FAQs

How do I change my password?
Changing your password is now even easier!
If you’re using the latest version of Kik on your iPod, iPhone or Android phone, you’ll be able to change your password from within the app.
On your iPhone or iPod:
Tap Settings
Select Your Account
Select Change Password
Enter your current password
Tap Next
Enter your new password
Tap Save
On your Android:
Tap Settings
Select Your Account
Select Change Password
Enter your current password
Enter your new password
Tap OK
Tip
If you’re locked out of your account, using an earlier version of Kik, or using Kik on a Windows Phone 7, Symbian or BlackBerry, check out this FAQ for information on how to reset your password.


How can I prevent my teen from using Kik?
With access to your teen's iPod, iPhone or Android phone, you can uninstall Kik and use the device's built-in parental control settings to restrict the ability to install applications. On iPod and iPhone, these are called restrictions, and on Android, these are called filters.
For more information about enabling restrictions on iPod and iPhone, see this article from the Apple support center.
For more information about enabling filters on Android, check out this article from the Google Play help center.
Passwords
You can also limit your teen's ability to access Kik by managing their password for their Kik account. For more information on how to change the password on your teen's Kik account, you can check out this FAQ in our Help Center.

How can I manage who is able to talk to my teen on Kik?

Kik has been designed to give users full control over who can send messages to them, and we provide lots of tools to help you.

Passwords

As a parent or guardian, you can make permission for your teen to use Kik conditional on your teen giving you access to their account. This will give you the ability to control who can send messages to your teen.

We recommend that you and your teen agree on the password to be used for your teen’s Kik account, so you can access it anytime.

The password on a Kik account can be changed from within the app by going to Settings > Your Account, or by going to Kik's Password Change Site in any web browser and entering the email address used to set up the account.

For more information on how to change a password, you can check our FAQ on the KikHelp Center.

Usernames

Unlike many other smartphone instant messengers, which are based on a users’ phone number, Kik uses usernames to identify our users. Your teen’s unique username is their identity on Kik.

If your teen hasn’t registered their Kik account yet, ask them to choose a username that’s hard to guess. The best usernames include a combination of letters, numbers, and some special characters (periods, or underscores), and ideally shouldn’t be your teen’s first and last name. 

By using a username instead of a phone number, your teen’s personal information (like their phone number and email address) is not shared by Kik. In addition, only people that your teen chooses to share their username with (either directly or by turning on the optional Address Book Matching feature outlined below) are able to contact them on Kik.

If your teen is an active user of other social apps and sites, they might choose to share their username on those sites to connect with their followers there. Remind your teen that posting their username somewhere like Twitter, or Instagram, will make it publicly available. This means that people they don’t know will be able to send messages to them.

New People

The ‘New People’ feature puts messages from people your teen hasn’t talked to before in a separate section, and turns off notifications for those messages. If your teen doesn’t want to see inbound messages from people they don’t know, they don’t have to. In messages from new people, the profile pictures are blurred, and so are pictures or content messages they may have sent. Your teen can block and report someone new right from the messages that have been sent to them. You may want to review messages from new people with your teen, so you can decide together which new users they want to talk with.

Here’s information about how the ‘New People’ feature works.

Address Book Matching

The Kik app includes an optional Address Book Matching feature that users can turn on to help find their friends on Kik. The feature works by checking for accounts in Kik that match an email address or phone number stored in the user’s address book (on their smartphone). If we find a match, we’ll notify both users with a Kik message.

Choosing not to turn on the optional Address Book Matching feature will mean that only users who your teen chooses to share their exact username with will be able to send messages to them.

Blocking Users

Kik’s ‘Block’ feature allows users to block all contact with another user, without revealing to the other user that they’ve been blocked.

This FAQ from the Kik Help Center explains how to block someone on Kik.

Blocking someone on your teen’s smartphone, tablet or iPod means that messages from the blocked user will be hidden, and all chats with this person will be deleted from your teen’s Kik app. The blocked user’s name will no longer appear in your teen’s list of contacts in Kik.

How do I reset my password?

Just enter the email registered to your Kik account on the Reset Password website. We'll send a link for your new password to the email address registered to your account.

When you're choosing a new password, try to pick something that's really hard to guess. The most secure passwords include:

Lowercase and capital letters

Letters, numbers, and special characters

At least 6 characters

And aren't being used on other accounts you have

Tips

Can't see your new password email in your inbox? Be sure to check your junk mail/spam in case it got filtered there.

