Sending and receiving messages of Kik is one of the most fun ways to catch up with friends, old and new. It is also an amazing way to meet exciting new people. If you are using the Kik Messenger right (which means both often and to chat with different people), you should always have lots of fresh new messages vying from your attention every time you launch the app on your smart mobile device.
While this is all awesome there is a small issue attached to a successful Kik Messenger. And that is none other that having, in fact, too many messages to attend to.
And, while we cannot tell you how to deal with the issue of replying to too many messages or really give you any tips about this, we can give you some guidance on how to deal with the messages that you receive.
In this article we will talk generally about how to deal with the messages you receive and, more specifically, how to delete messages. This last point is a little bit more complex than it may at first appear. Because not only will be explaining how you would need to do in order to get around deleting them but also the things you would need to consider before making the decision to delete them.
Kik Messages
Before we move on to the ins and outs of deleting Kik messages it might be a good idea to cover some of the basics.
First of all, by Kik message we mean any instant message that you send or receive using the Kik Messenger app. This is not necessarily reduced to text messages. If you have been using the Kik Messenger app for some time you will most probably know that you can send different kinds of messages and not only text messages. So if you send (or receive) a picture, a GiF, a sticker, a video file, etc. you would be, in fact, receiving a Kik message. What this means for us is that all the tips and advice that we will give you in this article applies to those kinds of non-text based messages as much as they do to instant text messages.
Then, there is the issue of who can send and receive messages on Kik. Well, as you also probably know you Kik users can chat to one another on an individual basis as much as a part of a group (or, for that matter, many different groups simultaneously). Every message that you see on your chat lists, whether sent to you individually or sent to a group (addressed or you or not for that is quite irrelevant) counts as a Kik message you receive. This is relevant for reasons you will find out if you continue reading this article.
Kik Chats
The next concept that you need to be familiar with is that of “Kik chat”. Mostly it is important that you understand the difference between a Kik chat and a Kik message for, even though they may sound quite similar, they are, in fact totally different concepts. We have already been through what Kik messages are so, as long as that is already clear, we should be able to move on and explain what Kik chats are.
Kik messages are always sent and received in the contexts of Kik chats. So if you receive a message for someone you have never chatted with before that counts as a chat even if you then choose not to reply. In that case, we would be talking about a one-message chat. One message chats tend to be by far the exception. When they do happen, the recipient tends to delete them (or on how to do that earlier). In most cases a Kik chat is made up of several different Kik messages. In the case of group chats none of those messages may need to be from you if you decided to not contribute to that chat or missed out on the “party” altogether (sometimes Kik group chats may be active while you are no checking the Kik Messenger app and you may very easily missed out of all the fun).
Kik chats can then include just two people or several of them but, in the case, of a group chat no matter how many Kik Messenger users are included or many of them are actively participating in the chat, it would still count as one chat for all intents and purposes.
If you are then wondering what a Kik conversation is and whether this is yet another concept you would need to become acquainted with, do not worry. You can breathe easy because Kik chats are Kik conversations are one and the same thing. Just to keep in line with Kik Messenger official terminology and for the sake of consistency, we have decided to refer to Kik conversations as Kik chats in this article. You may have read both terms used interchangeably in other articles, even in this site but they are just synonymous.
Do Kik Messages Get Deleted Automatically?
“More than once, I’ve wished my real life had a delete key.”- Harlan Coben
Unless you chat to an insanely large amount of people (and we do really mean an insanely number), you will probably never need to delete any Kik messages.
The reason for this is that the Kik Messenger app, in all its different versions, deletes messages automatically.
The number of messages that the Kik Messenger app deletes automatically solely depends on the device model you use. Another factor would be how old the messages you keep are, as long as you are using an up-to-date version of the Kik Messenger app
If you use an iOS (Apple’s mobile operating system) device such as an iPhone (of any model) or an iPod Touch, then your device will hold up to 1,000 different Kik messages that you have sent or received in the previous 48 hours. If you have chats that are older than that, then your device will hold up to 500 of those. This means that depending of how old your messages are and how many you have both sent and receive you would be able to see a different amount of them.
If, however, you use an Android device then your device will only hold up to 600 different Kik messages that you have sent or received in the previous 48 hours. If you have chats that are older than that, then your device will hold up to only 200 of those messages. This means, again, that the number of messages that you will be able to see will be determined by how many messages you have sent and received and how long ago that happened.
If you are not using the latest version of the Kik Messenger app or you have one of the following devices the situation would be quite different, and you would only be able the latest 100 messages no matter how new they would be:
- Windows Phone.
- Blackberry.
- Symbian.
Can You Erase Kik Messages Manually?
Even though your device will delete messages automatically, you may still wonder if you would be able to delete individual messages yourself. This is where the key distinction between Kik messages and Kik chats comes in handy for us.
There is no way of deleting individual messages manually but you can delete Kik chats easily. Because your device will automatically delete Kik messages itself, this should not be much of a problem. Remember also that you can delete single message-chats, which means that, at least in that case, you would be deleting a message manually yourself.
If you would like to delete a Kik chat, you will just need to follow these simple steps:
- Grab your smart phone.
- Launch the Kik Messenger app.
- Head over to your main chats list.
- Find the chat that you would like to delete.
- If you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch, then just swipe. If you have an Android or a Windows Phone, tap on the conversation and hold down until you get the “delete conversation” button and tap on it. If you are using a BlackBerry device, click on the “delete” button on your keyboard, choose “delete conversation”, and tap on “yes”.
This is the only way in which you would be able to delete whole conversations / chats on Kik Messenger. However, even though you can delete both the messages that you have sent or received it is important that you should know that you would just be deleting those messages from your device. If the person (or persons) you have been chatting with decide to save the messages in their devices, there is unfortunately nothing you can do about this. The only thing you may want to do is consider who you are talking to at all times and do not say things (or send pictures / video) that you might regret having sent later.
Another thing to consider, this time, actually before you decide to delete Kik chats and the messages they contain is whether they may be anything in those messages that you would like to keep: for example some important or relevant information that you may need later. If that would be the case, then you should take a note of that or take a screenshot of the message in question so you can retrieve that information later when you need it.
If you have any feedback or any advice on how to delete messages on the Kik Messenger app, please leave us a message in the comments section below.