This page is designed to keep everyone up-to-date with any developments happening with Mxit. Adding articles and tips would be really useful for all of us. I have an article that I wrote for the school weekly newsletter which I will upload as a Word doc. Please feel free to use it or any part of it if you want to summarise Mxit for parents or staff. I offered a workshop to the parents as many were complaining about lack of knowledge - received one response! Always easy to complain but not so easy to take action! At least we tried. The file is called The Mxit Dilemma

What is Mxit?

MXit is a mobile instant messaging application developed locally and runs on cell phones with GPRS/3G/HSDPA. It uses a java application and you can send and receive text messages (chatting) while you are logged into the Mxit java application on your cellphone. This means that you have to first open up your Java apllication on your cellphone, before you can send messages. You can also exchange messages with online chat communities like MSN Messenger, ICQ and Jabber. Messages are limited to 2 000 characters. Because messages are billed by the amount of data sent, they are much cheaper to send than traditional SMS messages. (About 2c per message) You can also “Mxit” from your Pc to a cellphone/pc to pc or cellphone to pc. To do this you need to download a java apllicationj onto your computer called Mpowerplayer.

How do I set up my cellphone to Mxit?

• Go to www.mxit.co.za and follow the instructions on how to download the software onto your cellphone.
• When you are set up, you can go to your Java applications on your cellphone to log on to Mxit. You have to be logged on to it to “see” your other contacts. If they are logged on as well, there will be a green dot next to their names.
• To add contacts, just go to contacts on your mxit menu and put in their cellphone numbers and names.

How do I set up Mxit on my PC

It is quite an easy way to communicate with those who do not have Pc internet access as you can ”Chat” to them on their cellphones with mxit. You will use Mpowerplayer to set it up. Just go to Mpowerplayer’s site and follow the instructions.

• Download the mpowerplayer (the quick way) but you will have to do this every time

Mxit resources

• Mxit blog

Latest on Mxit

MXit speaks everybody's language

MXit, the mobile instant messaging solution that offers users a simple and inexpensive way to stay in touch with one another, has further broken down the barriers to effective communication by launching the solution in three more of South Africa's official languages.

As part of a drive to eliminate communication barriers and enable the previously disadvantaged, poorer and remote communities to interact unhindered by location or demographic, MXit has made its solution available in Afrikaans, Xhosa and isiZulu.

“Everyone wants the ability to chat to their friends and family members in the language of their choice, and making MXit available in several of South Africa's official languages means that we can cater to such needs while at the same time increasing our user base. says Paul Stemmet, General Manager of MXit Lifestyle.

As an example, he refers to recent research by TNS Research Surveys and the UCT Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing that suggests that the youth market, likely to speak Xhosa or isiZulu as a home language, is worth some R7 billion.

“We have always been a youth-oriented solution – our users tend to be tech-savvy, well-informed young adults who are eager to be at the forefront of technological trends - so by opening up MXit to a much larger audience, there is no doubt that we should be able to capture our share of this valuable sector.”

Stemmet says that by offering the youth market a solution that speaks to them – and allows them to speak to their friends – in their own language, MXit hopes to further build on its already impressive subscriber base of 5.4 million.

He believes that the new languages, coupled with the inexpensive nature of chatting via MXit (the cost of a MXit instant-message is less than 1cent, as opposed to approximately 80c for an SMS) will ensure that the current trend of some 10 000 to 12 000 new registrations signing up daily will continue.

He points out that the youth of today clearly consider themselves to be technocrats.

“They have taken ownership of the latest technologies, which is why MXit is their platform of choice – it's cool and speaks their language.”

“By making the solution more accessible to different market segments and by making the user experience that much richer, we hope to drive further uptake in both SA and globally, as we support several other international languages too, including Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, German, French and Italian.

“We are anticipating a fantastic uptake of the solution, thanks to the three additional language options. One only has to look at the numbers of users that are registering with us each day to realise the phenomenal potential for MXit to take off on global scale,” says Stemmet.

Stemmet says that users wishing to access the different languages for MXit can log on to: www.mxit.com/wap.