If our emails to you are being blocked or filtered as spam, contact your email provider for help allowing emails from our 'no-reply@kik.com' email address

If you’ve still got access to your account, you can change your password right in the app. Check out this FAQ to learn how.

What sort of email notifications can I expect to get from Kik?

We won't spam you with loads of emails - promise! Here’s a few times when we'll message you by sending an email to the address registered to your account:

After you sign up for Kik we’ll send you an email that includes a link to confirm your email address. Check out Why do I need to confirm my email to complete my sign-up? 

If you haven't checked your account for a few days, and you have unread messages waiting, we'll email you to let you know that your friends are trying to reach you. 

If you've forgotten your password, or just want a new one, you can enter the email address registered to your account on the Reset Password website, and we'll email you a link to change your password. 

We won't send you an email when you receive a new message or when someone you know joins Kik, and there isn't an option in the app to allow this.

Tip

If you're expecting an email from us, but don't seem to be getting one, be sure to check your junk mail folder.

I deactivated my account. How can I start using it again?

To access your deactivated Kik account:

Install Kik on your phone 

Open the app and tap Log In

Login using your username or email address and password. (Can't remember your password? No worries. Just reset it!)

Welcome back :)

How can I update my email?

Updating the email address registered to your Kik account is easy!

On your iPod, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android:

Tap Settings

Select Your Account

Select Email

Type a current and accessible email address

Tap Save/OK or Change Email to save

On your Windows Phone 7:

Tap Settings

Select Your Account

Select Change Email

Type a current and accessible email address

Tap the checkmark in the bottom middle of the screen to save

Tip

It's important to have a current and accessible email address registered to your Kik account so you can be sure you'll receive important Kik emails (like a new password) when you need them.

Changes to our Symbian and BlackBerry apps

To help us make sure our Kik users have a great and safe experience on Kik, we've made the tough decision to stop allowing new downloads and account registrations on both Symbian-based and BlackBerry devices.

Don't worry though! You'll still be able to use your existing Kik account. There are some really important things you need to know:

It's super important that you have a valid and accessible email address associated with your Kik account. If you forget your password, and you don't have a valid email address, you'll be locked out of your account - and you won't be able to register a new one.

If you have to reset your phone, and reload your apps, Kik won't be available for download again.

Tip

You can check the email address that's associated to your account in a few quick steps. Here's how.

Kik isn't working after I updated it. How can I fix this?

We've heard from some of our users that Kik isn't opening, or isn't working as expected after updating to our new version of the app (7.5). You might have noticed that:

the app takes a long time to open, and then just closes

you see a blank or white screen when you open Kik

your conversations and/or your contacts have been deleted

We're really sorry about this! These issues are caused by a few different things, so there are a couple of different ways to get your app working again.

To get Kik working on your iPhone or iPod:

If you haven't already updated your app, go get the latest version (7.5.3) from your App Store as it may just help with the specific issue you're experiencing.

For some of you, your app might not work even after you update to 7.5.3. Your best bet in this case is to delete and reinstall Kik. This will clear your conversation history, but your list of contacts should still be there when you login again.

TIP

If you've forgotten your password and can't login to your account again once you've reinstalled Kik, reset your password by following the steps in this FAQ.

What's causing this?

The issue that's causing problems with your Kik app, and some other apps as well, is related to how iOS handles updates. In some cases, your data might take a while to transfer during updates, and so the app just closes or takes a long time to open. If you are able to open your app after updating, it's possible that your conversations and contacts don't appear, as your data wasn't fully transferred when you updated.

Your Kik experience is super important to us. We're working on making changes to the app that will help ensure that this doesn't happen next time you update to a new version of Kik. Thank you for all your help and patience!

Probably not! We've heard about some chain messages being shared on Kik and it's possible you've received one of those messages. Maybe you've seen one that promises new chat bubble colors if you forward it to your friends, or maybe one that says we're going to start charging you to use Kik. These messages aren't from the Kik Team, and we won't be changing anything on your account if you don't forward the messages to your friends :)

In fact, you can just ignore the message. (And tell your friends to do the same if they receive another one!)

How to know if a message is really from Kik: 

- Announcements about Kik will only come from our official Kik account. Our username is kikteam.

We'll never, ever ask for your password. It's best to keep your password super safe, and not to share it with anyone. You'll find tips for choosing a good password here.

We won't ask you to forward our message to your friends.

You can also keep up-to-date on all things Kik by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.