Messaging app and aggregator IM+ app has integrated the Lightning Network as part of its services, as per a release shared with the BTC Times. It will partner with Bitcoin rewards app sMiles for the effort.

IM+ aggregates social networks and messengers such as Telegram, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, and Slack, among others, to allow users to manage multiple accounts via a single app. It offers its user community an integrated ad blocker as well.

Now, with the collaboration with sMiles in place, IM+ will offer usage-based Bitcoin rewards to app users. The service will feature a ‘Fortune Wheel’ game—for a chance to win sats, the smallest unit of a bitcoin—to popularize microtransactions and Bitcoin to newer users.

Using the Lightning Network, which provides faster transaction speeds for Bitcoin by introducing off-ledger transactions, will allow IM+ to quickly reward and distribute sats among its users. 

That’s not all. Igor Berezovsky, co-founder of both IM+ and sMiles, said the service will feature more Lightning-powered games in the future. 

"The next step could be a Lightning-powered messenger inside of IM+,” he noted, adding, "we see every message, every like and share as potentially a micro-economic transaction. And sMiles offers to IM+ the best Lightning Network-based technology for that."

The IM+ for iPhone version 11 is already available on the App Store. Its basic version is free to all, while an opt-in subscription can be used for more in-app features. An Android app is in the works as well, scheduled for a rollout later this month.

Users subscribing to pro services will receive a ‘sats cashback’ in addition to earning sats for each day of “active usage.”

Meanwhile, Berezovsky said in a statement that the service’s rollout on Apple—which is notorious for censoring crypto-centric offerings on its App Store—will help popularize the use of Lightning.

“I believe that we will bring to Lightning more users than all the other players combined,” he stated.

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