Yik Yak, Bringing Anonymous Messaging To College Communities

Ride the Yak, that is what'south their tag line is. But this yet some other messaging app is different from other hordes of mobile messaging apps out there. How? We are going to discover that. But earlier that, but a brief introduction.

What is Yik Yak?

Yik Yak introduction goes by the word "Get a live feed of what everyone's saying around you". From a normal perspective, i may go an thought that information technology is a location based messaging app built for mobile phones. Indeed it is, but it's simply not that. This app, created by Tyler Droll and Brooks Buffington has taken the entire higher community in US by storm. Both of them were graduates of liberal arts college of Furman Academy in Greenville, Southward Carolina, where they learned to create iPhone apps, and subsequently created Yik Yak. Later on completing graduation from at that place, they decided to work full time on it and turned Yik Yak into one of the coolest messaging app for higher kids.

How is Yik Yak different from other messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Wechat etc?

Some reasons: showtime of all, Yik Yak is not a one to one messaging app. Here, anyone can get-go a community, which are generally specific to a college. Students of that college can join them and post messages there (called yaks). Other students can upvote or downvote your messages, and you become Yakarma, a numerical score, based on the response. Overtime, your Yakarma increases, making you more influential on the customs.

Users of this app can besides anonymously peek into another higher communities, thus keeping a tab on what's going there. And equally Reddit, the app automatically categorises yaks into ii sections, Recent and Hot. Recent yaks are shown to the user past default, and user can switch to hot yaks to go a glimpse of what's going on in the community.

What platforms does Yik Yak support?

Yik Yak is available in both Android and iOS platforms. Unfortunately, its non available in India yet. Most of its users are based in United States but, and specially from its colleges.

Yik Yak Controversies

Because of its non moderated and anonymous posting nature, Yik Yak has suffered from a lot of abuse. Most of the cases that have come forward are of cyber-bullying and pranks. With rising of crimes of this nature, many of the schools has banned the app in their school premises. While it mostly location based, and yaks can only be seen in x mile radius, due to its anonymous nature, many of its users have been institute to post about racism and abuse in campuses. Some even resort to threats, which co-ordinate to Yik Yak website, is taken seriously by their squad and even reported to regime. Although, to use Yik Yak, one must be at to the lowest degree 17 years onetime, its not surprising to meet many teenagers less than that age to employ that app.

Before this year, a Canadian school was forced to lock down because of a threat posted by some user maxim that at that place is a gun in the science lab.

Because of all these reasons, Yik Yak does have bad reputation among most schools. Simply at the terminate of the day, its just a tool. And then its ultimately up to the user to apply it the way he likes, either skillful or bad.

Advantages/Disadvantages of Yik Yak

Some of its advantages are:

• Anonymous posting, anyone can mail anything without revealing their identity
• Location specific, thus you get to know what's hot in your area at just a glance.
• Communities can engage hands and best posts are up-voted to top.

Disadvantages:

• Cases of cyber bullying, harassment, name calling are mutual in the app.
• Difficulty to runway culprits of the higher up crimes.
• May lead to depression to teenagers.

How To Cake Yik Yak From Your Child'due south Phone

Since this app has a potential of abuse, some parents can exist worried that their child can become victim of cyber bullying past using this app. Thankfully, help is virtually, and it is built in Android.

If you are using Android phones and tablets with Jelly Bean and above, you can gear up device administrators within the telephone and create users with access to specific apps but. This volition ensure that your child remains safe from harmful app and websites. Likewise, there are handful of apps, both in App Store and Play Store that tin block apps based on preset user preferences.

Perchance the all-time app that is available for both Android and iPhone is Mobile Guardian. This app comes with a 7 day free trial, and has the capability to cake many phone features, from calls, web pages to apps. Because its low pricing at just €ii.95 a month, it is definitely a worthy investment.

SEE ALSO: Best Selfie Apps For iOS , Android And Windows Phone

Getting Yik Yak

If you lot live in North America, you tin can go the app from here. There is no official client bachelor for Windows Phone yet, only there is an unofficial app called Yodel that you tin employ to follow Yik Yak communities in your college.

Source: https://beebom.com/what-is-yik-yak/

Posted by: nelsonintere.blogspot.com

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