Kik

We’ll keep using kik. It’s easy and efficient.

@ Michael, there are numerous chat apps that are free of charge, however, you did make us laugh. You’re the new James Bond of SLS.

We have options to hide our personal numbers. Kik was just a quick easy way to engage in a four way convo. We’d love to see the messaging system here offer an option line group chat.

Another option ,if you don't want to give out your phone number , is burner phones.
Meet someone, buy one of those pay as you go phones . Give him that number.
If you need to lose him, throw away the phone.
This is what drug dealers do. You saw it used extensively in the show " breaking bad". Lawyer had a drawer full of the phones.
They also removed the battery and broke the phone, that prevents the law from tracking the phone and proving you made the call. I doubt you would need to worry about a creep in the lifestyle being that dedicated or having the necessary equipment, but you could also remove the battery and break the phone .
Don't forget to take the SIM, if it has one

Looks like Kik disbanded public groups now anyway. Probably due to the bot infestation. The app had logged everyone out and upon reinstall and logging in found you can't even search for public groups anymore. Rest in peace Kik LOL

We have been using Google Voice for a couple of years.

Works just like your cell phone.

We actually still have a land line, and everything tracks back to that number. It doesn't support texting so there is no reason to give that one out, but GGMM brings up a good point if your cell # has been your one and only for years.

The Google Voice app seems like a good idea and will look into that. Other than a few reviews complaining of some random bugginess, not seeing a downside to that as you can talk and text through that without revealing your main phone #.

"We've yet to have a negative consequence that couldn't be fixed by simply blocking a cell number..."

Typing my cell number into a search box brings up all sorts of info, including the names of my children, every address I've lived at since 1995, how much I paid in property taxes, etc. Blocking someone who has become a problem would not erase that information. My cell number has been my only number for at least 15 years, so maybe that's why the plethora of information keeps getting attached (I scrub it, but it comes back), but if there's anything you want to hide from possible psychos, including names of your family members, I'd suggest not giving out your number to anyone you don't know well.

Google Voice is free and you can use one their numbers, which doesn't automatically track back to personal info.

We've yet to have a negative consequence that couldn't be fixed by simply blocking a cell number, so have felt no need for a 3rd party app like KIK. I think we've only had to block a number once in the 9 years we've been in the LS.

With texting, we never have to worry about losing messages or having an app up to communicate. As we've seen with SLS messaging, doing otherwise just introduces another possible point of failure.

Same here and you can no longer search public groups. Not that it matters as I’m not in any or care to be, but the loss off message history sucks as we had some four way convos going on with a few couples that have vanished.

Anyone else have issues with Kik this morning? It knocked me out, made me re-log on and change my pw. Then when I got in, it wiped out all of my previous chats. I’m ready for an alternative. Are there any other apps that hide your cell #?

Kik has many publicly available hacks. My suggestions as alternatives would be Signal or Threema. These at least have end to end encryption and good privacy policies.

OHW, I get literally dozens of bot messages per day and I’m in no public groups. It’s laggy, and any public groups are LOADED with bots, thirsty single guys, pay for play escorts, & drug dealers. It’s just a total cesspool now.

We use KIK a lot. Yes, the occasional bot will pop up but probably only got one initially when I started chatting with someone yesterday and we literally chatted on and off all day. Don't see what the big deal is using it.

ItalianGinger - That would seem to be the fate of a lot of things that people like, but aren't willing to pay for.

In some cases, like Hulu for example, they make it so obnoxious with the sheer # of commercials that people are willing to pay more to avoid them. I'm not familiar enough with kik to know if that is an option for them, because we don't use it.

kik, vs something like Hulu, is also at a disadvantage because it is just another app, where Hulu owns specific content that's unique to them.

SLS may not have to worry about Kik much longer. It’s absolute trash since MediaLab acquired it and basically made it a live streaming chat app loading it with bots.

Mot1974: Understood ... For me as noted many times before, I use this site Only for Hot-dates, party events, meet-n-greets, or member profile info... I don't use this website as a messenger service. I attend as many SLS events/parties as possible for meet-n-greets and phone number exchange opportunities. That's been working very well for me so far...

Mot1974: I recently Deleted KIK... I tried using KIK for 18 months, but I was mostly getting nothing but annoying "Bot or Spam" activity. Also most anyone (girls/guys) who did contact me thru KIK were Pro$$ offering "Paid" services Only ... I'll Pass on KIK for now !!

We also use Google voice...

Kik still has a place for anonymous group chat and keeping your number private, but it’s gotten abysmal with bots, spam, & pay for play solicitation as well as drug markets. We really just wish SLS would focus on a robust message system here then people wouldn’t seek alternative options.

I recently Deleted KIK... I was getting nothing but Bot or Spam activity. Also anyone who contacted me was a Pro $$ offering services...
I'll Pass !!

Hey, my puppet is shaken, not absurd...

"(I keep multiple free email accounts for different areas of interest, just to keep things somewhat organized)"

Hmmm. Maybe the puppet is really a secret agent...

Even with a separate email for LS activity, be careful. I keep a separate yahoo account for LS stuff, and once had a couple I was in contact with who wanted to send videos and pics. Okay, supercool, especially since I hadn't asked for them (yay!).

When I accessed them on my android phone, it came up on their side as being shared with one of my other personal email accounts on gmail (I keep multiple free email accounts for different areas of interest, just to keep things somewhat organized). Which lead to some awkwardness, as you can imagine. All was well though. We ended up playing a month or so later and a good time was had by all.

The way that things interact behind the scenes can be confusing, and the hunger of various social media companies to suck up user data and contact info can really be difficult to navigate.

@DBCooper

there is a Google Chat app that allows you to "text"/chat in the app using a gmail address as your identifier

Kik is pretty well dying out now. We’ve had it as a point of contact, but it’s nothing more than incessant spam bots and ads now.