Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be used in violation of your Kik Messenger terms of service. Please consult Kik Messenger’s terms of service for more information.
When you don’t have the right device to run your favorite programs and applications natively, you have one direction to turn–an emulator. Android apps, in particular, can run perfectly on any PC or Mac with the best emulator software, and it’s this method that Kik Messenger users have been turning to frequently.
While the popular chat application boasts millions of users thanks to its unique set of features, it only runs natively on Android OS, Apple’s iOS, and Windows Phone. This is hardly a limitation when everyone has a smartphone in their pocket, but users without might otherwise be left out of this popular chat network.
An emulator fixes this problem in a cinch, and the best emulators do it exceptionally well. This type of software does more than just allow you to run your favorite programs on a different platform.
Before examining some of the best emulators available, it’s important to know how they work. Rather than converting an actual program to run on a different platform, an emulator allocates part of a device’s memory in order to “pretend” that it’s actually a different program environment altogether.
For Kik Messenger, you’re going to want an emulator that can recreate the Android OS environment. Doing so, you’ll be able to run the actual Kik Messenger application on your desktop or laptop computer. It’s not a knock-off, replication, or third-party workaround–you’ll be running the actual Kik Messenger app on an actual Android operating system.
If you already have a profile on Kik Messenger, you’ll be able to log in with it, accessing all of your favorite content and, more importantly, your contact list. Since your web browsing and chat history are kept localize to the device that they took place on, you won’t be able to transfer either of these things between platforms. However, the ability to use Kik Messenger on your computer as well as your mobile device is more than a worthwhile tradeoff.
We’ll be examining several of the top-end Android emulators available, focusing upon the same qualities in each:
- Availability
- Price/Cost
- Updates
- Compatibility
For the sake of providing you with the best possible options, I’ll be examining emulators for PC and Mac, many of which have versions for each operating system. Cross-platform compatibility is the whole reason for this topic, so I’m interested only in the most diverse applications.
By 2020, most home computers will have the computing power of a human brain. That doesn’t mean that they are brains, but it means that in terms of raw processing, they can process bits as fast as a brain can. So the question is, how far behind that is the development of a machine that’s as smart as we are?- Seth Shostak
Bluestacks
Honorary first mention has to go to Bluestacks, an excellent Android emulator that’s free to download and carries an optional “premium” fee that will eliminate advertising. As you’ll see, Bluestacks maintains such a professional image on the web that the app has many times been mistaken as an official Windows app. It can easily be downloaded from the company’s website.
Bluestacks is primarily marketed as an emulator for Android games, but once you’ve installed it, hundred of thousands of other app options are available as well. Kik Messenger runs fantastically from the Bluestacks client and carries with it a certain level of design and value that gives the app a premium feel. It also updates frequently, meaning that you’ll never be left with a non-functioning emulator.
If you find advertising and ad software to be intrusive and annoying, however, you may be required to opt for the inexpensive subscription that will remove the third-party presence from your Android experience. For this reason, you may want to check out the other Android emulators featured here if you’re looking for free software that’s less intrusive with its advertising banners.
- Availability: Easy! Download it right here, and start using it right away.
- Price: Free with ad-support. Subscription is required to remove ads.
- Updates: Continual. Bluestacks is professionally developed.
- Compatibility: PC and Mac support. Hundreds of thousands of apps.
Andyroid
Far from being a simple “runner-up,” Andyroid is a great piece of software in and of itself. This Android emulator has been around for quite a while as well, and while it doesn’t carry all of the professional polish that surrounds Bluestacks, it is very much a fully functioning Android OS emulator, capable of running thousands of applications.
Since 2012, the developers behind Andyroid have been keeping up to date with the evolutions and changes in the Android operating system, as well as Google’s app marketplace. The best feature of all? This emulator is free, and will give you access to every tool in the software apart from the development suite (this carries a fee and requires an Enterprise license.)
Like Bluestacks, Andyroid will give you access to a massive wealth of applications; more than any one user would ever know what to do with. If you’re looking for an Android emulator to get the job done and don’t mind a little lacking polish when compared to its lead competitor, Andyroid is a fantastic (and free!) choice.
- Availability: Simple download from the Andyroid website.
- Price: Free! Developers tools are the only feature that requires payment.
- Updates: Continual. Andyroid has been updated since 2012.
- Compatibility: PC and Mac support. Hundreds of thousands of apps.
AMIDuOS
There’s a lot to compare between AMIDuOS and Bluestacks. Both of these Android emulators look and run fantastically. If you’re looking for an emulator to host your Kik Messenger experience on PC, AMIDuOS will handily get the job done and then much more on top of that. The appealing draw of AMIDuOS is the versatility you’re presented with as soon as you land on the company’s web page.
You’re given two Android OS options to download and install–Android 2.0 (Lollipop) and Android 1.1 (Jelly Bean). Why the disparity in operating systems? Because among the Android connoisseurs, certain versions of certain apps that existed in now-updated versions of the operating system are preferable to the newer versions. It’s a deep trend to dig into, but it suffices to say that AMIDuOS has found this to be a marketable approach!
While each Android OS is free to install and try for up to 30 days, further use will require a one-time payment. While Bluestacks requires an inexpensive, recurring subscription in order to have access to its premium ad-free experience, AMIDuOS charges for its software more traditionally. Lollipop will cost you $15 while Jelly Bean will only cost you $10. After this one-time payment, there’s no recurring fee for continued use of the software.
- Availability: Simple download from the AMIDuOS website.
- Price: Both versions are free for 30 days. After that, Lollipop and Jelly Bean cost $15/$10 respectively.
- Updates: Continual, but it is a static version of the Android OS.
- Compatibility: PC support, only. Slightly limited app availability due to Android OS versions.
Droid4X
I haven’t been quite a smitten with Droid4X as I have been with the previous three entries in this list, but updates and continue development on this emulator have helped to make it a stronger contender in the Android emulation market. Like Bluestacks, it will definitely handle Kik Messenger (as well as thousands of other productivity and social apps) without breaking a sweat.
Chief among its features (though others have integrated this as well, now) is the ability to use your phone to control apps that Droid4X is running. This isn’t particularly necessary or even useful for Kik Messenger, but if you’d like to use your phone as a Bluetooth controller for other Android apps that you might end up running, Droid4X integrates this very well.
Droid4X also lacks some of the polish that makes the other three emulators shine, but in spite of this, it remains a favorite of many users in need of a PC or Mac Android OS.
- Availability: Simple download from the Droid4X website.
- Price: Free! The company has developed other apps that carry a cost, but PC and Mac emulation is free.
- Updates: Continual. Droid4X has improved a great deal since its inception.
- Compatibility: PC and Mac support. Hundreds of thousands of apps, as well as Bluetooth that allows you to use your phone as a controller.
Wrap Up
This is only a sampling of the Android emulations software available online, but by my experience and research, these are the cream of the crop. You’ll be hard pressed to find emulation software that offers a more intuitive, straightforward Android OS experience, which is exactly what you want when you’re using it to host a chat application.
Kik Messenger will work perfectly in any of the above apps, and will effectively allow you to bridge your mobile messaging experience to your desktop or laptop, regardless of whether you use a Mac or Windows PC. As mentioned before, you won’t be able to port your chat and browsing history between your computer and mobile device, but the access to your various contacts is what matters most. That feature, the most important feature of Kik Messenger, is absolutely intact.
What’s better? You don’t need a particularly strong computer to do it! Getting Kik on your desktop or laptop requires very little of your computer’s hardware, which makes this process a viable option for any that want to do it. The only consideration left is finding the best Android emulator to host your Kik experience.