# Alternatives to Yik Yak

Anonymous local feeds (original run). Yik Yak has been discontinued; the active alternatives listed here are maintained products you can switch to.

It is freemium and available on iOS. 3 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/yik-yak/
Category: Personal messaging

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: People near a college campus or dense local area who want to see what others nearby are posting about, without attaching their identity to it.
- **What you get**: Posts appear in a feed limited to users within about a 5-mile radius, with no usernames or profiles attached. Other nearby users can upvote, downvote, or reply to posts, and downvotes can remove a post from the feed. There's no persistent identity, follower graph, or public profile — content is tied to location and time, not to a person.
- **How it works**: The app determines a user's location and shows a feed of text posts from other users in that radius; users post anonymously, and the community moderates content through up/down voting.

## Profile

- **Pricing model**: Freemium (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Platforms**: iOS
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-11)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Beeper](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/beeper.md) | building | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 2 | [Delta Chat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/delta-chat.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 3 | [Jami](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/jami.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 4 | [Session](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/session.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS |
| 5 | [Signal](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/signal.md) | building | AGPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 6 | [SimpleX Chat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/simplex-chat.md) | building | AGPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 7 | [Telegram](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/telegram.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 8 | [Threema](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/threema.md) | building | AGPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 9 | [Viber](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/viber.md) | building | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 10 | [WhatsApp](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/whatsapp.md) | building | Proprietary | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |
| 11 | [Wire](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/wire.md) | building | GPL-3.0 | iOS, Android, Windows, macOS |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Sources

Sources for Yik Yak. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **Status**: active — <https://yikyak.com/faq.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Yes. Yik Yak with Sidechat is the most popular anonymous app for U.S. college students”
- **Pricing model**: Freemium — <https://apps.apple.com/us/app/yik-yak/id1573043816> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Free · In‑App Purchases”
- **Platforms**: iOS — <https://yikyak.com/faq.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “To post, comment, and vote you need the Yik Yak app on iPhone”
- **Phone number required**: Yes — <https://yikyak.com/faq.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Download the free app from the App Store, sign up with your phone number, and verify with a .edu email if you want access to your private college feed”
- **Username-only signup**: No — <https://yikyak.com/faq.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Download the free app from the App Store, sign up with your phone number, and verify with a .edu email if you want access to your private college feed”
- **Disappearing messages**: No — <https://yikyak.com/faq.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “No. Yik Yak DMs do not automatically disappear. Messages that break the rules may be removed by moderators”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/