Indian instant messaging platform Hike launched an in-app electronic payments wallet for digital transactions. They have become the first messaging platform in India to do so.

CEO Kavin Bharti Mittal explained that this new version of Hike will allow free bank-to-bank transfer via Unified Payment Interface and also direct recharge from the app.

He declared that this feature would be available for Android and iOS users by June 25 and the wallet feature will be available to Apple users by end of July.

According to Google-Boston Consulting Group (BCG) study, Indian digital payments industry will grow to $500 billion by 2020, contributing to 15% of GDP.

Mittal also said Hike had been working on the new update for over six months.

“With Hike 5.0, we have reduced the app size to just 25MB despite adding all these features and have also added 128-bit SSL encryption to ensure that communication across the air and wire networks, is completely encrypted.”