in the globally available unlicensed radio frequency ISM band, compliant with the ISO/IEC 18000-3 air interface standard at data rates ranging from 106 to 848 kbit/s.
Google Talk was an instant messaging service that provided both text and voice communication. The instant messaging service was variously referred to colloquially as Gchat, Gtalk, or Gmessage among its users.
Push email is an email system that provides an always-on capability, in which when new email arrives at the mail delivery agent (MDA), it is immediately, actively transferred (pushed) by the MDA to the mail user agent (MUA), also called the email client, so that the end-user can see incoming email immediately. This is in contrast with systems that check for new incoming mail every so often, on a schedule. Email clients include smartphones and, less strictly, IMAP personal computer mail applications.
Bing for mobile is a search tool for handheld mobile devices from Microsoft as part of their Bing search engine. It is designed for mobile device displays. Bing Mobile is built into Windows Mobile and Windows Phone as proprietary software, accessed via the Search key on Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 devices. It is also available on Windows Phone 8.1, and can be downloaded for other platforms, including and Android.
The HTC TyTN is an Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC PDA designed and marketed by High Tech Computer Corporation of Taiwan. It has a touchscreen with a left-side slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The TyTN's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player in addition to text messaging and multimedia messaging. It also offers Internet services such as e-mail, instant messaging, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. It is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS, and EDGE, and a single/dual band UMTS phone with HSDPA. It is a part of the first line of PDAs directly marketed and sold by HTC. On AT&T/Cingular, the TyTN was the successor to the HTC Wizard, known as the Cingular 8125. Also on AT&T, the TyTN was superseded by the HTC TyTN II, known as the AT&T 8925 and the AT&T Tilt.
eBuddy is a privately held Dutch software company that offers instant messaging services. As of 2011, eBuddy reported 100 million downloads. The company's flagship service is XMS, a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging service. After some changes of ownership, the company is now again owned by its original founders, Onno Bakker and Jan-Joost Rueb.
The HTC TyTN II is an Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC smartphone designed and marketed by HTC Corporation of Taiwan. It has a tilting touchscreen with a right-side slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The TyTN II's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player in addition to text messaging and multimedia messaging. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, instant messaging, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. It is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, and HSUPA.
A mobile operating system is an operating system used for smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical/mobile laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on them are usually not considered mobile, as they were originally designed for desktop computers that historically did not have or need specific mobile features. This "fine line" distinguishing mobile and other forms has become blurred in recent years, due to the fact that newer devices have become smaller and more mobile, unlike the hardware of the past. Key notabilities blurring this line are the introduction of tablet computers, light laptops, and the hybridization of the two in 2-in-1 PCs.
The Xperia X1 is a high-end smartphone from Sony Ericsson, and is the first in the manufacturer's Xperia series. The phone was designed and built by Taiwanese OEM HTC. The X1 was first presented at the 2008 Mobile World Congress.
The HTC Dream is a smartphone developed by HTC. First released in October 2008 for $179 with a 2-year contract to T-Mobile, the Dream was the first commercially released device to use the Linux-based Android operating system, which was purchased and further developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance to create an open competitor to other major smartphone platforms of the time, such as Symbian, BlackBerry OS, and iPhone OS. The operating system offers a customizable graphical user interface, integration with Google services such as Gmail, a notification system that shows a list of recent messages pushed from apps, and Android Market for downloading additional apps. This operating system's debut would later be followed by the Samsung Galaxy i7500, the first in what would become the long-running Samsung Galaxy series.
Google Sync was a file synchronization service from Google that provided over-the-air synchronization of Gmail, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar with PC and mobile device Mail, Calendar and Address Book applications. It used Microsoft® Exchange ActiveSync® to let service users synchronize their Google Apps mail, contacts, and calendars to their mobile devices, wherein the users can also set up or customize the alerts for incoming messages and upcoming meetings. Google Sync worked with PC, Mac, Linux, Android, BlackBerry, Symbian S60, iPhone, iPad, Windows Mobile, and other devices. Google Sync was announced in February 2009 and discontinued for non-business users in December 2012.
Viber, or Rakuten Viber, is a cross-platform voice over IP (VoIP) and instant messaging (IM) software application owned by Japanese multinational company Rakuten, provided as freeware for the Google Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS and Linux platforms. Users are registered and identified through a cellular telephone number, although the service is accessible on desktop platforms without needing mobile connectivity. In addition to instant messaging it allows users to exchange media such as images and video records, and also provides a paid international landline and mobile calling service called Viber Out. As of 2018, there are over a billion registered users on the network.
ChatON was a global mobile communication service provided by Samsung Electronics from September 2011 to March 2015.
Microsoft mobile services are a set of proprietary mobile services created specifically for mobile devices; they are typically offered through mobile applications and mobile browser for Windows Phone platforms, BREW, and Java. Microsoft's mobile services are typically connected with a Microsoft account and often come preinstalled on Microsoft's own mobile operating systems while they are offered via various means for other platforms. Microsoft started to develop for mobile computing platforms with the launch of Windows CE in 1996 and later added Microsoft's Pocket Office suite to their Handheld PC line of PDAs in April 2000. From December 2014 to June 2015, Microsoft made a number of corporate acquisitions, buying several of the top applications listed in Google Play and the App Store including Acompli, Sunrise Calendar, Datazen, Wunderlist, Echo Notification Lockscreen, and MileIQ.
Nimbuzz is a proprietary cross-platform instant messaging and social media and mobile payment developed by Kuraakani Online Private Limited, with the origins of its technology dating back to the early 2000s. As of March 2013, Nimbuzz had 150 million users in 200 countries. By April 2014, Nimbuzz was growing by more than 210,000 new registrations per day. In October 2014, now with over 200 million users, New Call acquired 70% of Nimbuzz, valuing the app at $250 million. Under CEO Sujit Acharya's leadership, Nimbuzz suite of applications enables users to enjoy end-to-end encrypted free calls, instant messaging, games, file sharing, social networking, mobile payments & movies on their mobile device. Nimbuzz has more than 3 million lines of code. Initially, Nimbuzz offered discounted calling rates to most countries in the world. The platform processed more than a billion call minutes and in excess of 100 billion messages a month.
2go is a semi-free mobile social networking and online dating service offering in-app purchases. The app is provided by 2go Interactive (Pty) Ltd which is currently based in Cape Town, South Africa. 2go also functions as an Advertising and Market Research Platform. Brands and advertising agencies employ the 2go Ad Platform to target and engage with 2go's user base and the 2go Market Research offering uses the 2go community to conduct real-time surveys and polls and deliver actionable insights to clients.
Phone Link, previously Your Phone, is a syncing software developed by Microsoft to connect Windows PCs to Android and iOS mobile devices to view notifications, make phone calls, use mobile apps amongst others, via the PC. It is a native component of Windows 10 and Windows 11, where it is a UWP app and consists of a driver that communicates with the Link to Windows app on the mobile device. Phone Link makes use of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth for voice calls, or mobile data.