Milliam Murigi @millymur1

Opera has added new features to its new and fast-growing chat service Hype that will make chatting on this platform even more fun.

The new engaging features include built-in meme creator, link previews and GIF support.

According to Jorgen Arnesen, Opera Executive Vice President of Mobile Browsers Business Unit, the introduction of the new features will reduce the hustle hype users go through to create memes, GIFs and read some of the links they receive.

According to him, the process of one switching from one app to another to download and upload files and take many additional steps will now be a thing of past as the new features will enable hype users to choose memes directly in chat.

“With today’s Hype update, Opera is introducing the first meme creator built directly into a browser’s messenger.

Users can choose memes directly in chat in Hype. Once chosen, users can edit them by changing the text and experimenting with fonts, colors, and placement more easily than ever,” he says.

According to him, this comes in handy as users no longer need to copy links from websites and switch between apps to share the memes they want.

Additionally, beyond making their own memes quickly and easily in chat, users can simply edit and resend the memes they receive from friends.

Opera has also brought GIF support to Hype chat. Now making the right choice of GIF is much simpler with Hype’s search capabilities and scrollable GIF grid. To help users choose the one they want, a GIF preview and full-screen view are also available.

“The newest Hype update comes also with a link preview feature. Snapshot, website header, and description will automatically appear in chat. This function is also available in encrypted chats and on metered networks.”

Hype is the first African-inspired chat service built into a mobile browser allowing users to easily set up their account and start chatting with secure end-to-end encryption.

The hype was launched in 2021 in Kenya as a pilot market and it is already showing impressive results with more than 250,000 activations, more than 150,000 open chats and more than 10,000 invites to join Hype per day.

The hype was initially released with a bunch of creative features that suit the needs of Kenyan users, offering a series of unique stickers that reflect their everyday expressions.

The sticker collections were created by Kenyan artists Brian Omolo and Lulu Kitololo, making Opera the first major browser to integrate African pop culture into its products.