Opera launches Hype chat app in South Africa

Opera has launched a chat service called Hype in its Opera Mini mobile web browser app in South Africa.

The Norwegian tech giant announced the launch on 9 June.

“Hype is an original instant messaging service from Opera, designed for the new generation of African internet users to elevate the traditional browsing experience and make it more engaging,” EVP Mobile Browsers at Opera, Jørgen Arnesen, said in a statement.

The local launch comes after the service was first launched in Kenya earlier this year on a pilot basis.

Since then, it has had more than 400 000 user activations. Meanwhile, more than 10 000 invitations to join Hype are sent every day.

What is Opera Hype?

Hype lets users sign up for an account and immediately send messages to other users via the mobile browser.

One of its major features is a built-in meme generator that lets users create original memes and edit font, colours, and placement.

In addition, the service also offers support for GIFs and link previews.

Hype also offers the WebSnap feature taken from the Opera desktop browser.

WebSnap lets users take and edit snapshots from the internet which can then be shared with other users. Users can also share the link to the original website on which they took the snapshot.

How to set up a Hype account

To set up an account, open the Opera Mini app on your smartphone and select the Hype logo at the bottom of the browser or through the O menu.

From there, you can add your name and upload a photo of yourself. The photo will serve as your profile picture.

Once your account is set up, sync the Hype app with your phone’s contact list to add people to chat with.

To celebrate the launch Opera has partnered with Cell C to offer 25MB of free browsing and messaging data per day to its customers using Opera Mini.

To claim the data, customers must click on the Hype feedback bot and send ‘Unlock my free data’ in the chat.

Feature image: Opera/Screenshot

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