[6] The application uses a smartphone's internet connection to transmit and receive messages, photos, videos, sketches, mobile web pages, and other content after users register a username.

[18] Kik Interactive was founded in 2009 by a group of students from the University of Waterloo in Canada who wished to create new technologies for use on mobile smartphones.

[20][21] Within 15 days of its release, Kik Messenger reached one million user registrations, with Twitter being credited as a catalyst for the new application's popularity.

[22] On November 24, 2010, Research In Motion (RIM) removed Kik Messenger from BlackBerry App World and limited the functionality of the software for its users.

[29] In March 2016, the arrest of registered sex offender Thomas Paul Keeler II uncovered more than 200 Kik groups dedicated to the distribution and sale of child pornography on the site.

[30] In September 2016, CBS News published a story on the murder of 13-year-old Nicole Lovell, highlighting how easy it was to track and abuse children on Kik and calling it a "predator's paradise".

"[32] In an online investigation in August 2017, Forbes staffers signed up for the service posing as 14-year-old girls and encountered 20 profiles of charged or sentenced pedophiles.

[35] Also in 2017, Kik decided against more VC funding,[36] instead raising nearly $100 million in a high-profile initial coin offering (ICO)[37] on the Ethereum blockchain.

A limited amount of data from a particular account (identified by exact username), including first and last name, birthdate, e-mail address, link to a current profile picture, device-related information, and user location information such as the most recently used IP address, can be preserved for a period of 90 days pending receipt of a valid order from law enforcement.

[52] Kik added SafePhoto to its safety features in October 2016 which "detects, reports, and deletes known child exploitation images" sent through the platform.

Kik partnered with ConnectSafely in 2016 to produce a "parents handbook" and joined The Technology Coalition, an anti-sexual exploitation group including Facebook, Google, Twitter and LinkedIn.

[55] In April 2016, Kik added a bot store to its app, which allows users to order food or products through an automated chat.

[69][70] A state law enforcement official interviewed by The New York Times in February 2016 identified Kik as "the problem app of the moment".

Constable Jason Cullum of Northamptonshire Police paedophile online investigation team stated delays in obtaining information from the company increased the risk to children.

"[71] Since its acquisition by Medialab, Kik has revamped its policies and launched a variety of tools and resources including a guide for law enforcement and parents.

In March 2015, the company adopted a more aggressive strategy by utilizing Microsoft's PhotoDNA cloud service to automatically detect, delete, and report the distribution of child exploitation images on its app.

[77] Although Koçulu subsequently published left-pad on GitHub, its sudden removal from npm caused many projects (including Kik itself) to stop working, due to their dependency on the Node and Babel packages.

[78] In view of widespread software disruption, npm restored Koçulu's left-pad and made Cameron Westland of Autodesk its maintainer.

Kin was first announced in early 2017[81][82] which marked a pivot in Kik's strategy, a response to difficulties faced from competing with larger social networks such as Facebook.

[87] On September 7, 2017, only days before the Kin ICO, Kik announced that Canadian citizens would be barred from participating, citing weak guidance from the Ontario Securities Commission for the decision.