Kik Messenger
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Kik Messenger home screen on iOS
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| Initial release | October 19, 2010 |
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| Stable release |
10.7 / June 8, 2016
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| Development status | Active |
| Operating system | iOS 6.0 or later, Android, Windows Phone |
| Available in | English |
| Type | Instant Messaging Client, Web Browser |
| License | Proprietary freeware |
| Alexa rank |  30,728 |
| Website | kik |
Kik Messenger, commonly called simply Kik, is a proprietary instant messenger software application (app) for mobile devices from the Canadian company Kik Interactive, available free of charge on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone operating systems. It uses a smartphone's data plan or Wi-Fi to transmit and receive messages, photos, videos, sketches, mobile webpages, and other content after users register a username. Kik is known for its features preserving users' anonymity, such as allowing users to register without providing a telephone number. The application logs user IP addresses which the company can use to determine location. As of May 2016, Kik Messenger had approximately 300 million registered users, and was used by approximately 40% of United States teenagers.
Kik Messenger has drawn controversy due to its reported involvement in a number of incidents of child exploitation. The app has been criticized as unsafe for minors due to its anonymity features and allegedly weak parental control mechanisms.
Kik Interactive was founded in 2009 by a group of students from the University of Waterloo in Canada who wished to create new technologies for use on mobile smartphones. Kik Messenger is the first app developed by Kik Interactive, and was released on October 19, 2010. Within 15 days of its release, Kik Messenger reached one million user registrations, with Twitter being credited as a catalyst for the new application's popularity.
On November 24, 2010, Research In Motion (RIM) removed Kik Messenger from BlackBerry App World and limited the functionality of the software for its users. RIM also sued Kik Interactive for patent infringement and misuse of trademarks. In October 2013, the companies settled the lawsuit, with the terms undisclosed.
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