Using the Kik Messenger app is really straightforward. Users can join the app for free and start chatting to other users almost immediately after creating their own profiles. Most people find Kik Messenger tremendously easy to use. And, while it is true that, thankfully, the Kik Messenger app is straightforward to use, there are a few things that users would benefit from knowing. We are talking about some little things that would greatly enhance your experience of using the Kik Messenger app. One of those things is the meaning behind the message symbols.
You may or may not have noticed that there are letter symbols displaying next to every single message that you send or receive. If you are wondering what the exact meaning of those symbols is, you have come to the right place. Even if you think you do know what some or all of those symbols mean, we think you could benefit from reading this article as we will explain in a great deal of detail what each and every one of those symbols mean.
Knowing the meaning of those symbols could really enhance your experience of using the Kik Messenger app to chat to your friends or meet new people. The best way to make the most out of chatting on this great instant messaging app is to know all you can about it. We hope that this article will help you make the most out of Kik Messenger.
What Are Kik Message Symbols?
So, like we said on our introduction, every message that is sent out or received on Kik Messenger has a letter displaying next to it as a message status. These letters are what we refer to as Kik Message symbols. Each one of those letters has a very specific meaning. There are also other symbols or signs that are not letters. In this article we will go through each and every one of those symbols whether they are letters or not so that next time you use the instant messenger you will know exactly what they all mean.
Why is it important to know the meaning of Kik message symbols? The answer to that question will become rather obvious as you read on but, for now, let’s say that there are ways in which you can use those symbols to your advantage or, perhaps, just avoid some unnecessary misunderstandings with your Kik friends.
Kik Letter Symbols
Let’s start with the letter symbols, which are the ones that you will come across more often. The slightly confusing thing about letter symbols is that most Kik Messenger users seem to think that they know their meaning. So, even if you think you know exactly what those letter symbols mean, we would still recommend you continue reading this section. You might be surprised to find out what they actually mean.
There are only three letter symbols: “S”, “D”, and “R”.
The “S” symbols stands for “sent”. Now, this seems very straightforward indeed but let’s go into what it actually means. Whenever you see an “S” symbol in a Kik chat or chat conversation (a Kik chat or a Kik conversation are exactly the same thing), it means that your message has been successfully sent out to the person (or people, if this be a group chat) that you intended to send it to. The “S” effectively means that the Kik Messenger Internet server has sent the message. But that is all it means; it does not mean that the person (or people) you are chatting with would have seen it or even received it yet. If one of your messages remains with an “S” symbol next to it for quite some time, this could mean that the intended recipient does not have a Wi Fi connection at the moment, and cannot therefore receive your message.
Often soon after the “S” symbol is displayed, it is replaced by a “D” symbol. The “D” symbol, again straightforwardly enough, stands for “delivered”. What this message delivery status symbol means is that the message you had sent has now been delivered to the person’s (or people’s) smart phone or Kik compatible mobile device. Does this mean that they have read it? Again, the answer to this would be no. Just because a message is delivered it does not mean that the message recipient has read it, or even is in a position to read it. How so? Well, because the “D”, like the “S” symbol pretty much only proves that there has not been a technical problem with the servers or such like. There could be reasons why a message like “D” has not been read by the recipient.
One of those reasons could be that the recipient is away from his or her smart mobile device. Another reason could be that, for whatever reason, their device is turned off. Or, simply, he or she has not launched the Kik Messenger app recently. Until they have actually seen the message, the “D” symbol will remain in place. If the recipient is using an iOS device (either an iPhone or an iPod Touch) or a Windows Phone, there would also be two different versions of the “D” symbol. One version of the “D” symbol likes black, while the other version of the same symbol looks gray or slightly faded. The difference between the two resides has to do with push notifications.
If you see a faded “D” it means that the recipient has received the push notification from the Kik Messenger app but has not read it (the notification, not the message itself). If the “D” is solid black then it means that the recipient has read the notification (so effectively, they have read your message but not in the Kik Messenger app itself, but only in the notification). You will have to bear in mind that this only applies to iOS devices and the Windows Phone and not to Android smart phones or other devices.
Once the message has actually been seen by the recipient, the message delivery symbols or “D” symbol will turn into an “R” symbol. The “R” obviously stands for “read” and it means that your message has been opened and read by the recipient. If one of messages has an “R” symbol right next to it but it remains unanswered it can only mean one of two things: either the recipient has been too busy to reply to your message, or they are plain and simple choosing to ignore you.
“If you’re being ignored, that’s a good time to concentrate on finding yourself and creating your own mystery.”- Lykke Li
Other Kik Message Symbols
Letter symbols are the ones we get more questions about, simply because they are really common but there are other symbols which can perhaps be even more intriguing.
There are really only two Kik message symbols that are not letters: “!” and “…” It is important to know what those two symbols mean because they can look slightly alarming on your screen. Let’s just look at both of those symbols individually in order to dispel any worries that they may be.
- The “!” symbol is only displayed when there is a problem with a message that you are tying to send. The nature of the problem is almost always of a technical nature. One of the main reasons why you may see the “!” symbol displaying next to a message that you are trying to send out could be that there is a problem with you Internet connection. This could just be a temporary problem that would solve itself out after a brief moment. If the symbol does not go away, you should check your Internet connection to make sure that it is working. One quick way of checking this and fixing the problem at the same time would be to close down the Kik Messenger app and then launching it. If you would just check whether your Internet connection or not you may want to launch your Internet browser and attempt visiting any web site of your choice. These actions are more often that not enough to solve this problem and making the “!” symbol go away.
- The “…” symbol is not as serious as the previous one but it still indicates that there is something not quite working in the way it should. The “…” symbol should not be cause of alarm in itself because it merely means that the Kik Messenger app is attempting to connect to the Internet. As such, the “…” should be temporary and should be very quickly replaced by the “S” symbol that, as we discussed in the previous section of this article, means that the message has been sent. If the “…” symbol should display for quite a while you may want to check your Internet connection following the way we just went through when we were discussing the “!” symbol.
So, the Kik message symbols that you really need to know about are the letter ones: “S”, “D”, and “R”, and two non-letter ones: “!” and “…”. In our experience, knowing about these symbols both in terms of their meaning but also in terms of how to deal with them, only improves the experience of exchanging instant messages on Kik and managing users’ expectations. If you have any feedback or any questions about Kik message symbols, please leave us a message in the comments section below.