Kik Messenger is a popular messaging app that allows users to send instant messages, photos, videos, and other media over a mobile device. Millions of people around the world use Kik to stay in touch with their loved ones or meet new people. The app comes with cool features like emojis, stickers, and games, making messaging more fun and interactive. It also requires a WiFi connection to function, ensuring users can send messages even without mobile data.
Kik Messenger users have the best social chat app ever on their smartphones. There are times, though, when we want to chat with our Kik friends from the comfort of our home PC without BlueStacks. Maybe we don’t use a smartphone but want to keep in touch with friends on Kik Messenger in all those cool group chats they have.
When we ask our friends who use Kik on their home PCs how they do it, the solution often involves an emulator app called BlueStacks, but is that really the best way to get Kik Messenger on our home computer? Is there a better way to use Kik for PC without BlueStacks?
Who Uses Kik Messenger?
As a part of the Kik Messenger network, you belong to a social framework with users from all walks of life. Maybe you do not realize just how many people are relying on Kik Messenger for their social chats every day, just like you do. Here are some recent data on Kik Messenger and those who use it:
- Kik Messenger has been downloaded more than 275 million times.
- On an average day, Kik Messenger adds about 250,000 new users.
- 70% of Kik Messenger users are under 25 years old.
- 40% of American teens interact with Kik Messenger.
- About half of all people on Kik Messenger engage with others on the app every day.
- Users spend an average of 35 minutes each day on Kik Messenger.
A Forward-Thinking App
The developers behind Kik Messenger are forward-thinking in all phases of the concepts behind the app. They believe that computing will only become increasingly mobile, and that its immediate future lies in the smartphone. It appears they are correct, too, for as stated above, the majority of people using Kik Messenger are 25 years old or younger and more than 40% of teens using Kik make it their primary texting app or messaging application. These are the people that will build the future, and they are using Kik in large numbers.
Since it is the smartphone that these developers believe is the future of computing, they make Kik Messenger available for mobile platforms only. Kik makes a version of the instant messaging app for almost every mobile device, including Windows and Blackberry, with the most popular being Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, but there is no version of Kik Messenger that can be installed directly on your Windows PC like other programs are.
This is not a problem when you have a smartphone in your hand, but what about the times when you don’t? Maybe you don’t want a smartphone but would really like to chat with people you know are using Kik Messenger. A friend might have e-mailed you an invitation to a Kik group chat or a Kik Party, or sent you a link to download the app with the call out, “kik me!” You’re wondering if there is any way to do this from your PC.
Getting Kik Messenger on PC
Yes, there is, but since the Kik Messenger app does not have a version for Windows PC, you have to find a way to make your PC look like an Android Device so the app will download and install to it. Fortunately, there is an app for that. It’s called an Android Emulator.
Emulators or emulation in computing are nothing new. They are software programs (apps) that let the host environment, in this case Windows OS, imitate another environment. In the case of using Kik Messenger on our PCs, we want Windows to imitate or mirror Android OS.
Installing an Android Emulator Software makes that happen. You simply download the program file, open and install it to your PC, and then go to either Google Play Store or Amazon to get or download Kik Messenger app. Open the emulator, find the Kik Messenger app there, and you are getting your kiks without a smartphone in the familiar comfort of that great big screen, keyboard, and mouse.
Finding an Android Emulator
“Android is one of the most open systems I’ve ever seen. What makes Android great is it’s literally designed from the ground up to be customised in a very powerful way.”- Sundar Pachai
There are several good Android Emulators available online. When you ask most people about using an Android app like Kik Messenger on your home computer, or about an Android Emulator in general, the first name to come off their lips is BlueStacks. That’s because BlueStacks has been around the longest and is the best known. For a long time, BlueStacks led the pack in performance, so most people using an emulator gravitated toward using it.
