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If you're not familiar with Kik, the concept is pretty simple. You can think of it as a cross-platform BlackBerry Messenger style of app. It's still pretty basic in terms of functionality, but it does provide the R (read) and D (delivered) message stamps that makes BBM what it is, is pretty quick to use, and of course uses data instead of SMS. In the past few weeks especially, it's been gaining momentum with a lot of downloads and usage among smartphone users.
The growth among BlackBerry users has been temporarily stunted though... I woke up this morning to see a Kik message on my BlackBerry Bold 9780 from the Kik team which says,
New downloads of Kik Messenger for BlackBerry devices have been temporarily suspended. Kik service for all existing users (including BlackBerry) is unaffected, as are new downloads for iPhone and Android devices. New BlackBerry downloads will resume as soon as possible.
No explanation was given as to why, but it does seem the Kik page is no longer showing in App World. I was reading through the reviews of Kik on App World this week and there were a ton of comments complaining that it killlled battery life after being installed. Could be we'll see Kik again as soon as they clean up their coding a bit (though to be honest, I haven't personally experienced too much of a battery drain when using Kik, though I do exit the program fully after using it and just open when I get push notification).
As for Kik usage itself, I'm curious to see where it's at among CrackBerry readers. Take a vote on the poll above and let us know what you think of Kik in the comments!
Reader comments
Downloads of Kik Messenger for BlackBerry temporarily suspended; Poll: Do you use Kik??
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do you know where can i download it if i would or i cant download it yet?
Wishes
I've had it since early beta release, but have never kept it on my BB - I don't know very many people who use it.
Most of my Android friends are on Google Talk, and most of my iPhone friends have switched to Android.
If I knew more people using it, I'd have kept it.
Strange. I used to love Kik until I updated it just recently. I had noticed my battery draining twice as fast and I had to start charging my phone everyday.
After removal, no move battery drain. At least I know I can re-download when they release a not-crap copy.
The point of Kik Messenger vs. sms, MSN Messenger, etc. is that it's cross platform and gives delivery statuses to your messages similar to BBM: D - Delivered, S - Sent, R- Read.
I have a BB and my son has an iPhone. We use Kik. At least I can tell whether he's received my message and, more importantly, read my messages or if he's in class (or otherwise) andcan't respond to my message at that time.
I used kik to communicate with Non BBM users rather than paying for sms texting. (ATT charges extra) But, when Kik updated, now both parties have to have Kik installed to text. So I uninstalled the app and ATT got a revenue boost of $ 5 a month.
Kik didn't do anything to drain my battery life or memory at all... it actually works pretty well on my S2 (obviously its not up to par with BBM with avatars and status updates, sending pics/vids, etc etc... but so far its been pretty good for IMing my friends with iPhones and Androids.
The team at Kik seems really interested in updating soon.. so hopefully new features and better functionality will come!
Where is the "I have KiK but it pales in comparison to BBM." I dont like KiK, but I dont hate it either...I wouldve deleted by now but my friend loves it. She gets a kick out of saying she Kik'd me...for some reason
Its advertised as a cross platform IM. Ummm...isn't that what SMS/MMS is? You can't use KIK unless your other friends have it loaded...like BBM. So what they're telling us is that we have to use BBM for some friends, KIK for a few other friends, and reg texting for the rest of our friends. Thats just flat out ANNOYING! And there's no MMS capability on KIK so you'll have alerts for new messages popping up all over your screen. No thank you...i like to keep things simple.
what a biased poll
I just don't see any point to these apps trying to be a cross-platform bbm,we already have email, sms, mms and of course plenty of established IM clients to fill that role.
I like Kik, but it cuts off the top of my letters. '7' looks like '/' its quite annoying.
As a BES admin who services many users, our policy does not prevent users from downloading apps that they want to install on their devices. If they are paid apps, we don't pay for them, but we were not stringent about download policies. Until Kik.
I had three users download and isntall Kik and ALL THREE USERS HAD WHAT AMOUNTED TO A BRICK within a few hours. All of my users have Bold 9700's right now. Since I deal with users who travel quite a bit, I had to work with each of them to rebuild their Bold 9700's from the ground up. I had to use every trick in the book to get these devices up and running in time for their morning meetings with clients. I had to talk users through downloading desktop manager, and device software onto their laptops. Then reboot the devices several times, sometimes with and sometimes wihtout the battery being in the device, before I could even get DM to talk to the device. It was crazy.
After a long nite, I sent out an email banning users from installing and/or using Kik. We decided to state in that policy that going forward, any phone that fails and has Kik on it, will be the resonsibility of the end user to replace the Blackberry at full price.
I have never run into an application, Blackberry or otherwise, that brought an electronic device to its knees. I don't know what is in the software or who the heck wrote it, but they should never have been allowed to put it on App World. Was it tested, verified, certified, anything?
