Yik Yak is ready to take the next logical step by now allowing users to post photos—as long as no faces are involved.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, Yik Yak is an anonymous social app focusing on hyper-local content, gaining popularity mostly among college students. The basic idea of the service is that it allows users to share things without revealing their identity, posting anonymously.
The company has been testing the photos feature in a few communities and it's now ready to roll it out to all users, enabling them to post photos of their surroundings. Considering the slew of offensive messages and posts the anonymous app has generated in the past, it's understandable that it has plenty of restrictions in place now.
In other words, all users will be able to post photos now, but with some restrictions and limitations. Yik Yak will be moderating all photos before publishing them in the feed, which means that any photo you submit will have to receive approval. No inappropriate photos or illegal content are allowed, and no faces either. This means that users cannot invade the app with a slew of selfies and group shots, as it defeats the whole purpose of anonymity.
It's worth pointing out, however, that photos of people (with faces, of course) are banned only in the local feeds, but allowed in the photo collections within the Peek section called Explore. Rather than relating to a specific city or campus, this section has a broader audience.
The new photos feature will come as a new section called "View of the Day," which will show a grid of the most popular photos submitted by people in a certain location. The most popular photos are selected based on user votes—the more people vote the photo, the higher it will rank and appear in the grid.
This new Yik Yak release also introduces an extra security step, adding a phone number verification to help combat spam.
"You'll only be asked for your phone number once (unless you're a robot ... ) and the verification screen will appear before you post your next yak or reply," the company explained. "Nothing changes about how Yik Yak works, though—you can still remain anonymous to other users in the app, of course!"
The new photos feature, meanwhile, will be rolling out to all users within the next few days, which means that you may not be able to post a photo in your feed just yet. Once it rolls out and you can share photos, make sure to keep it clean.
"Be the person your dog thinks you are and only submit the good stuff," added Yik Yak.
