Kik streams suddenly started dropping after ~30 minutes

[Salos1]

I've started streaming while I play guitar because it gives me a good excuse to play guitar, doesn't really matter if no one joins. I started streaming on Kik (I know, not a great app) in May and had no issues. Starting about a week ago, my streams now ALWAYS drop after 30 to 45 minutes. It is always in that range. I have tried turning off mobile data and just using WiFi, I have tried turning of WiFi and just using mobile data, I have reinstalled the app a few times. There is no internet issue, I can restart a stream immediately or join someone else's stream right after mine drops.

The reliable nature of this ALWAYS happening between 30 to 40 minutes after starting seems relevant to the cause, but I don't have the knowledge to speculate from there.

I believe I recall an Android security update in early June, could that be the cause? I've searched for whitelist settings in the Connections area and couldn't find if that existed.

Any ideas?

 

[B. Diddy]

Is the phone going to sleep at that time? Or is the app automatically closing?

 

[Salos1]

The app doesn't close. When the stream drops it puts me back into the app's streaming lobby, where I can immediately join someone else's stream or start another of my own.

By sleep do you mean shut off/hibernate or the Sleep mode that turns on do-not-disturb and greyscale?

If the former, it doesn't seem to be doing that - only the stream drops, app stays open, phone stays on. If the latter, I tend to use Sleep mode when going to sleep late a night but I do not have it on during the day or streams.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: sleep mode, I meant the former (i.e., the screen turns off and any active app in the foreground gets killed).

It may be worth contacting Kik's support about this, although I don't know how responsive they are.

 

[Salos1]

Kik support basically doesn't exist. They are owned by medialab.la who list two support emails: a general one, and one for stream issues. But this doesn't seem like a company that cares about user experience - they just want to keep the app running for its monetization. Some small time streamer is not worth their time.

The stream issues email is inactive and yields a bounce-back, while the general support email is automated and I received a boiler plate list of steps to take for "login issues;" no response when I asked if they can acknowledge understanding of the problem.

 

[B. Diddy]

Hmm, frustrating. Which phone do you have? Another possibility to consider is that the phone's firmware is causing killing the app in a misguided attempt at "optimizing RAM" in order to save battery. This is more common with phones from Chinese manufacturers, but can still be an issue with certain major manufacturers like Samsung.

Go to Settings>Apps, select Kik, then look for an option for battery management -- make sure it's set to Unrestricted. Also look through your phone's system settings, as well as any system apps, for any RAM/memory optimization features.

 

[Salos1]

TY I will try that.

Galaxy S21 Verizon