DON'T INSTALL KIK ON YOUR PHONE. I can't imagine what Blackberry users, who are not part of a BES environment and don't have the kind of support I provide, would do? The whole situation was aggrevating and didn't say much for KiK or Blackberry App World.
tried kik for about 1 week...
things I didn't like:
1) high battery drain
2) top of the font/text was cut off int he message lines (centering issue reporteda few times on the kik support page)
3) no privacy, people were ab le to add you without will
with pingchat:
1)no battery drain
2)UI is simple, centered and clean
3) ability to accept or deny contacts...
I personally have not noticed any more battery drain than usual. Really love this app!
Sounds good but I'll just send you a text message and then I'll just get you to turn on MSN chat if needed if you're not a BB user. If you have bbm, even better! At least with traditional text messaging they can't turn it off.
Kik being free is a great but it always comes down to battery usage.
People just can't appreciate things anymore. This isn't bbm, get over it. Customer point of view? Last time I checked, kik was free. UI? Unless you're on an iPhone, this basic, clean UI is all kik needs. Battery drain MAY be an issue, but I always close the app.
Before kik went global, they allowed a person to send sms messages through their server as data. This, in turn, helped a lot of people keep their sms limits controlled and to also send sms internationally.
My wife uses kik to chat with her brother in Phoenix (we're in Canada). I use it to keep tabs on important messages I have to relay to my bro if I can't coonect with him on a call (he uses iPhone).
You should have another option on your poll. I have it installed and its NOT affecting my battery life. But i rarely use it. Occasionally i get on it to connect with my non BBM/android friends that i dont text.
I used Kik for a while, but hated how I couldn't change the font size. It was so small for me! I forget which version this was, but that was a deal-breaker for me. It also refused to show up under my Sound Profiles so I never got any sort of alert.
I used WhatsApp as well but was disappointed in the lack of updates and support. It also seriously drained my battery, WAY more than Kik.
needs an option for "downloaded and like it, use it occasionally but don't love it or need it" ?
Okay first few days I used it, I barely made it through the day alive.
But I snooped around online and turns out that you need to actually "close" the program not just have it running in background. After doing that my battery life improved, but not to the point of it pre-kik.
Great app for non-bbmer's but seriously, who doesnt have unlimited text nowadays?
I still have it installed, but I barely use it.
Yes, it's very bare bones but it's gaining momentum and a lot of my iPhone friends are using it at the moment so it's nice to be able to have a quasi-BBM experience with them. It doesn't have any features but I'm okay with that. It beats texting, which is what I'd have to resort to without Kik so I'm happy. I don't compare it to BBM, I compare it to texting and Kik beats it hands down. I thankfully have not experienced any battery drain but strangely I have noticed a large increase in memory. I've gone from 68K to about 73K on my 9700. Odd, but welcome.
Lets see far as people complaining about it draining battery life, I can't agree with that because its fine for me. Kik's user UI is my biggest complaint & seems to be for everyone who has downloaded it. I know its a "new" app but the creators of Kik should have had all the basic features such as pic upload, status updates, & maybe a profile section already in the app before releasing it. You have to look at it from a consumer point of view & what other crossover platforms apps have for features, this way we wouldn't be complaining about Kik & un-installing the app..
I used it and had no problems at all..
I have it, but I only really talk to one person because they have an iPhone with a 200 text/month plan. Other than that, it would be better if more people used i guess.
Idk...smh...the UI is awful. For those of u claiming that it looks just like bbm, ur crazy; that's preposterous! My biggest qualm was the UI, that did it for me; add to that, NO features (ie u can't add a profile pic, can't set a status message, can't see what I'm listening to...) Garbage! I don't have enough friends on iphones to justify keeping the app. Uninstalling.
My friends and co-workers have all been smart enough to own a blackberry so bbm is doing the trick for me.
It pales in comparison to PingChat, which doesn't get any hype at all.
definitely a battery killer if your in the app often..looks identical to bbm though how are they not getting shut down until they change it?
I haven't heard of it, and besides... I like my BBM, and I'm sticking with it. As for friends who don't have BlackBerry, plans are much cheaper, so most usually have unlimited texts. So for friends who don't have BlackBerry, or BBM, text is my alternative.
I have Kik and it doesn't drain my battery more than it did before. The fact that u can't send pictures audio or video is a deal breaker if u ask me being that I tried to give it a chance. Pingchat is the closest thing to BBM and Kik has a lot of work to do. You guys should do a review on Pingchat its kinda cool.
Turns out that I don't know anyone who uses it. Not surprising- they may boast 1.5 million users, but that's a drop in the bucket of smartphone users.
And since I have SMS, IM, Facebook, Twitter, BBM, and Skype, I really don't see the point of trying yet another short-message communications tool.
I've downloaded and installed Kik twice. The first time I used it, I didn't like it. Then more recently, I tried it again after a BB to iPhone convert friend of mine invited me to use it again. By then, Kik had upgraded their app to something that was more like BBM. It worked without any problems and I liked the fact that I could chat with my iPhone using friends. However, I uninstalled it because I've been experiencing some serious batter drain, although I don't know if Kik is the culprit.
I may add Kik back to my app arsenal if I find that my battery drainage is due to something else.
