Once popular video sharing app, Qik, is on the verge of closing down come April 20, 2014. The app was one of the popular sources of sharing video when it was acquired by Skype back in 2011. Qik had over 5 million users. At that time, Qik seems destined for great things, unfortunately, it was not to be.
Qik was founded back in 2006, but didn't really take off as expected. It was a place for users to stream and share videos, but social network users were taking a liking to other mediums such as YouTube and Facebook to get their videos across to family and friends.
The reason behind the plan to send Qik to the grave is because the video messaging technology behind the service has been added into Skype. Unfortunately, the ability to stream video, record and broadcast videos to a personal blog has not been brought over to Skype. Users who enjoy these features would have to look elsewhere.
"We are retiring Qik as the Qik video messaging technology has now been incorporated into Skype. Users can now enjoy a great experience on Skype with features such as audio and video calling, instant messaging and video messaging with contacts in their Skype and Microsoft networks," says Qik on its support page.
For those who would like to retain videos before the service goes the way of the DoDo bird, Qik is giving users the option to download videos from the dashboard to their hard drives for safe keeping. In addition, users can transfer videos to their Microsoft OneDrive or YouTube account if they wish to keep them online, or have limited space on their computer or smartphone.
Furthermore, if users want to retain a video shared to them by another person, that won't be possible unless the sender resends the video. It's a bit weird, but that's how it works, so deal with it as best as you can.
The closure will also see Qik mobile apps being removed from the various app stores. Apps already installed will likely cease to function when Qik is put out of its misery.
