We live in a fast-paced world where it is sometimes hard to connect to other people, let alone make true friends. Perhaps, this is why so many people turn to the online world to find friends and sometimes even more. There are many sites and apps geared toward getting you dates but very few specifically designed for those of use just interested in making new friends. And while it is true that the Kik Messenger app is a great way of staying in touch with your friends, many people have a great time meeting new people and making new friends on this instant messaging app.
If you are interested in using the Kik Messenger app to potentially make new friends, you have come to the right place. In this article we will be giving you some advice on how best to go around making new friends on Kik Messenger. We will also give you the necessary warnings about using the app for this purpose. We will not deny that there is certain amount of risk about talking to strangers online, whether using the Kik Messenger app or any other instant messaging app or site.
However, if you are aware of the risks and act responsibly, there is no reason why using the Kik Messenger app to make friends could not be a useful and enjoyable activity. Just approach it as a pastime and ensure you do not compromise your privacy, you could be chatting with new friends soon.
Meeting New People On Kik Messenger
“I love meeting new people; I think everyone has a story to tell. We should all listen sometimes.”- Kim Smith
The first thing you will have to do in order to make new friends of the Kik Messenger app is to meet people with potential first. The good news is that Kik Messenger has millions of users not only in the United States but also around the world. Many of those people would be not only willing to talk to people they have never met but also, very likely, open to making new friends too.
If you have been using the Kik Messenger app for some time you will sure now by now that all you need in order to chat to somebody else is their user name or their Kik code.
As long as your contacts on the smart phone you use for Kik Messenger and you have the address book match turned on, you will always be able to add people you know to your chat lists. The problem is when you do not have that many contacts that use the Kik Messenger app (or, perhaps, they do but just happen not to use the address book match).
Some people love to chat to their existing friends on Kik Messenger. As we said earlier in the article, chatting to people you know from real life is the safest way to use the instant messaging app. This does not mean chatting to strangers is necessarily unsafe. Later on, we will go into this area in more detail and tell you what you will need to be aware of before going ahead and chatting to new people on Kik. But before we do that, let’s talk about how you can chat to new people.
There are several ways of meeting new people on Kik Messenger. What follows is a list of the main ways of going about this with their pros and cons:
- Random meets: you can find people on the Kik Messenger app randomly by just search for user names. Start typing what you think is a user name and soon you should be presented with a list of users you can chat with. Even if you start typing your own user name or the user name of one of your friends, you should get lots of new user names of people you could chat with.
- Group meets: if one of your friends has added you to a Kik group, think twice before you remove yourself from it. There is a chance that your friend has also added other people you do not yet know. Group chats are a great way of meeting new people on Kik Messenger. If you hit it off with someone or would like to chat with anybody on a Kik group or a more intimate one to one basis, you will always be able to just add him or her individually on your chat lists.
- Friends of friends: apart from Kik groups, you can also make new friends by asking your existing friends to introduce you (or pass on) new user names. Just be careful how you handle this as some people might not like being approached that one. Generally, though, most people who use Kik are open to chatting with new random people.
- Social media: although the Kik Messenger app offers you everything you will ever need to chat with existing friends and new people alike, social media sites or apps can be great compliment to it. Not all social media is adequate for this purpose, though. The best sites or apps to meet new people on Kik are most probably Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. You can put you Kik Messenger user name on your profile information so everyone can see it and add you if they think they might like to chat to you. You can also give a shout out to people using Kik on social media and invite them to chat to you. If you decide to do that, just remember to use hash tags that will attract the kinds of people that you would like to make friends with. If all this sounds a little to passive for you and you would like to be more proactive in looking for new friends on social media, you can always take a different role. If that is the case, take on social media and search for people’s Kik user names checking their profiles or searching for tweets or posts that include Kik hash tags. You can also go as far as ask people on social media directly if they use Kik or encourage them to join in. Remember also that some people now share their Kik codes on social media. Kik codes are more convenient than user names because all you need to do in order to add users to your chat lists is to scan their codes. So, watch out for codes on social media and consider sharing yours some people can add you.
Watch Out
Okay, so now that we have gone through how you would go about meeting new people on the Kik Messenger app, it is a great time to talk about risks and things that you should watch out for in order to avoid running into trouble.
Chatting to strangers on Kik Messenger should not be necessarily risky. First of all, the Kik Messenger app goes to great lengths to protect its users’ privacy. For example, by never revealing your personal information to anybody or making it public. Consider that other instant messaging apps asks users to provide their telephone numbers and make this not only public but a requirement when you want to chat to other people on the app. This is not the case at all with the Kik Messenger app. Also, you are not asked to use your real name but a user name and a display name that are completely of your own choice as you come up with them yourself. All of those measures to protect your privacy could be ruined in a second if you start giving strangers information about yourself.
When you are talking to strangers you should avoid giving them personal information about you or those close to you, such as full names, addresses, telephone numbers, name of school or place of work, etc.
Unfortunately, that is not always enough. If you are being pressured to reveal more information about yourself that you are comfortable with or you do not like the way a chat is going, you should put an end to it. It is really up to you how you go about doing that but, ultimately, you have the power to block anybody who is bothering you.
If you suspect that you are being targeted by a spam bot (the telltale signs are unnatural-sounding English, and links that would take you out of the Kik Messenger app), you should report them to Kik. Undertaking that action will result in them user being blocked automatically. The benefit of reporting is that you will be giving Kik Messenger the opportunity to investigate and you will be, therefore, stopping the spam bot from targeting other users.
The Kik Messenger app can be truly amazing but it is really up to each and every one of its users to keep it as a safe and fun place. What some people deemed acceptable or fun may be offensive or inappropriate for other people. The main thing is to always show respect and do not do anything that would make whoever you are chatting to uncomfortable. On the flipside, there is no reason why you should put up with anything that makes you unconformable. Knowing how to make new friends and how to deal with any possible problems would surely help so we hope you have found this article useful.
If you have any tips on how to make friends on Kik Messenger, please leave a message in the comment section below.