I downloaded it upon a bbm buddy's suggestion and I hated it. It was so sub par compared to bbm and I didn't deem it worthy of the app memory it took up on my Curve.
haha anyway how is this much different from AIM
KiK is the poor mans BBM IMO =)
I tried it but was horrified by the lack of features. Within 2 minutes KiK was water under the bridge.
I am wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that Kik is too simiiar to BBM. Given that Kik received hit their 1 million and 2 million download within the last 3 weeks, attention and heat could've came up.
My guess: RIM said "Biter! We are gonna sue you and 'kik' your _ _ _!" Then they yanked it from App World. In the mean while, Given Kik is a small little startup, their budget for lawyers are probably not figured in
Hey,
sounds nice, but thats exactly what WhatsApp does since more than a year. So why should you change?
Why we should change ?
BBM all day, end of story, you want instant chat get a bb or msn, or its text msg for you then, I hate these bootleg bbm wannabes, you made your choice in the phone without native instant msg application, I'm not installing a batrery killer or bloated app to justify Your loss of bbm
Maybe I'm harsh or ignorant but I don't care I have a lot of friends who are bb haters but want a bbm to be multiplatform and want me to install these apps , there's so many of them if there was on default one like bbm is the standard or msn messenger was in my area was then sure but all these messenger and whatsapp charges u for limited version of bbm
whatsapp, ping, cncted do exactly the same
i dont use it alot but i kept it. i can see how it could be a big battery drain, whenever i have it open i get constant data arrows on my bold. i didnt notice a battery drain only because i was using my seidio 2600 battery.
I got a msg from the "KIK Team" late last night saying that KIK messenger downloads for Blackberry were temporarily suspended.
http://oi53.tinypic.com/148qan4.jpg
If you already have it you're fine, but apparently new users aren't welcome at the moment...lol
a friggin wack app. KIK is garbage. I deleted it after 1 hour because it was so sub par.
This app is great to be in touch with my sister (iphone) unfortunally anymore because yesterday I receive my new BB replacement and when I was looking for KiK in the app world couldn't find it....very disappointed
Im using it since last few days on BB 9700 has asked few friends also to install it. one them is having battery problem i have not faced it may be he is heavy user. but its not fast some times i receive messege after hour also but not always but still it happens or else its ok.
Currently using it on the iPhone which is fine but have had 2 Blackberry friends telling me of some glitches (I told them to download it eeek!), like only half smilies showing, text being cut off, chat history disappearing.
Think it's just really buggy for Blackberry users at the moment.
Where's the option "I use Kik, but only because I have to. Not really a fan."
I defintely don't love Kik, but I use it to keep in touch with my friends that don't have Blackberries.
well, in that case, you vote for the first option that you use kik, and then complain in the comments that you use it, but dont really like it. so you did good!
haha i love your sarcasm
*rolls eyes* Thanks Kev..
why not use whatsapp? its been around for a long time, very stable and it has media sharing option with iphone users. kik doesnt have that.
I have a friend in Japan who can't use Whatsapp because the mobile network doesn't allow it, hence the other options are just KIK and PINGchat, which isn't very good as well :S
i use whatapp :) and to be honest i didnt know kik exist in this world :)
As far as non-BBM is concerned, I like WhatsApp, but there are tons of people out there who just don't and won't pay for apps.
If I had the choice, BBM would be the only IM I use. Unfortunately, brother & his wife are iDrones…
It is cool how the WhatsApp contact list instantly populates with everyone in your address book that also uses WhatsApp.
Kik does the same thing too...it adds the contacts you have in your address book if they are using kik... I used WhatsApp and one thing I didn't like about is the UI... I liked kik's better...closer to what BBM UI looks like... Still missing though status messages and profile pictures...
No, KIK does not do it. Atleast not the way it's supposed to. I've always gotten atleast 1-2 new suggestions EVERY day over the past 2 weeks I've had it, and only 2 of them are recognizable ones.
It brought people from as far as Brazil and I've never spoken to any. Plus, people have stupid usernames so it's hard to know who's who.
I like WhatsApp, it was accurate but damn the price tag.
i dont know about your case, but in mine all the contacts i got where either contacts have me registered in their phone contact list or i have them, or they added me by using my username... maybe in your case the people that added you from brazil confused you with their friend that most probably have the same username as yours just that you beat him to register it on kik before him....
other than that... like i said before, theres nothing wrong with WhatsApp besides its UI and i dont know why you guys are talkin about its price tag, i downloaded the free version and it seemed ok, unless im missing something out in the pro one..
Grrr… Browser stalled… double post…
If my buddies used Whatsapp, then I could too. Unfortunately, they aren't all going to switch over because I tell them too.
Is this a marketing ploy designed to get more people to hear about it?
i downloaded it, tried it for a bit... looks pretty nice... didnt notice any battery drain although i still havent had full convos on it yet... only a few test messages. still installed and sitting in my downloads folder until i can put it to a real life daily experience test. if i feel battery drain then adios, i dont need extra battery drainage. i barely get by as it is.
wheres the option of i've heard of it but never used it nor planning on it
look again :)