Kik reviews
What users love and hate, from real reviews
A once-iconic anonymous messenger that needed no phone number, now a broken, ad- and bot-infested shell of its former self for the long-time users who keep mourning it.
What users love
It used to be brilliantly simple — and that's still loved
Beneath all the rage runs genuine nostalgia: people remember Kik as a reliable, simple messenger that let you meet and chat without a phone number, with chat history stored locally rather than in the cloud. Many keep it for years just for old contacts.
wildly popular for simplicity and reliability
great for making new friends and relationships
it's a nice app that I've always admired for letting people connect without making use of a phone number
What users hate
Log out once and you're locked out for good
The single most common pain: after logging out or switching phones, sign-in simply stops working — the app demands a "latest version" that doesn't exist in the store, or repeats "something went wrong, try again later" for weeks on end.
can't even login anymore just says try again later and I can't even make a new account because it says my app needs to be updated, then I go and try to update and there isn't any update
I was logged out all of a sudden and not able to log in back. I lost all my friends in kik and my chats
not letting me into my account and says check for latest update,but there's no update.
Creating an account is physically impossible
Sign-up is flat-out broken: on the "join" screen the username field won't tap or accept text (while the password field works fine), or it throws an endless update error. Whole friend groups of 17 fail to register at once.
It won't let me type in a username. I tried to register an account, or in this app's word "join", but it won't even let me click on the username space, let alone type out a username and press submit. the password space works fine though.
all 17 of them are getting the same error. Apparently, the newest kik update just made making accounts impossible.
trying to set up a new account and when I click on "username" nothing happens,it lets me enter a password but not a username
Ads literally break the app
The ads aren't just annoying — they're aggressive and inescapable: pop-ups with no close button, forced redirects to the store, and for some the ads freeze the phone until restart. "8 ads every 10 minutes."
Too many ads to the point the data connection and messaging and usage experience is broken. an absolute catastrophe.
these ads block my device till i restart my phone!
the ads are unbearable. They just run continuously when they pop up and can't be closed. You automatically get sent to the app in the app store even if you don't click on it.
Messages get stuck on "S" and never arrive
The core job of a messenger fails: messages hang on the "S" status for days, arrive hours late, or never arrive at all. Some users see over half their messages never send.
6 days now, my messages have not be delivered, its only saying S...my friends can't get my messages but i can get theirs
messages just sit on s for hours no connections. its very odd
it's to the point over 50% of the time my messages dont ever send. This use to be awesome, now it's just a headache
Bots and scammers have taken over
The defining social rot: feeds and DMs are swamped with bots, fakes and scammers begging for money and gift cards. Blocking is useless — a spam-bot spins up new usernames in minutes and finds you again.
The bot epidemic on this app has literally ruined it. It's impossible to enjoy the app with so many bots and it seems like there's no way to escape them
This Spam/BOT was able to create new usernames in minutes defeating the blocking mechanism. It found me on all three accounts.
bots , hookers, fake, start talking to people and all they want is money or gift cards, or to hook up for money
A ban-bot punishes the innocent for decades
Moderation is handed to an AI that bans for nothing — for terms running to the year 2092–2093, on one disgruntled person's report, while appeals with proof are ignored. Meanwhile the actual offenders stay free.
Most rotten,I opened up and faced a ban ending in 2092. You suck.
An AI bot banned me and the other person is running around with an account. appealed with proof and nothing from the kik team
the system is banning people for no reason whatsoever and then you have to start from the beginning
Notifications for messages that don't exist
Notifications work backwards: pushes fire when there are no messages (often disguised ads or premium promos), while real messages only show once you open the app. Instead of the text you get a faceless "New Kik message".
notifications keep going off when there are no messages, not when there are messages.
constantly notifies me to say people are messaging me when they are not. then throws an ad at me.
Notifications don’t come through until I open the app, then I see messages from days ago.
You can't change your photo or profile banner
The most basic profile setting has been broken for months: the avatar and banner won't change on either old or new accounts, and messages from contacts stop arriving. Basics that worked for years simply fell off.
Editing profile banner isn't currently working and hasn't been for months.
this app is ridiculous you can't even change a profile picture or receive messages sent from contacts , you need to fix your app
can't change my profile picture, on a new account, or an old account. doesn't work
Play Integrity locks honest users out of a chat app
A sudden Play Integrity check at login throws a "device has failed to play integrity checks" error and blocks devices that don't need it — users rightly ask why a chat app demands such checks at all.
while i am trying to login with correct credentials I get. " this device has failed to play integrity checks. please ensure your play store is up to date "
Blocks devices that don't support Play Integrity. The presence of Play Integrity doesn't dictate device security.
Why does a chat app ask for Play Integrity checks? Are the devs stupid? Luckily there are a billion other chat apps that work fine
The platform has become unsafe for people
A heavy reputational pain: users widely report predators, child exploitation, cyberbullying and harassment — and complain that reports are ignored while offenders' accounts stay live. Some get banned precisely for reporting such behavior.
There are so many pedophiles on this app and nothing is done to stop them. Why do none of the reviews mention this?????
illegal operations happen by the literal second one this app including children exploitation, and it's unacceptable and needs to be taken down
they seem to have perma banned me for reporting pdf behavior. if you hate the pdf community, dont come here reporting it. they will permanently ban you
There's no support — just an AI stand-in
When things break there's nowhere to turn: the "Help Center" is an AI looping the same useless advice, review replies are bot-written too, and the links in them don't work. Support emails go unresolved.
Their "Help Center" is nothing but a joke! its just an AI telling you the same stuff over and over and over again, but nothing it says is useful or actually works...
Logged me out. Can't log back in. AI responses to reviews...the link you provide doesn't work for me
This app is horrible and there's not any support for when you have problems.
Lag, overheating and constant crashes
Performance has rotted: the app lags and glitches, kicks you out, closes the keyboard mid-typing, overheats the phone and bloats with gigabytes of data that need constant cache-clearing.
I open the text chat; start typing, and within 2 seconds the keyboard closes and it doesnt allow me to type anymore.
Horrible app. It constantly lags and glitches and fails to send and receive simple text messages.
this app makes 2 of my phones battery heat up so fast idk why
A paid premium pushed on top of a broken app
While login is broken and ads pile up, Kik aggressively sells a beta premium: fake notifications turn out to be subscription promos, and some users are only let in after paying. Charging for a beta of a broken product feels like a slap.
Meanwhile they push a premium version when their app doesn't work.
For the past six months or more these have been nothing but Kik up-sell promotions for premium accounts.
Why do you keep asking me to pay for premium?! Especially when this app is so broken, and premium is in beta!