I see Kik more and more and want tontey it. How private/discrete is it for a non-tech person? If I put it in my phone will it read all my contacts and email addresses? Does it give people my phone number? Sorry for the seemingly dumb questions....My S7 makes my head spin.

Its very discreet im earth3791 if you wanna talk

More details than that please. How do you sign up? If you are on a shared computer but have your own sign on screen is it private? Does it involve contact with more than one person at a time? Vids? Pics?
I am a very non tech person and want to be sure it is safe to try.
Thanks.

I believe its smartphone only. There is no computer version.

It is a smartphone only app so can't be installed on a PC.

When you log in, it gives you the option to sync your contacts, so you can just say no. This means your contacts won't know you have it, if you want to only add people via their Kik username and stay private. In that sense it is similar to the old style Yahoo messenger etc, everything is done by username. I would suggest setting up a new email address for it.

One thing to note is that you can't log out as such, like on some apps. Logging out actually erases all of the data, so when you next log in all of the conversation history etc will be empty. It is basically the same as uninstalling and reinstalling the app.

There is an android version, so those of us with tablets can use it on them. There does appear to be a bit of software about called Andy that works to make your PC operate as a tablet, thus allowing kik to be used, but haven't tried it, so can't say if it works or not.

There is a package called BlueStacks that also lets you run Android apps on your PC, including Kik. It works OK.

There are ways to make it work on a PC non-natively, but I am assuming a non-tech newbie wouldn't want to get into that By design it is Android/iOS only.

Its "always on?" What does that do to battery life?

I'd be interested in checking out the apps that let it run on a PC. I've been using it on an iPad for some time with no problems. But a larger screen and real keyboard would be nicer.

I haven't noticed any significant change using it on the iPad. It just runs in the background like any other app.

Yes it is only always on in the same way that Instagram or Facebook are.