Why is everybody still holding on to KIK?

[Sweex]

I can't get my head around why people still use KIK, when there are, in my opinion, better options out there!

I find KIK really limited in its use. The two main things I don’t like about KIK is that you can not, without using 3th party software, use it on your PC. And recently they have added ads popping up.
Other things I don’t like is that I find KIK to be really slow in sending the messages trough.
And also after a while your conversation history gets deleted.

The two positive things about KIK is that it shows that the picture which is sent is made with the KIK app at that moment and you can see if a message is sending (S), Delivered (D) or Read (R).


Personally I like Google chat the best because it works well with google docs, sheets, mail and drive.
You can use it on multiple platforms including Phone, PC and tablet and maybe more I don’t know.
It has no annoying ads which pop up and turn you off when you are having an arousing conversation.
Also it keeps your chat history until one, both or all, in a group chat, want to delete it.
Google chat sends the messages almost instantly and it shows when the other person(s) has read it.

There is no feature that you can see if the picture is made with the Google chat app, as far as I know, but I do believe there are different methods you can use to make sure the person has made the picture at that moment. And then there is always trust especially if you know each other better.
There are probably other, free, message apps out there but I like to use Google chat so that's why I ranted about that. KIK is the most used but I have no clue why.

I am interested in what you all have to say about it and what you like to use and why.

P.s. I think this is posted in the right place but I am not sure.

 

[Scrib]

People are creatures of habit ... and do not really understand telecommunications. My concerns are slightly different. Generally all communication is inherently insecure for the very privacy conscious, and probably far less private than most realize.

Klik is superficially anonymous but under the hood is not as private as it might first appear. It has a history of being heavily used by pedophiles, and so is very much on the radar of the authorities.

Anything to do with Google is now very much beyond 'the creepy line'.

Signal, whilst not perfect, is a lot more private.

Any Android or iPhone is security compromised, GrapheneOS is better.

Generally a laptop is a better choice, with a secure Operating System and a sensible approach to what features are enabled.

It does not matter IF a company is exploiting your privacy as much as IF the capacity to do it exists, then eventually someone somewhere WILL exploit it.

 

[Dido]

I was asking myself the same question.

I don't use kik anymore. All groups there are limited and they don't allow sexual stuff there.

I prefer using Discord. You can create servers there and invite people to joinand chat.

Also there is a huge list of lewd/kkinky servers that you can join. Including just for role playing or watching and sharing porn.

 

[Doctor Pervert]

People are creatures of habit ... and do not really understand telecommunications. My concerns are slightly different. Generally all communication is inherently insecure for the very privacy conscious, and probably far less private than most realize.

Klik is superficially anonymous but under the hood is not as private as it might first appear. It has a history of being heavily used by pedophiles, and so is very much on the radar of the authorities.

Anything to do with Google is now very much beyond 'the creepy line'.

Signal, whilst not perfect, is a lot more private.

Any Android or iPhone is security compromised, GrapheneOS is better.

Generally a laptop is a better choice, with a secure Operating System and a sensible approach to what features are enabled.

It does not matter IF a company is exploiting your privacy as much as IF the capacity to do it exists, then eventually someone somewhere WILL exploit it.

Curious what you consider a "secure OS"? I utilize Cubes OS for my work and have a similarly configured laptop I use for recreational purposes. On top of that I run Windows as the app VM simply because it gives me more software compatibility.
I agree that using phones as a primary way to access anything online is a poor choice from a security perspective, kik especially so.
At a minimum everyone should be using a reliable VPN service on laptop or phone, my pick here is Proton as it supports Tor routing as well as random hopping.

This may be a good starting point for a discussion on the best simple method for everyone to engage, what do you use? What works and what do you find problematic?

 

[Scrib]

Yep I was thinking 'Nix + TOR (with encryption) + MAC masking. That would be a choice from Qubes, Whonix, TAILS as starting points. Yours is a good OS choice as Qubes will do the tech side, it is then about the mental discipline (no pun intended) to use it wisely.

VM and live installs all have their place. I find 12 Gig RAM as the minimum for the base system, then set the VM appropriately.

Most mobiles are blackbox tracking devices with a microphone and a camera attached, which people pay for ... .

With VPN the free ones are probably going to steal the data, again encrypt, encrypt, encrypt!. Proton (I think) are now offering a VPN at modest cost. Although they are slightly tarnished, they are still a better bet than many. Most VPN roll over when the writ hits the mat.

I agree, this would be a good discussion for everybody to have.

 

[The_Rack]

I can't get my head around why people still use KIK, when there are, in my opinion, better options out there!

I find KIK really limited in its use. The two main things I don’t like about KIK is that you can not, without using 3th party software, use it on your PC. And recently they have added ads popping up.
Other things I don’t like is that I find KIK to be really slow in sending the messages trough.
And also after a while your conversation history gets deleted.

The two positive things about KIK is that it shows that the picture which is sent is made with the KIK app at that moment and you can see if a message is sending (S), Delivered (D) or Read (R).


Personally I like Google chat the best because it works well with google docs, sheets, mail and drive.
You can use it on multiple platforms including Phone, PC and tablet and maybe more I don’t know.
It has no annoying ads which pop up and turn you off when you are having an arousing conversation.
Also it keeps your chat history until one, both or all, in a group chat, want to delete it.
Google chat sends the messages almost instantly and it shows when the other person(s) has read it.

There is no feature that you can see if the picture is made with the Google chat app, as far as I know, but I do believe there are different methods you can use to make sure the person has made the picture at that moment. And then there is always trust especially if you know each other better.
There are probably other, free, message apps out there but I like to use Google chat so that's why I ranted about that. KIK is the most used but I have no clue why.

I am interested in what you all have to say about it and what you like to use and why.

P.s. I think this is posted in the right place but I am not sure.

Ok kik you have ragebot. You can check when every member has talked last and lurked the chat last so it's very easy to remove lurkers and non talkers after X amount of time.

The app also doesn't allow anyone to scroll back historically like discord does I find discord very creepy for kink for this reason as if I wanted to I could literally stalk every share or post that any person on the server has ever posted . Discord usualy had thousands of members and less then 1% that actualy interact. It doesn't create a community vibe like kik.

With the right room safeguarding and good screening Kik I's king

 

[subzzzero]

I converted to telegram for a number of reasons when kik was closing. The user interface especially when In groups is Awesome. You can direct reply tagged to the message you’re replying to. You can also see who in group has viewed any of your posts. You can delete your content form group history. You can even delete entire pm conversations for both sides. So like a dynamic ends and you’re worried about chat history…. One swipe and it wipes all data for both sides. I would never go back to kik. I tried discord but too much hassle and not willing to pay for file size increase. Line app was ok but just didn’t quite fit as well as telegram for me.
side note. Yes telegram needs a phone number but only to register. You can use the Google fake number processs or you can just choose to not share it with any one when you start pms