Today, a lot of people are turning to newer Android emulators because they offer better graphics and other features, like being able to use your Android phone as a remote when playing games via the emulator. Also, people are turning away from BlueStacks because the newer emulators are available without strings or cost. BlueStacks requires users to either download other apps they are promoting or pay a $2 monthly subscription fee.
One newer Android Emulator is standing out from the rest in most head-to-head reviews against BlueStacks. That emulator is Andy, also known as Andy the Android Emulator, or Andyroid. The Andy app is available for download totally free at the web site, www.andyroid.net.
Andy vs. BlueStacks
In a direct comparison, Andy was found superior to BlueStacks in three out of four areas. The one area where Andy Emulator was found to be deficient in any way is that sometimes the app doesn’t open once you’ve installed it. That sounds like a big problem, I know – you can’t use an app that doesn’t open – but Andy’s support team wins kudos for getting these users up and running in practically no time.
After that one-time hurdle is cleared, Andyroid performed better. BlueStacks Android Emulator appeared to be geared to doing well on its chosen collection of Android games. Andyroid excels in those games, in other Android games, and in non-game Android apps, like Kik Messenger. Since Andyroid can do games as well or better than BlueStacks, and BlueStacks does not handle non-game apps as well as Andyroid, it is clear that Andyroid will give us the best experience for Kik Messenger on our PCs.
Kik Messenger Features
Now that you know how to get Kik Messenger downloaded and working on your Windows PC, you have a bigger screen to test drive all of the awesome features of the app. Make sure that you do not miss any of these:
- In-app photo and video sharing – Like most text apps or instant messenger, Kik Messenger makes it easy to insert a photo or video file from your device gallery into a message. Kik also makes hit GIFs and viral videos available in the app for quick sending to a friend during chat. In addition to all of that sharing, Kik Messenger lets you take a picture or short video clip while in the middle of a chat you’re your friend and send it to them without leaving the app or even the chat.
- Group chats – Invite up to 49 of your closest friends to a Kik group chat. Make it a party with games, themes, and memes, or make it an ongoing chat for your club, to share an interest, or for your gaming clan or alliance. Make the group public to open it up to new friends looking for a group like yours.
- The Bot Shop – Kik Messenger launched its new Bot Shop in April 2016. You can chat with bots from favorite sites like Vine, Funny or Die, and Sephora. Hit up the Weather Channel bot for today’s forecast, or Inspiration Bot when you need a burst of love, confidence, faith, power, and more. Play a game of Guess the GIF, Wouldya, or Arterra. Chat up Tickers the Bot to challenge a friend to a friendly game of Tic Tac Toe. Chat bots are the latest and greatest addition to Kik Messenger that you’ve just got to try. And don’t miss the Kik Points bot to earn free Kik Points (KP) for your visit to the other shops.
- Sticker and Smiley Shops – Have you visited the Kik Messenger Sticker Shop or Smiley Shop? Add pizzazz to your messages with stickers, stamps, and emoji from exclusive collections. Buy them with Kik Points, the virtual currency of Kik Messenger. KP are free – just stop by to chat with the Kik Points Bot every day.
- Meme Generator – Did you know you can make fun memes in Kik Messenger to share with your friends? Choose a meme background from the app’s gallery, type your text, and send it to your friends in a message. You can also save your exclusive meme to share in email or on other social media, like Facebook or Instagram.
Summing Up
BlueStacks may be the first name that comes to mind when most people are asked to recommend an Android Emulator, but is it the best option for you? Probably not when the Android app you want to download on your PC is Kik Messenger. Andy the Android Emulator (Andyroid) has the edge when it comes to productivity apps like Kik, and if after having a splendid user experience kikking back and forth with friends on Andyroid you decide you want to try one of your favorite Android games, Andy scores best on those, too. There is definitely a way to use Kik for PC without BlueStacks, and it is probably a better way. Be sure to tell your friends using BlueStacks what you’ve learned here, share a link with them, and let us know in the comments here how well you like using Kik on your PC.