Note: This article was originally published on February 6th, 2015. It’s been updated as of May 9th, 2016, to include new features available to Kik users, as well as provide updated information on recommended Android emulators!
There are times where you just want to put down your iPhone or Android already and chat with your friends using Kik for PC instead of your smartphone. You’ve spent all day checking email, messaging, viewing Twitter and now you’d rather just put it down. Maybe you’re tired of looking at the tiny screen, maybe your fingers are getting too fidgety to mess with touch screens much longer, or maybe you’re starting to run afoul of the villainous “tech neck.”
That’s where I come in, outlining the secrets to Kik online login that require no download even if you’re on a PC or Mac. The best part is, the option is completely free and has been proven to work time and time again by me and by others around the web.
This is your chance to bridge the gap from having a conversation on your iPhone to switching to your PC and you can continue all of your Kik Messenger conversations. There are a few options that I will outline below and really get into the nuts and bolts of how to make it work.
“Guarding your heart and protecting your dignity are a little bit more important than clarifying the emotions of someone who’s only texting you back three words. I’ve learned that from trying to figure out people who don’t deserve to be figured out.” – Taylor Swift
What Is Kik Online Login?
For those of you not using it, Kik is a text messaging service, not unlike the messengers that come natively on your phone. Unlike those, however, Kik uses self-chosen log-in names, instead of phone numbers. This means Kik, which is already great at sending text, video, and photo messages (along with other files) just as well as anything on your phone is actually superior when it comes to casual acquaintances or making new friends: you don’t have to give somebody something so personal as your phone number when you want to get to know someone better; you can give them your Kik username.
Of course, like many of the great new software applications to come out in recent years, Kik is primarily geared towards mobile apps. This is great when you’re on the go, but, as said above, you don’t always want to be on your phone.
You may be asking yourself what Kik online login actually is and if it is possible. You may know from previously looking, but Kik Messenger does not have an actively supported means of sending and receiving texts online. So far, the messaging company has primarily focused their attention on the mobile space with very limited to no inclination that they will branch out into the desktop computing space.
However, that doesn’t stop us from coming up with some round about ways of basically tricking the Kik Messenger app into being used on a PC and completely online. Thanks to a number of awesome programmers and software developers this is completely doable and easy to learn for someone with limited computer knowledge.
I will outline a completely online option to run Kik Messenger as well as options where you can download an app onto your PC to make it easy to access Kik online whenever you want to. Both options are free but there are pros and cons to each that I will discuss below.
Kik Online Login With Manymo
Normally, the go-to workaround for any kind of mobile-only nonsense is a good emulator. I’ve written extensively about my experience with Andyroid and other great emulators, but some people are squeamish about downloading and installing new software. Or maybe you just want to check your messages at a friend’s house or a public computer, and don’t want to or can’t download anything. Fortunately, there’s a great workaround to the great workaround: online emulation.
You probably have not heard of Manymo (as in “many more,” not as in whatever Emmanuel Lewis is calling himself these days) in the past, and if you have, you’ll likely know how awesome the service is. Manymo is an online Android emulator that allows you to access any app that is made for Android directly from their online service. The service creates a virtual platform that mimics an Android device and from there you can run an app and continue to use Kik online as much as you want.
The Manymo service is completely free, however, you will need to sign up for it so that you can access the emulator and be able to upload the Kik Messenger app into the virtual platform. There are options to pay for their service if you use it regularly and want a bit more features and stability if you use it on a daily basis. However, for a once in a while option, the free version is a great deal.
NOTE: You must have a working Google Play account for this trick to work effectively. The reason is because you will need to download the apk file for Kik Messenger from Google Play so that you can upload it to your virtual Manymo emulator. Make sure you sign up for Google Play and register a device with them so that you can access the list of apps. If you don’t already have an Android device one good option is to borrow one from a friend and just sign in and sign right out. That way, your account will be verified and you can use it as much as you want.
- First, you will want to head over to Kik Messenger on Google Play and download the apk file to your PC. You will use this once you get your emulator up and running. You may want to save the file for later because if you have a free account then your emulator won’t be saved and you will have to re-upload it every time.
- Now, you will want to go to Manymo and sign up for their free account. Make sure you write down your login email address and password to use later.
- Once you’ve gone through the sign up process you will be ready to upload the Kik app into your emulator. Choose which emulator you’d like to launch. I recommend going for the larger screen size and one that is as close to your PC as possible, that way you don’t have issues with resolution of the messages.
- After you choose an emulator to launch by clicking the “Launch with: App” button you will want to find where the apk file for Kik is located on your computer.
- Upload Kik Messenger online and from there you will notice it looks very similar to if you were launching the app on an Android tablet or phone.
- Use your Kik username and password to login online to your account and that way you will sync all of your conversations from your iPhone or Android onto your PC.
TIP: This option is a great way to keep in contact with friends but can be a bit of a pain to upload the Kik app every time you want to use it on your PC. Try the option below if you want to have a more permanent solution to using Kik for PC.
Kik For PC Download
We previously went over how to get Kik online but haven’t really given options if you are ok to download the emulator onto your computer and how you go about installing and running Kik on your computer. Luckily, it’s super easy to do and it is completely free.
