The startup also announced an $8 million round of Series A funding with RRE Ventures, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures that will help support the new features.
Kik launched its instant messaging app in October 2010 to great success. Within 15 days, the startup had 1 million users. Within three weeks, it had been downloaded 2 million times. And since then, it has added about another million users who use the app to send free, chat-like messages (it's like BlackBerry Messenger, but it works across multiple operating systems) -- and picked up a lawsuit from RIM along the way.
Group messaging is a natural extension for Kik, but the app will join a host of other serious contenders in the space.
Facebook's latest acquisition, group messaging platform Beluga, is more like Kik in that it primarily focuses on instant, chat-like communication. The app also makes it easy to share photo and location information, and those who don't have smartphones or don't have the app installed can participate in conversations using SMS or a desktop component.
Kik CEO Ted Livingston thinks the app can set itself apart by offering a more flexible conversation platform.
"We think [other group messaging apps] are still not quite right yet, because they still have the same 'talk to all' mentality," he writes on the Kik blog. "I don’t know about you, but it’s not often I want to message all my college friends at once. Or all of my soccer friends at once. Or everyone from work at once. But these other apps force me to do just that. It turns what could be a dynamic conversation into a mobile message board."
The new version of Kik allows users to add people or leave conversations as they are in progress. In other words, I can introduce you to Joe and then leave you two to continue the conversation without me.
Adding the ability to share photos at the same time as it added a group feature was a smart move on Kik's part. All of the contenders mentioned, with the exception of Fast Society, have photo-sharing capabilities. And as mobile photo-sharing apps -- such as Instagram, Picplz and Path -- take off, it's becoming clear that sharing photos is something that tech-savvy consumers want to do.