*** Update *** You cannot verify your phone with Qik if you have SMS from short codes blocked on your phone. If you have ever called Sprint because you found a charge from a text message – they most likely blocked SMS from short codes. Qik is working on a solution where you do not need this verification step – but if
you are like me and don’t like to wait around for somebody else to solve your problem – call Sprint and have short codes unblocked. You can always re-enable the block after you verify with Qik! *** Update *** I’ve covered the QIK failure in a prior post – but I want to cover actually getting Qik to work. First – you need to go download the app from the Market… go ahead, I’ll wait… No – sorry, I should be more clear – you need Qik Video. I’ll wait… Doh! My bad… you need Qik Video for the HTC EVO. Seriously – I’ll wait…
You back? Ok – now that you have the correct version of the app – you can uninstall the Qik Video app you got the first time. If you don’t see the Video Chat button – then you have the wrong version of the app. Now you may think you are off to the races, but not so fast – you need to confirm your phone number with Qik. Goto http://qik.com – sign in (create an account, if you don’t have one) – then click on “Settings”, “Profile”, Then Phone Numbers.
Enter your number and hit the big blue plus sign. This *should* send an SMS text directly to your phone with a verification link. I say should because it didn’t work for me. I continued to refresh the page and click on the “Resend verification SMS” link as though it were going to change the fact that it was not working for me. So – if you are like me and cannot get the SMS to show up on your phone – you have to send an email to support@qik.com. Once you have verified your phone – you then need to have a friend to call. If your Qik My Friends page looks like this:
Then you aren’t going to make any called anytime soon. How do you add friend on QIK? Follow that link and you will soon be teaming with other Evo owners!
So – you have the right app – you have confirmed your phone number, you have friends in QIK – finally, we are off to the races. One thing you may notice right away is that QIK has decided that in order to deliver high quality video and audio in a video chat – they needed to impliment a push-to-talk method. In other words – while you won’t have to push any button in order to be heard – the
person you call with see a button on their end that they are required to hold down while they talk to you. As long as they are holding down the button – you can hear them but they cannot hear you. As I write this post – I’m still waiting on the verification process. I sent my email to the support email and I’m awaiting their response. As soon as I am able to experience the QIK’ening myself (old Highlanders reference there) – I’ll let you know!