Jongla has announced that it is launching its fast, open and light instant messaging app in Africa at the Mobile West Africa conference taking place today and tomorrow in Lagos.

Jongla enables users to send and receive unlimited free text messages, stickers, photos, videos and funny voice messages over the Internet using low-speed Wi-Fi networks as well as 4G, 3G, EDGE and GPRS.

It opens up the world of free instant messaging to people living and working in Africa, where cellular and data services are often unreliable and expensive. The Jongla app has been specifically designed for emerging markets, because it takes only 2.5MB to download on Android phones compared to more than 20MB for most other messaging apps.

Jongla has also a number of other free appealing features for people looking to communicate with their friends, family and colleagues. They include: the Jongla Out for free chat with contacts, Voice messaging with fun filters to voice messages, security and reliability given its super fast message delivery, easy sharing of text messages, voice messages, photos, videos and interactive stickers in addition to group chat with up to 100 friends.

Riku Salminen, CEO of Jongla, said “We have made instant messaging possible for people who don’t have high-end smartphones and live and work in areas where there is often limited access to mobile broadband. Read more