Anonymous chat app Yik Yak is back after four years in the wilderness

By Oliver Haslam
published

Yik Yak Return Announcement Art
Yik Yak Return Announcement Art (Image credit: Yik Yak, Inc)

What you need to know

  • After its four-year hiatus, Yik Yak is back.
  • The app allows people to talk anonymously with anyone within a five-mile radius.

After four years in the wilderness, the yak is back. Yik Yak, that is — the anonymous social network app that disappeared from the App Store and was presumed dead.

But dead, it isn't. The revival was announced via blog post and includes the tidbit that the app was bought by its current owners in February 2021 — with the new app now available for download from the App Store.

YikYak is an anonymous social network of sorts, with people able to talk to others within a five-mile radius. It's an interesting idea and one that people seemed to really enjoy way back when. Now, it's back.

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We're the new owners of Yik Yak. We purchased the rights to redevelop the Yik Yak app from an original maker in February 2021, and we've been working to bring the app back to life ever since.We're bringing Yik Yak back because we believe the global community deserves a place to be authentic, a place to be equal, and a place to connect with people nearby.We're committed to making Yik Yak a fun place free of bullying, threats, and all sort of negativity.

YikYak's big thing is that it doesn't matter if you're a celebrity or not — on YikYak, everyone is the same. It's a cool idea and one that the app's developers think can "unite local communities."

Those looking to take Yik Yak for a spin can go and download it from the App Store (opens in new tab) right now — it's free and is currently the number one app in the Social Networking category.

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.