There are so many things to discover on the Kik Messenger app. So many features, new and improved, to discover in 2017! There can be no doubt whatsoever that the Kik Messenger app is and continues to be one of the best and, consequently, one of the most popular instant messaging apps available. One of the best things about Kik Messenger is how useful it can be for its users’ social lives. And yet, the many social features available on Kik Messenger are often ignored or, at least not made the most of, by users. We could highlight many of these social features but today we will just focus on one of them: Kik Party. Why? Because of recent developments made by Kik Interactive, Kik Party just got a whole lot better in 2017.
What Is Kik Party?
“I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade… And try to find somebody whose life has given them vodka, and have a party.”- Ron White
If we really wanted to simplify we could say that Kik Party is just another way of saying Kik group chat or Kik group conversation. But then we would not be making any justice to Kik Party or giving you’re a good idea of the myriad of possibilities that Kik Party could offer you.
It is true that at its most basic a Kik Party is a Kik group chat. As most people who use the Kik Messenger app already know, the instant messaging platform gives its users the possibility of chatting to one another on an individual one to one basis but users also have the chance to chatting to several users at the same time if they so choose. Kik group chat is very easy to use as all that is needed is for participants to join in. Creating a group chat on the Kik Messenger app is no more difficult than creating an individual conversation. The only technical difference is that, instead of adding just one other Kik user to the conversation, you can add several ones. In fact, even if you are not the user who originally created the group chat, you can still add people to it.
But what makes group chats so easy to use is that any user can add other users. There is no need for sending out requests or anything like that. Just like a one-to-one chat, group chats do not need to be accepted. This is in partly because, also like individual chats, if any of the participants does not feel comfortable or does not wish to take part on the conversation of chat, they can just remove themselves from it.
So if Kik Party is not exactly a group chat, then what the heck is it? Well, let’s say a Kik Party is a group chat with a purpose. The ultimate goal is, of course, for all participants to have fun but the secret behind the Kik Party is to always have a reason behind it.
Users can start their own parties, be invited, or invite themselves to Kik parties. In this article, we will explore all those three options in detail. So, by the end of this article, you should be able to create your own Kik party, get invited to them, or know how to invite yourself.
What Do I Need for Kik Party?
Before we go into creating or joining Kik parties there are a few basic things that you should cover. If you already have the Kik Messenger app in your smart phone, have already signed up to it, and consider yourself to be quite adept at using it, then you may consider skipping over this section and move on to the next one. What follows in this section will cover some basics that you may already be familiar with. If, however, you are fairly new to Kik Messenger or may not have even used it yet, then read on.
It may seem like a really obvious thing to say but the first thing you need in order to use Kik Party will be to download an install the Kik Messenger app on your smart phone. Unfortunately, there is no official way of accessing the Kik Messenger app online from a computer although there are some ways of getting around this.
Downloading and installing the Kik Messenger app in your smart phone is not only extremely easy but also, most importantly, totally free. All you need to do is head over to the appropriate app store depending on the brand of smart phone you use. So, if you use an iPhone (or also an iPod) you will need to go to the Apple app store and search for “Kik Messenger”. If you use an Android smart phone or the Windows phone, then head over to either the Google Play app Store or the Windows store, as the case may be, and also search for “Kik Messenger”.
Once you have downloaded and installed the Kik Messenger app all you will need to sign up, which is a really straightforward process that we have described in a lot of detail for you here.
The next thing you will need to do is to find friends to chat to on Kik Messenger. There are several options for you depending on what you want. You could, for example, enable the “address book matching” feature if you were interested in synching your smart phone and the Kik Messenger app. Doing this, will allow you to chat with any of your contacts on the instant messaging app as long as a) they use Kik Messenger themselves, and b) they have also enabled the “address book matching” feature themselves. If you are interested in doing this, then head over to your settings.
Some users, however, prefer to chat to complete strangers; that is, meet new people online and, perhaps, make new friends. Of course, there is no reason why you could just do both: talk to your existing friends and meet new people. If you are interested in chatting to new people, you can then try different options but the most relevant for the purposes of a Kik party would be to use social media.
Kik Party and Social Media
So, once you have the Kik Messenger app installed in your smart phone and you have familiarized yourself with how to use it, you should learn how to make the most of social media in conjunction with Kik.
The best and most effective way of getting invited to a Kik party (or inviting others to join in) is by heading over to your favorite social media outlet and either searching for a Kik Party or advertising yours.
The best social networks for this are:
The best way to find or advertise a Kik party on those social media outlets is by using the hash tag #kikparty
If you issue an invitation to a Kik Party you have organized, you could either also post the Kik code of the party so that others can join in easily or, if you prefer, you can ask anybody who is interested to provide their personal Kik code or their full user name. This second option would allow you to screen who joins and who does not, so you can be a little bit more in control.
Kik Party Themes
As you can see either organizing a Kik party or joining one could not be easy. Of course, we have not spoken yet of what makes a Kik group chat into a party in detail.
The trick of a successful Kik party is to have a good theme. If your party does not have a theme, I have got news for you” it is not really a party, then. The theme could be anything at all but it has to be something very specific. What that is would be up to you: it could really be anything from the latest episode of a popular television show, to a football game, to the latest book on a hit series,… Just make it about something really specific.
If you are the party organizer it will up to you to keep the party going and the conversation flowing. Another important element in all this is knowing when the Kik party has come to an end. If you leave the group chat open for too long, people will eventually forget the party theme and probably leave the group.
As a party host you will need to come up with a name for your Kik party. This is also another reason why you need a specific theme as your name will have to reflect this.
Kik Party features
There are many ways to keep a Kik party going in 2017. Use the best features the Kik Messenger app has to offer: such as Kik bots (make sure that they are always relevant to the party theme); sharing video or audio files; or using the newly released video chat feature. So many ways to make the most of Kik party!
The most important things are to pick a great theme, gather a group of friends who share the same interests, and make the most of what the Kik Messenger app has to offer.
If you have any feedback about this article or would like to share your experience hosting or participating in a Kik party, please leave us a message in the comments section below.