Is Yik Yak gone? What happened — and what to use instead

Updated June 2026 · hivemind team

If you've gone looking for Yik Yak lately and felt like the anonymous, local feed you remember isn't quite there anymore, you're not imagining it. Here's the short version of what happened — and the anonymous, hyperlocal apps worth trying now.

The short history

Yik Yak launched in 2013 as an anonymous feed of posts from people near you, and it spread fastest on US college campuses. It shut down in 2017, then returned in 2021 under new ownership. In 2023 it was acquired by Sidechat, another anonymous app focused on college communities. Today the experience is heavily oriented around US campuses, often asking for a school email to join a given community.

So is it "gone"?

Not deleted — but for a lot of people it's effectively gone, because it no longer fits how they want to use it. The two most common reasons people go looking for an alternative:

You're not on a US college campus. If you've graduated, or you never went, or you simply want a feed for your town rather than your school, a campus-gated app doesn't serve you.
You want more than short text. The original appeal was simple text posts and votes. Today people expect to share photos, video, polls, and questions too.

What to look for in an alternative

If you liked Yik Yak for the anonymity and the "what's happening right around me" feeling, look for an app that keeps both — without the campus gate, and with safety built in so anonymous doesn't slide into abuse:

Anonymous to other users — no profiles, no followers, no real names.
Local, with a radius you control — not a global feed, and not a fixed range you can't change.
Open to your whole community — not just students at one school.
Verified posters and active moderation — the honest answer to the old reputation anonymous apps earned.

Where hivemind comes in

hivemind is an anonymous, hyperlocal community app built on exactly those principles. You choose a radius — 1, 5, 10, 25, or 50 km — and see and post to people inside it, with no profiles or real names. It's open to anyone 18+ (no .edu email, no campus required), supports text, photo, video, GIF, meme, poll and "ask" posts, and requires a private, encrypted identity verification before posting so anonymity stays safe. It's free, live on iOS, and in closed beta on Android.

If you're weighing options, these head-to-head comparisons go deeper:

try hivemind

Free on iOS, with Android in beta.