Yik Yak, the house to anonymous, hyper-local conversations, has made its return.
Yik Yak was in its prime within the mid-2010s, living on within the memory of the many high school and college students who need to experience all the within jokes and shenanigans that went on within the app.
The anonymous messaging app packed up in 2017, and that we thought it had been gone permanently. But now, all that’s changed—Yik Yak is officially back.
Yik Yak Makes a Comeback
If you missed having access to ultra-local chatter, you would be happy to listen to that Yik Yak is making a return. Yik Yak announced on Twitter that the app is now available again on iPhone after four long years.
📣 ICYMI: After a 4 year hiatus, Yik Yak is available in the App Store again!
💭 Anonymity, location-based, the hot feed & more — everything you used to love about Yik Yak
👋 Now available on iPhone in the US — more countries and devices coming soon!
https://t.co/2B2NCKamdV pic.twitter.com/HUAKh4elcA
— Yik Yak (@YikYakApp) August 16, 2021
After its release in 2013, Yik Yak became wildly popular among the younger crowd, mainly because it allowed users to form posts anonymously and limited conversations to an area level. You had access to anonymous communities within a five-mile radius of your location, where you’ll either make your posts or upvote and downvote others.
Despite its hiatus, the app will function an identical way it won’t, letting you tap into any new community you may encounter.
Turning Over a New Leaf
Yik Yak had a reasonably short run from 2013 to 2017, but therein period, it gained a reasonably poor reputation. With any anonymous social platform, bullying and harassment quickly became a problem.
Its owners pack up Yik Yak in 2017, mostly thanks to the controversies that transpired, also because of the indisputable fact that many of its users migrated to Snapchat. Square bought some of Yik Yik’s property after the shutdown, and therefore the app has been silent up so far.
Yik Yak’s new owners promise to stop bullying and hate speech from appearing on the app. A post on Yik Yak’s website highlights the app’s new approach to the present quiet content, noting that “on the new Yik Yak, it’s against the Community Guardrails to post bullying messages or use hate speech, make threats, or share anyone’s private information.”
Yik Yak also encourages users to report any posts that violate Yik Yak’s Community Guardrails and automatically remove any posts that receive five downvotes.
Introducing the New and Improved Yik Yak
Yik Yak is returning with some pretty solid rules. Therefore the app likely won’t be the free-for-all that it wont to be. But if Yik Yak wants to rebuild its reputation, it’ll need to prove its commitment to safety.
