How To Block, Unblock, and Ban on Kik

Jamie Read more June 3, 2020

Kik is a popular mobile messaging app primarily used by younger smartphone users to send and receive texts, pictures, and more. Kik identifies users by their usernames, so there is no sharing of phone numbers, names, or personal information, making it the ideal app for those who want to talk to others in relative privacy. Kik also offers a number of other features in its ecosystem, with its own bots, gifs, sticker packs, and more, allowing users to greatly customize the app to fit their own preferences. But what’s the catch?

The app is open to anyone and everyone, offering anonymity and allowing people to create accounts with just an email address or a phone number. Like any social network, this opens the doors to being scammed, harassed, or spammed to no end by users who hide behind their bot-generated accounts. So with the cool stickers and features Kik offers, you’ll also get a healthy measure of trolls, scammers, and stalkers. It’s still the internet, after all, and it’s home to all kinds of people.

Fortunately, Kik knows that you’ll likely want to avoid some of the people you come across on its platform, and has included a number of useful features to rid yourself of them. Here’s how to block, unblock, and ban people and groups on Kik.

Blocking People On Kik

It’s actually quite simple to block someone on Kik. Blocking someone will keep them from contacting you with that account until you unblock them, and wipe their messages from your main screen. Here’s how:

Navigate to a chat with someone you’d like to block.
Tap their name on the top of the page to access the chat options.
Tap the three dots on the top right, and tap “Block”.
Tap Block to confirm that you’d like to block them.

Now that you’ve blocked them, that person will no longer be able to bother you with that account ever again. However, if they’re particularly persistent or have nothing better to do, there’s nothing stopping them from creating another account and adding you there – but fortunately, their messages will land in your message requests, where you can easily decline their request.

How to unblock someone on Kik

If you’d like to unblock someone you blocked, it’s just as simple of a process to get them unblocked. So if you blocked someone by mistake, you decide you want to talk to them again, or you’d like to unblock them for some other reason, here’s how to do so:

Tap the gear symbol on the top right of the Kik home screen.
Tap the “Privacy” button on your settings page.
Tap the “Block List” option on the Privacy screen.
Select the person you want to unblock and confirm by tapping “Unblock”.

You should now both be able to chat like normal, until you decide to block them again.

How To Ban People From Kik Group Chats

Group chats are a powerful tool Kik offers that enhances the app’s services significantly. You can create groups of up to 50 people and talk about whatever you’d like, whether it be your next get together or the latest TV shows. The same tools available in DMs are also available in group chats – just slightly modified and buffed up. If you’re running a group chat in Kik and one person keeps causing a ruckus, you can ban them from the group so the rest of you can chat in peace. You have to be a group admin or owner to do this, though, so if you don’t have those elevated permissions, these options will be unavailable to you. Here’s how to ban someone from a group chat on Kik:

Tap the name of the group on the top of the group chat’s screen.
Scroll down and tap the person you’d like to ban.
If they’re not an admin or owner, you should see the option “Ban from Group”.
Tap the “Ban from Group” option then tap “Ban” on the confirmation screen.

If you don’t want to outright ban someone from the group, you can also opt to kick them by using the “Remove from Group” option instead. This will allow them to rejoin the group if it’s a public one, but if it’s not public, effectively removes them until someone adds them back in, without having to have an admin unban them.

How To Unban People From Kik Group Chats

If you’d like to unban someone from your Kik group chat, for whatever reason, here’s how to do so:

Tap the name of the group on the top of the group chat’s screen.
Tap the three dots on the top right corner, and tap “View Members” in the dialog that pops up.
Scroll down to the “Banned” section of the members list and tap the person you’d like to unban.
Tap the “Unban” option and then tap “Unban” again in the confirmation dialog to confirm that you’d like to unban them.

The person should now be able to be readded to or rejoin the group chat. Hopefully they behave themselves this time around!

Overall, Kik is an awesome communications app that allows you to meet a ton of cool new people or have an easy way to chat with your friends. It’s free, easy to use, works on both iOS and Android, and does exactly what you need it to without needing to spend too much time fiddling with it. There’s really no reason not to like it, at least at first glance. However, like other chat apps like Discord and Snapchat, Kik can be full of unsavory people who’d like nothing more than to annoy, harass, or scam you with no repercussions. While these kinds of people will always exist, you can rest easy knowing you can easily block or ban them and never have to deal with them again.

Kik’s block and ban tools are a powerful yet simple toolset for Kik users to stop people from bothering them in DMs or group chats. Considering Kik’s primary audience is teenagers, there’s ample reason to include these features – whether it’s to troll friends by removing them or for legitimate reasons such as removing unsavory types from your friend group’s group chat that someone accidentally made public.

Have you had to block anyone on Kik? Have you had any bad experiences using the platform? Have you run into any trolls that you just need to tell the world about? Tell us about them below!