Jongla Takes Messenger Towards Social

Finnish instant messaging firm Jongla launched on Wednesday a new version of its Social Messenger, saying it has added social networking features to bridge the gap between social networks and instant messaging.

“The lines between social networking and messaging apps usage are blurring and we firmly believe that soon the two will meet. We’re seeing this already with chatbots. Jongla is ahead of this curve, offering new meaningful social layers to our instant messaging service and enabling our users to enjoy the best of them both,” Riku Salminen, CEO of Jongla, said in a statement.

Jongla is growing fast in the emerging markets, with most of its features designed to target low-end smartphones users on prepaid plans. Jongla claims to be the world’s lightest messaging app, saying it uses 80% less data than Viber and 25% less than Facebook Messenger.

The 2009-founded Jongla has raised $7.7 million from investors over the years.