For me, it does everything that it says that it does. I'm able to send KikSMS to my friends who don't have/use Kik. I'm also able to KikChat with friends who do have/use Kik. The company also seems very responsive to suggestions and constructive criticisms.
The first reason is there is an issue with the KikContacts vs. the regular Contacts on the phone. If you make a mistake in the Contacts before you install Kik for the first time, the KikContacts will contain the incorrect information regardless of how many times you've corrected the phone's Contact and how many times you've deleted, rebooted the phone, and reinstalled Kik. I don't know how the KikContacts work but this leads me to believe either when you delete/uninstall Kik, not everything is uninstalled/deleted from the phone or the KikContacts are stored on Kik's server. When you then reinstall Kik (even after deleting it), if it detects the old KikContacts file on your phone, it will reuse it and just input the new contacts that you've added or if when you register your phone number, it will reimport the KikContact information on your phone from the Kik's server even when one of the KikContact information was incorrect.
In my opinion, there needs to be a way of either modifying the KikContact information directly on your phone or doing a "refresh" which will wipe out the existing KikContact list and refresh the KikContact list based on whatever is now/currently in your phone's Contacts.
The second reason is that if you've KikChatted with someone in the past, you will only be able to KikChat with that person using Kik. You will not be able to KikSMS that person even if that person changes phones and is no longer able to use Kik.
There are a few issues with the KikContact Listings. Currently one of the problems that exists is that anyone whom you've sent a KikSMS to in the past will appear only as a phone number without a name. This makes sending KikSMS more difficult since you have to remember the phone number of the person whom you want to send a KikSMS to.
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With the new version of Kik (Kik 2.0.1 on the Blackberry), the company has made quite a few changes.
ReplyDeleteThe program maintains the ability to chat across platforms (Blackberry, Android, and iPhone) but it no longer sends/receives SMS to dumbphones or to people who don't have Kik installed.
In this respect, it is no different from a few of the other multi-phone platform chatting programs or computer chatting protocols implemented onto phones (like GoogleTalk, MSN/Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, etc.)
The registration process is now through e-mail instead of SMS so it isn't restricted to Canada/US and users must select a username.