Kinky Dating | KNKI App Review

KNKI: Adult Dating for Kink bills itself a social networking and kinky dating app. But does it live up to the hype? In serving our vision to be the most trusted BDSM and Fetish community, we asked writer, Victoria Blisse, to look into the KNKI app for us.

KNKI App Overview

The KNKI app claims to be the first BDSM dating app to give you full social media capabilities but does it deliver on these claims? We find out.

KNKI App Visual Appeal | The outlook is grey

The KNKI app is definitely clean and sleek, but it's also not particularly exciting either. The predominant colour is grey with small pops of purple. It's easy on the eye but not memorable.

Laid out with all your actions in one simple top bar, the app is then made up of small square images that make it look a bit like Instagram. It's very modern looking and keeps the writing down to a minimum.

KNKI App Navigation and User Feel | Pretty smooth

Sign up is super simple; all you need is an *** address, username and password. You then choose your gender, which is quite binary, but you can select 'other' if you don't identify as male or female. There are a few different sexual orientations to choose from, and you can pick your lifestyle role, though the list is very brief. I couldn't find a descriptor that I felt worked for me, though. I had to pick one that was relatively close.

When you've signed up, you're encouraged to add a photo and edit your profile. As this is all people see when browsing, it's important to add a photo and some information about yourself as soon as possible to get the best use out of the KNKI app.

To communicate with others, you click on their profile picture to get various options to send a message or a shout out (a one-word emoticon saying things like cute and hot) or unlock your private photos for them. You can't upload explicit images to your profile, but you can send them to others via private messages. All the actions are pretty instinctual, and I found it generally easy to move around the site and see what I needed.

KNKI Community Feel | What community?

The KNKI app does allow you to follow other profiles you find interesting, this then shows up their photos in your feed. It's the closest you get to a community feel though as there is no capacity for group chats, no community forums or other ways to communicate with the other kinksters on the app as a group.

Communication is between individuals only, making the KNKI app clearly all about dating and hooking up. So if that's what you're looking for and you're a fan of picture based dating sites, this might just be for you.

It quickly becomes evident that there are many more male profiles than female ones but not only this, lots of profiles have photos that are of celebrities or general images anyone could find on the internet, which throws up some questions as to the authenticity of all the users.

Most of the users list their age as under thirty; there are few users older than that. The KNKI app is aimed at a social media using generation, which explains the number of users in the twenties utilizing the kinky dating app.

Users are spread out all over the globe, so you may struggle to find someone locally. However, if you're looking to connect with international kinksters, you can do this easily with the KNKI app. It even has a global button so you can see profiles of people from the world over.

A screen shot from the KNKI app
KNKI - a kinky dating app!

Is the KNKI App Free? Pretty much!

Sign up to the KNKI app is free, and you can then use it pretty effectively. There aren't loads of pop-ups and ads pushing you to upgrade either, which is refreshing. Although I did get the message to upgrade when I was browsing profiles, as you can't see all of them without paying. You can upgrade for $9.99 a month or $89.99 for the year.

The benefits are:

Expanded conversation history
Read-message notifications
Larger inbox
Private photo bucket
Upload 25 photos to your profile
View over 200 profiles at a time
View who likes you
Virtually travel around the world
Filter profiles by 'online only'
No blocking limits
No advertisements

It worries me that there are limits on how many users you can block without upgrading. As a female user of dating sites, I use the block feature a lot. I think it's a basic function needed for safety and it shouldn't be charged for. If you're not likely to use the block feature much, this might not be an issue for you.

KNKI Help and FAQ's | Some hard to find

It's not apparent at first look where to find the FAQ list. It's well hidden away. You need to click through to settings, then into support and information and you will see the Tips/FAQ heading there. Many of your practical questions will be answered with the FAQ, and you can also see the photo guidelines and terms of service too. If you can't find the information you need, you can *** support too with a simple click.

KNKI App Final Thoughts | Kinky social media

If you're looking for a simple to use, kinky dating app, KNKI might fit the bill. It works a little like a kinky Instagram, and you can connect with other users with just a few clicks. This app is definitely for you if you're a big fan of photo-based social media, and you can use most of the features without having to pay. Worth a try, especially if you're looking to connect with people the world over.

This article was originally published on 30th June 2016 and was updated on 18th March 2020.