Support for Kik in Oxygen Forensic® Detective

Kik is a free instant messaging app, which works on iPhones, Androids, and Kindles. As of 2022, Kik Messenger had over 300 million registered users, 2.5 million of which use the app daily. Of its 15 million monthly active users, 70% are in the 13-24 age bracket.

The functionality of the app is not limited to text messages alone as the users can communicate via video calls and find groups according to their interests, often meeting new people there.

Due to this app’s use and history of criminal activity, it is important for investigators to have the ability to extract Kik data.

Table of contents

Extracting Kik data in Oxygen Forensic® Detective

Oxygen Forensic® Detective extracts data from both Apple iOS and Android devices.

Extraction from iOS devices

Kik Messenger can be extracted from Apple iOS devices using a logical method via iTunes backup or iOS Agent. However, for full data extraction, we recommend the checkm8 method for Apple iOS devices. The extracted data includes account information, contacts, private and group chats, as well as attached media. All of this will prove crucial when investigating blackmailing, abuse, kidnapping, etc.

 

Screenshot of extracted Kik data

Android Agent method

Kik Messenger can be extracted from an Android device by a physical extraction, full file system extraction, or the APK downgrade method. In Oxygen Forensic® Detective v.15.0 we’ve added another method.

Starting with this new version, it is possible to obtain Kik data from unlocked Android devices via Android Agent, a forensically designed application built by Oxygen Forensics that is typically used to acquire user data and media files when physical data extraction is not supported.

1. Extract Kik Data

To initiate the data extraction from Kik, first, locate this option within “Extract third party applications data” in the Android Agent menu. Investigators will also need to activate Accessibility services in the Android Agent options on the device for the data extraction process to start. We recommend extracting Kik Messenger data in airplane mode with the internet connection turned off.

 

Screenshot of the dashboard of the Android Agent app

 

2. Locating Kik in Android Agent

The following data can be extracted from the application:

  • User account information
    • Nickname
    • E-mail address
    • User name
    • Profile picture
    • Tags
  • Contacts
    • Nicknames
    • User names
  • Private and group chats
    • Chat members
    • Nicknames
    • User names
    • Profile pictures
    • Chat messages.

Data from Kik can also be extracted selectively.

 

Screenshot of data extracted from Kik via Android Agent in Oxygen Forensic® Detective

 

3. Setting data extraction from Kik in Android Agent

As soon as all Kik data is extracted, the results can be imported to Oxygen Forensic® Detective for further analysis.

 

Screenshot of data extracted from Kik via Android Agent in Oxygen Forensic® Detective

Get more from Oxygen Forensic® Detective

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