There are a few emulators out there that you can choose from but personally, I like Andyroid and have had the most success using it when running Kik. It has very few bugs and works perfectly with my graphics card. That is the main problem I have with BlueStacks, it comes up with a bunch of errors when I try to use it and I can rarely get it to just work like it should.
Again, you will have to have a working Google Play account for this option to work as you will need to download the Kik apk file while on the emulator so that it can install and run the app. So make sure you get an online account with Google.
- The first thing you’ll want to do is head over to Andyroid and click on the download button at the top. This will automatically download the install file to your desktop or wherever your download folder is.
- When it’s finished, double click the file and choose to install it. You should follow all of the prompts and just keep continuing. If it asks you for permissions just accept as this is required for you to use the app.
- Your next step once you have the emulator installed is to sign into your Google Play account. You will see an option for a 1-click sync that will make everything on your account sync with Andyroid. This is super helpful as it skips the whole formatting and setup process.
- After granting permission and going through the login steps if everything worked correctly you should see that all of your Android apps have synced onto Andyroid. This is, of course, if you have an account that you actively use and have previously downloaded apps.
- If it didn’t sync, just click the Google Play icon at the bottom at search for Kik Messenger in the store.
- Download Kik for PC and you will see it show up in your apps list. Simply double click it and login with your username and password just as you would if you were on your iPhone or Android.
That is it, you will now be able to sync all of your conversations from one device to another and take any texting from your mobile life to your desktop life. One great thing about this option is that whenever you launch Andyroid in the future you will be able to quickly get back to Kik without installing it or anything.
Kik For Mac?
Unfortunately, Andyroid and BlueStacks don’t have an option for use with a Mac. Andyroid is in alpha testing of their Mac version but that has been going on for about 6 months or so. I’m not convinced that we will see a Mac version anytime soon unfortunately.
As of now, your options are to use Manymo above to login to Kik online so that you don’t have to rely on using an emulator on your computer. Of course, ever since Mac switched to Intel processors for its computers, another option has been to download Windows onto your Mac using the preinstalled Bootcamp and also the Windows software. Bootcamp is pretty well laid out and easy to use. However, you do need a Windows install disk, which can be a little pricy. If you’re a student, though, your university bookstore will probably sell it for around $15. Or, try to get an OEM disk from a site like NewEgg.com, which specializes in hardware, software, and kits for people who build their own computers or do computer maintenance. Either way, once you’ve got a Windows partition going, you can use any option you’d like to run Kik as you can turn your Mac into a PC that easily.
DISCLAIMER: You may have trouble syncing all of your contacts from your mobile Kik account to your PC version so I would suggest writing down any names of people you text with a bunch so that you can just search for them once you’re online and you don’t have to worry about syncing everything. We have also noticed that sometimes your previous conversations won’t port over so you may have to start a new conversation and live with not having your history when using Kik online. This is little more than a slight annoyance for people who are just looking for an additional platform to use Kik from, though. And if you don’t even have a smart phone and are using this as a workaround in order to install Kik on your computer, then there’s no annoyance whatsoever, as you don’t have disparate histories on your other devices that need to be managed.
Kik in 2016 – Emulation and More
Here we are, more than a year later, and the only reliable method we have of accessing Kik Messenger without any type of download is still the Manymo browser-based emulation kit. It’s just as accessible as before, meaning that your free use of the application is going to be extremely limited while a paid subscription will set you up for a more liberated Kik experience.
However, we’re not without a wealth of good news to accompany that little nugget. If you’ve overcome your squeamish feelings towards downloadable emulation software, Bluestacks and Andyroid both have well-rounded Mac support! If a paid Manymo subscription is out of your reach, you’re pretty much out of luck when it comes to emulating without some form of download. If PC and Mac-accessible Kik Messenger remains a priority, regardless of this, these popular emulator software options have never been better.
On top of that, Kik Messenger has added several new features to make that possibility even more tempting. As we enter 2016–frequently referred to as “the year of chat” by the tech-savvy–Kik is poised to continue dominating the mobile messenger market, especially among younger users.
- Bots, bots, bots! If ever there was a trend that’s defined 2016 and chat apps it’s the use of bots! These script-based programs have been around for years already but never before have they stood a chance of being so remarkably useful in our chat experiences. Check out Kik’s Bot Shop to see what all the fuss is about, and hear it from the developers themselves when they expound upon why 2016 is “the year of chat.”
- GIF Keyboard! As if Kik needed another cool feature to prove that it was relevant and hip to modern internet trends. Now, from the same window that you type your Kik messages, you can access a GIF keyboard that lets you browse an ever-growing library of animated images and memes to include with your messages.
There’s never been a better time to be a fan of Kik Messenger, but sadly, we still don’t have the full breadth of tools that we’d like for the popular messaging app. Among those things that users are clamoring for: native desktop Kik support, web-browser Kik support, and video calling–which is a rising trend that more popular chat apps are choosing to embrace and implement. Here’s to hoping that 2016 holds even more surprises in store, as Kik continues to grow!
That wraps up this guide outlining all of the options for getting Kik online with no download and a quick Kik login option if you want to use your PC to download the emulator. Let us know if these options didn’t work for you or if you have any other tips that you’d like to share. Please share this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter if you found it to be helpful.
