It’s no secret that Kik is a fantastic app. It lets you chat without sharing your phone number, it lets you join and leave conversations easily, keep in touch with friends and share all sorts of media and gossip with your squad. You can even learn how to login to Kik online, using a PC instead of a smartphone.
That said, as with all apps, not everyone is bound to like it. Some find kik lacking in quite a few aspects, be it security or just the looks. Well, you needn’t put up with it if you don’t like it. Here are 6 alternative apps to kik that can help you keep in touch with your buddies without any hassle involved. Here we go!
Whatsapp is pretty popular, and so chances are your friends already have accounts on it. You needn’t copy their usernames or scan cumbersome QR codes to connect with them. If someone’s in your contact list, they will show up in your Whatsapp contacts as well. Whatsapp is owned by Facebook, and so we recently saw the app adopt picture status option that now enables you to broadcast your day as photos or video snippets with captions, filters, hashtags, etc.
Whatsapp is free and has no ads whatsoever. The app doesn’t have stickers, but I for one have always found them to be a bit over the top. What also works in its favor is the lock-screen notifications which can allow you to reply to individual messages without having to exit whatever you’re using at the moment. Whatsapp has been a pathbreaker just like kik; its voice notes format, for example, was adopted by facebook as well. It is worth every bit of space it occupies on your phone.
iMessage
I have yet to see an app as down-to-earth as iMessage. It has often brought unique and pioneering features to its users, but has never cost them a cent. iMessage lets you connect with your friends pretty easily. The chat format it uses, the characteristic blue and grey bubbles are now set in our collective mind as the image that comes to mind when we think of the word “texting”. The only limitation? iMessage only works on
Apple products. Android users, or people with other OS in their phones can only regular SMS their friends, or perhaps use one of the other apps we mention. iMessage syncs so effortlessly with your other Apple devices that it is almost a dream. You can receive texts and reply to them even on your Macs. There was talk a few years ago about iMessage for Android being in the pipeline. However, nothing about has come to be heard since, which might mean there is no such option coming our way anytime soon.
Discord
Discord is primarily a gaming chat service, which you can use to be in touch with your teammates as you play an MMORPG game online. Anybody can make a server, open channels and text as well as voice-chat with people anywhere in the world. The app has also come to be a favorite of the Reddit community, since the app’s security features, especially the maintenance of anonymity fit right in with Reddit’s rules and Reddiquette.
Discord takes things further than kik. You can mute entire channels, specific threads within channels or only choose to be notified when specific tags are used. This can help you keep your chats secret by avoiding any notification from appearing on the lockscreen or the tray. It’s the best option for people with snoopy friends or family members.
Telegram
What I like best about Telegram is the auto-destructing chats. Want to share some risque material with your friend but don’t want them to save it to watch later? Use the secret chat feature, set a time, say one hour, and your photo or video or other content will automatically be erased from the conversation after the time has passed. Secret chats were only recently introduced into more mainstream apps like Facebook Messenger, so you can say Telegram is something of a pioneer. Apart from that, Telegram is a lot more elegant, intuitive and better designed in general.
Hike
One problem that persists when trying to look for substitutes for established messaging apps like kik is that not everyone in your contact list is bound to have the app your heart is set on. With hike, that problem just doesn’t exist. If you want to text someone who doesn’t have hike, you may still use the app. Hike allows you to send a set number of messages as SMSes every month. Replies figure in the same chat window too! This is not just useful with people who don’t have hike, but also for people who have the app but are offline at the moment. Have something important to tell them right away? Your SMS can do it for you.
Another feature that stands out with Hike is the file sharing capability. If you’re within 100 meters of your friend, you can share all sorts of files between devices without having to employ the internet. It’s nothing short of pioneering!
Facebook Messenger
We must conclude the list with Facebook Messenger, which conquers all limitations that other apps are contained by. Your friend doesn’t have a phone? They can chat with you over the same app over PC. Unsure if all your friends will be available on it? You need not even sign up! You’re connected through your Facebook accounts.
Everyone has those! Facebook messenger also has secret chats that help protect private messages from unscrupulous elements. The status feature saves you from having to text pictures or share videos with everyone individually. You can merely upload it there and have people see it anytime they’re free in the next 24 hours. It won’t clog others’ phones either since the content auto-destructs after a day has passed. You won’t be lured by your notifications either, if you access the app through its totally official, separate website.
Most apps are still struggling with bots, another technology kik pioneered in the market with. But with most other features in mind, there are quite a few apps that can help you keep in touch with friends and family with a comparable degree of ease. Tell us the ones you love the most.