So your crush just messaged you out of nowhere with smiley faces, cat faces and you can’t message her back because you got a message saying that the Kik app is down right now? Well, don’t be quick to panic and forget about that beautiful redhead for a while (it’ll be hard but you can do it, I believe in you) and read on, because we’re about to explain to you the most common things that happen to every instant messaging company.
So, you must know that every app has it’s problem, from small bugs that don’t really cause any damage to the significantly large problems that annoy you to death and make you want to smash your phone against the wall. From companies like Apple to a small dev working in his mom’s basement. So, naturally, Kik isn’t perfect.
In this article we will teach how to detect if the Kik network is down and not running properly or if it is a bug or an error within the app itself.
How do IM’s like Kik Work?
Kik is an Instant Messaging Service, which means that you have a copy of a free software client and once this copy is installed and opened it will try to establish connection to the server by using propriety protocols. Once you’ve been connected to the server it will identify your username and password and try to verify you, the client then sends connection information to the server, this information is the IP address and the port they have assigned for your client. It also compiles and sends the user some information, like his contacts list, his block, his bots and all those sort of stuff. This contact list is inside a temporary file and it immediately checks if there are anymore users inside this file (your contact list and connection information) so that you know they are connected as well.
If the server finds a colleague online it will then send a message back to the client and that’s how you see if anyone is connected. After this the server doesn’t have much more play in the scene, because you already have the IP address of the person you’re messaging, your client will only connect with his client and so on and so forth, until of course, the client is then closed again and you appear as offline for the moment. Yes, that whole hassle just get to see your contacts online and start chatting with them at the tap of a finger, it’s even more impressive considering that all this process is offered to you completely free of charge. Neato.
Now that we have that out of our way we can explain what is a server and how does this go down. Servers are what store all of our information and we depend on them now more than any other time on history, they are essential for everything we do in our lives, including money, communication and entertainment. When these giant buckets of entertainment are down, that means that there was a malfunction, so be it a virus, hacking attempt or technical issues that may have caused this malfunction. When this happens Kik employees try to identify the problem and put some sort of warning or miscellaneous message to their customers so that we need that either it’s going to be ok or it’s all going to hell and we can’t run away from our mistakes. Whatever the problem is, once it’s resolved they must undergo maintenance or delete the problem all together. If it’s solved then they probably celebrate and get extremely intoxicated in their office and throw a huge party. Probably.
Bugs and Software Issues
Software is a great combination between artistry and engineering.- Bill Gates
Bugs are a whole different thing and they originate within the app, the Operating System, or a technical malfunction within your phone itself. Bugs are flaws within the software program that causes an error in the final result (we can argue that it’s basically computer cancer, think about it). So let’s say that you’re using your computer to play a video game and it’s all going pretty nifty, until you realize that you can’t progress in the level and you have no idea why.
You go online and check that the way you performed an action made the program load in a different way than it normally should. So you could be stuck in that same spot forever or until you make the program load again and clear the errors by default. The most common problems in Kik are:
- Android recently updated and the Kik app didn’t quite add up to the update.
- The Kik app updated and your Operating system has problems with it now.
- The servers were down.
- Another app in your phone is messing with the interaction the Kik app.
- Another app is messing with the internet connection on your phone.
If you have any of these problems we encourage you to try and contact customer service to get your problem fixed as soon as possible, alternatively there are a lot of forums you can visit that help you with specialized attention by people who know what they’re talking about. Here are also some pages that tell you whether or not the servers in Kik are down:
- https://outage.report/kik
- http://downdetector.com/status/kik
- http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/kik.com.html
These pages compile information about the things currently happening to the Kik messaging service and their clients. Sometimes they do disagree with what they’re saying with each other and that’s why you should check with each of the pages and confirm for yourself what is exactly going on with your app.
How to fix these Bugs
If there some things that still plague you phone try the following options:
- Reset your Kik: It might hurt to lose you chat history, but this is could be the most effective way to treat a faulty app.
- Update your phone. Sometimes the version of the app doesn’t go through with your version of the Operating System on your phone and this may be the cause it’s failing. So make sure your phone is up to date and then check again.
- Update your Kik app. It could be that your phone is up to date and not the app, in this case try to check if you’re running the latest version for optimal performance and compatibility.
- Reboot your phone. Restart your phone, this may help in the cases where your phone is a bit laggy, running low on memory and maybe it refuses to run the app correctly because all it’s memory is hogged up.
- Force close the app. In Android, iOS or Windows Phone just open up the task manager and kill the app, this process makes the program restart again and it may fix your problems.
- Installing third party apps. ALWAYS install apps from the official Google Play, iTunes and Windows Marketplace to ensure that the program you’ve installed is completely free of viruses and your phone is protected. Although some third party apps can trick your phone into thinking it’s doing some things instead of another and may provide a fix for your phone it’s always important to make sure that the same app doesn’t cause any trouble to anything else you don’t want trouble on.
- Re-install the App. It could be (although highly unlikely) that the installation process didn’t go through correctly and that the problem resides there. So go back to wherever Official store you downloaded the kik app and try to install it again.
If you’ve tried everything, if you’ve prayed to a thousand and one stars, you restarted your phone, you made a circle out of salt in your room, you contacted every existing forum about Kik in the universe and still can’t find how to fix your problem then maybe the servers are gone and there’s really nothing you can do about it exact have patience, the Kik staff will try their best to solve whatever problem they’re having in their offices so you just have to sit there and look pretty.
To Wrap it all Up!
If you’ve tried all these things and still think that it’s a unique problem that’s happening to you and that you know for a fact that servers aren’t down, then you should most definitely get in contact with customer support and get your things sorted out as fast as possible.
So let’s quickly revise the steps that you must go through before assuming that you’re completely done (or you know, you could’ve just scrolled down here all the way since you opened this link):
- Identify whether your problem is because of the server or is it local? (Between your phone and the app)
- If you think it’s because the servers are down, then a quick Google search will suffice; if not keep scrolling.
- Restart your phone, the app and all those steps mentioned above
- If nothing worked then contact someone who can really help you, a professional.
- Rejoice now that your app is back online and working at One hundred and One percent
Leave a comment below if you believe Kik is down or if you’re having trouble accessing Kik Messenger.
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