Sometimes we’re just minding our own business, doing a good thing, when out of nowhere someone does something to ruin that good thing. There is no reason for it other than that person’s desire to make their presence (but usually not their identity) known by injecting a bit of chaos into someone else’s world. This can happen to you if someone sends you a kik with a Kik Messenger Lag Code in it.
Targeting Kik Messenger
It’s not surprising that ne’er do wells have invested so much time and effort into devising codes that will cause Kik Messenger to lag on users. There is much opportunity to interact with 275 million happy, socially interactive people who use Kik all around the world on their smartphones, tablets, and home computers.
If you’re one of the multitude of well-adjusted Kik Messenger users that enjoys using the award-winning chat app for free, no fee messaging, you know all the features that make you love it. Fast and secure texting with pictures and video, chat groups and chat bots, easy ways to connect with friends, and so much more have made Kik Messenger one of the most beloved chat tools in the world today.
The Lag Code
The last thing you want is to have your smartphone freeze up on you but that’s what happens when you’re on the receiving end of a lag code, lag bomb, or crash card.
A lag code sends commands or links to a computer device. These commands or links have no meaning to the app, or to the smartphone or tablet. The string you received makes no sense, does nothing, goes nowhere, and has no logical purpose or end result. Still, your reliable Kik Messenger app and device will keep trying to make sense of it as long as the data keeps cycling.
The lag code is delivered when the sender gains access to the other user’s device. In the case of Kik Messenger, you are chatting with someone, individually or in a group chat, and your ‘friend’ sends you the lag code or bomb in a text message.
The user on the receiving end of this code experiences an immediate slow response, lag, or freeze in the app. This is when you cannot do anything within the targeted app. Depending on the device, you may not even be able to close the app to use other functions on your phone.
A lag code is not new or unique to Kik Messenger. Gamers have used it to gain advantage in play or prank opponents for years. It’s just that with Kik’s popularity, it is a vast and fertile field of opportunity to pester a large number of people.
Why Do People Do This?
In all, while it is a huge pain in the app, a lag code is harmless to the device. A restart will clear it. Still, you have to wonder why someone would do it.
People use lag codes to mess with people, most often their very own friends. It may help to recall the scene in The Dark Knight where Alfred says to Bruce Wayne (aka Batman), “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
That somewhat explains the thinking of the person that sends a lag code to his or her friend in a Kik Messenger chat. No, sending a lag code to your friend in a kik isn’t at all as serious as the havoc wreaked by the Joker, but it can be annoying and troublesome, and it can seem to the person on the receiving end that their world is burning when they cannot reply to a text message, change to another app, or in some cases, use their smartphone or tablet at all until they reboot it. Worse, if your friend doesn’t realize what happened, he or she may become concerned that there is a problem with their iPhone or Android device.
From the sender’s point of view, the lag code is a harmless prank. They get a laugh out of it. There is no intention on their part to destroy your phone or tablet. The code they send cannot do that, and they know it. They just think it will be funny. They might even expect you to laugh with them over it.
Kik Messenger Responds to Lag Codes
As Kik Messenger evolved and improved with various updates, so did the lag codes hackers devise wanting to bomb its users just for fun. Finally, the lag coders met their match. The most recent versions of the Kik Messenger app for iPhone, iPad, and Android users have an anti-lag feature that prevents all lag codes from getting through to your device.
That doesn’t mean the hackers stopped trying. Since a text lag code is no longer effective against most Kik Messenger users, pranksters have turned to crash cards, which use a picture or video that, when clicked, contains code to crash your app and device.
A crash card does not send code that your device works to process over and over and over again, causing your smartphone to lag until you restart it. A crash card does just what its name implies – your device crashes and restarts. Again, in the long run it is harmless, but in the moment it is oh-so annoying.
Just like the lag code, the crash card comes in from a ‘friend’ only this time it is a picture or video that is sent to you in a Kik Messenger chat. It sits there harmlessly, silently, just like any of the hundreds of other images or videos you and your friends have shared back and forth, until you click to view or play it. Then, it crashes your device.
Again, it is harmless in the long run for your smartphone or tablet starts up again right away, but it is annoying. At least now, if it happens to you right after opening a picture or video in a kik, you know what it was and are not wondering if there is a more worrisome problem with your device.
What You Can Do
There is not much you can do if you are on the receiving end of a lag code, lag bomb, or crash card and your device uses a version of the app that is still open to them. It’s there and will do what it came to do.
If your device lags after receiving a message, you will have to use the restart function to clear it. You can then come back into your Kik Messenger app to chastise the user. Depending on how long you’ve been friends with them on Kik, you may trust them again or you may choose to block them.
To block the bomber from ever crashing your kiks again, follow these steps:
- From the main screen, press on the username you want to block and hold it for about a second.
- When the menu appears; select Chat Info.
- On the next screen, select the icon in the top corner.
- Another menu appears; select Block (name).
- A confirmation screen appears; select Block.
That blocked user cannot send you a lag code, crash card, or anything else on Kik Messenger until you unblock them.
A user cannot know that he or she has been blocked. It will appear from their end that the message goes through but is never read. They may wonder if they have been blocked when messages sent to you never change from “D” to “R” status in the read receipt, but they cannot know for sure.
Kik Mods
As you read earlier, Kik Messenger in its latest versions for iPhone and Android is no longer vulnerable to lag codes. When you use Kik Messenger as intended, you have no reason to be concerned about a text message lagging your phone.
There is a key phrase in that sentence: “as intended.” Some people make modifications to their Kik Messenger app. Any unauthorized add-on to the Kik Messenger app may defeat the purpose of Kik’s anti-lag measures, making a device vulnerable to lag codes or bombs once again.
Some unauthorized modifications to Kik Messenger are touted as being able to stop a lag code; however, these still leave you open to crash cards and all the other risks a user takes by modifying a well-trusted and proven app.
Far worse than a lag code or crash card, the renegade add-ons known as Kik mods open you up to hackers that can get more information than allowed by the privacy measures built into Kik Messenger for your protection. One of these bits of data is your IP address, which can help someone narrow down your location and identify you. You should not, ever, modify the Kik Messenger app.
Managing Chaos
If you receive a chat message or open a picture in a Kik message and immediately your tablet or smartphone lags or crashes, do not worry. Now that you know how a Kik Messenger lag code or a crash card can cause this behavior on your device, you know that it is nothing serious. Once your phone restarts, it will perform as it should. No lasting harm has been done. It’s just that one of your friends thinks chaos is funny. Whether you block that contact altogether or let them off with a simple scolding is up to you. Understanding what happens and how you can manage it is what matters most.
