The Best Kik App Tips and Tricks So Far

Kik has been around long enough for most of us to be more than familiar with its perils and pitfalls but also its potential. There are good reasons why there are so many million users and I count myself as one of them. As a messenger, there are few apps that are better. As a flexible way to share messages, images, videos and ideas, few apps even come close. If you’re new to the app, here are some of the best Kik app tips and tricks I have found so far.

Read Kik messages invisibly

Kik tries to let you know what is going on at all times. Every time you send a message you will see a status for it. You will see sent, delivered and read with the first letter of each status displayed next to each sent message. For the vast majority of the time, that’s fine but what if you want to take a sneak peek at a message without letting on you have read it?

Some people assume that if you don’t reply immediately to a message that something is wrong, that you’re ignoring them or whatever. Often this isn’t the case, so reading a message without letting them know comes in handy. Just turn your phone into airplane mode and read the message. Then shut down Kik, turn off airplane mode and reopen Kik.

Use Kik on your Windows desktop

If you’re regularly sat at a computer and don’t want to check your phone every 5 seconds, you can use Kik on your desktop. By using an Android Emulator called Bluestacks, you can run Android apps on your desktop. Download and install Bluestacks, let it validate your cell number and install Kik from the Google Play Store.

Even if you’re an iPhone user, as long as you have a Windows desktop, you can use the Android version of Kik. You will just need to validate your number with Kik in order to make it work.

Bluestacks isn’t free despite what it says on the website but you can either pay $2 a month for it or allow it to show you ‘supported apps’ which help pay for its development. It’s a little shady after being told it is free, but the app is too good to miss otherwise.

Check someone is legit

As with any social network, you get a lot of scammers and people on Kik who pretend they are someone else. The same rules apply on Kik as anywhere online, treat everyone and everything with a healthy dose of skepticism until proven otherwise. If you are chatting with someone you like the sound of, you can check them out.

A web app called TinEye is often used by Kik users to check if someone is legit or not. It is a reverse lookup tool that takes a profile or sent image and scans the internet to see if it appears anywhere else. If the image appears somewhere else, there is a good chance your new friend is a fake. If it doesn’t, they may be real. It is far from proof, but as good as it gets right now.

Keep friends waiting while you type

Like many chat apps, Kik shows the other person when you’re typing so they know a reply is incoming. It helps keep conversations flowing without one side bombarding the other while they reply. Did you know you can fool Kik into thinking you’re typing and therefore fooling the person you’re chatting to?

This has obvious limited use but is a bit of fun.

1. Select ‘Your Account’ within Kik.
2. Change your surname to ‘is typing…’ while leaving your first name intact.

Your display name will then change to NAME is typing… and the person on the other end will sit there waiting for your message.

You’re never lonely with a bot

Are you around at odd times of the day? Often online when your friends are not? You’re never alone on Kik as there are lots of bots to talk to. Some are better than others and some are blatant marketing tools but there are a few Kik bots that can hold a pretty good conversation.

Visit the Kik Bot Shop to see the latest bots on offer. There are quite a range of them covering everything from fashion to news and loads of subjects in-between. Choose a bot, start a chat and go from there. Saves sitting there in silence!

Create, store and use smileys on Kik

Smileys are not only amusing but are currency on Kik. As you use Kik, you amass Kik Points which can be exchanged for smiley and other stuff. Kik also has the Smiley Shop which stocks all manner or graphics to use within chats. Now you can manage them all with the Locker. Think of it as your online school locker, ready to store everything you come across while on Kik and keeps it ready to use.

Customize your Kik speech bubble

It’s the little things that often make the biggest difference and for me at least, discovering how to customize the speech bubble has made things much more interesting. I admit to being a little late to the party, but it is one of the best tips I have.

Open Settings within Kik and select Chat Settings. From there, you can customize the chat bubble however you see fit. Other customizations vary depending on the platform and age of your version of Kik but there is a lot you can do here.

I am still a relative newcomer to Kik but am enjoying my time with the app. Sure there are the usual bogus people and scammers and the typical low-IQ idiots but there are also some pretty cool people who are happy to chat and spend time getting to know you. For that alone, Kik is well worth trying. If you’re even later to the party than I am, you can get  head start with these Kik app tips and tricks.

Got any other Kik tips to share? Tell us about them below if you do!