News

Turkish Messaging App BiP Introduces Group & Chat Import

BiP Messenger currently operates in more than 192 countries and has over 80 million users.

Published

5 years ago

June 10, 2021

Joanna Melki

turkish messaging app bip introduces group and chat import

BiP

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a massive spike in demand for secure instant messaging software capable of connecting teams and families separated by social distancing measures. Turkish messaging app BiP, which is developed by mobile phone operator Turkcell, experienced a huge influx of new users following an update to Facebook-owned WhatsApp’s privacy policy.

In January, as many as 10 million new users downloaded BiP during a single week, making it one the most downloaded apps on Google PlayStore and Apple AppStore.

To help maintain the remarkable pace of growth, BiP is now making it easier for its users to migrate their chat history from other apps. Users coming from competing instant messaging apps can now automatically and at once move their existing individual chats or group chats, including any shared videos and photographs.

BiP currently operates in 192 countries and has around 80 million users. Besides its home country, Turkey, it focuses heavily on the Indian market.

“India is a strategic market for us. 97% of mobile smartphone phone users use mobile apps for daily communications. The major youth population and their digital savviness offer profound potential. First quarter of 2021 has been very dynamic for us, we’ve reached more than 2 million downloads with very high rates of like scores in various platforms,” said Burak Akinci, BiP’s CEO. “We’ll gratefully continue to invest in innovative solutions and security to make Indian consumers’ everyday lives easier.”

Also Read: Istanbul Fights Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes Using A Smartphone App

BiP stands out from many other instant messaging apps with its security- and privacy-oriented approach. For example, the Secret Chat feature lets users send messages that disappear from the chat screen within a set time period. The app also supports HD group video calls that can include up to 10 people. Users can choose to have their messages automatically translated into 106 different languages, including Gujarati, Kannada, Punjabi, and Telugu.

For these and other features, BiP received the ‘Most Innovative Mobile App’ award at 2020 Global Mobile Awards.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.