Kik Messenger to Live On Under its New Owner MediaLab

Only weeks after Waterloo-based Kik Interactive’s CEO revealed that his company has decided to shut down the messaging service so it can focus solely on its Kin cryptocurrency, MediaLab has announced that it has acquired Kik Messenger from its creators and will continue developing the app, Engadget is reporting.

MediaLab, that also owns the anonymous secret-sharing social network Whisper, has noted in a new post on Kik’s blog that it will work on making Kik Messenger faster and less buggy, as well as on getting rid of spambots.

The company adds that it might need to ditch a few features to be able to accomplish those goals. For now, it will be disabling the video chat toggle and third-party bots platform:

“Our first priority is to listen. We have some ideas (yes we want larger group sizes and the ability to remove inactive group admins too) but we don’t pretend to know everything or have all the answers. In fact, we’re counting on all of you to help point us in the right direction. If you have an idea on how to make Kik even better we want to hear about it so please email us.”

As of now, it doesn’t sound like MediaLab intends to change the way Kik Messenger works in a significant way.