Bigo Live

Is Bigo Live safe?

Bigo Live is a real, large app, but it is one of the riskier places on a phone, especially for anyone under 18. It pays streamers through virtual gifts that viewers buy, tracks users for advertising, and in December 2024 both Apple and Google pulled it after reporting on child abuse streamed through the app. We score it 40/100, close to TikTok (41) and below Twitch (53), the closest Western live-streaming app.

The app is run by Bigo Technology in Singapore. Its parent, JOYY, is listed on Nasdaq and earned US$1.53 billion from live streaming in 2025, most of it from Bigo Live gifts. The App Store page says the app has over 700 million users, which counts registered accounts, not people.

What happened in December 2024?

In early December 2024 Apple and Google removed Bigo Live from their stores. The trigger was a New York Times investigation, published on 7 December, into mothers who sold livestreamed sexual abuse of their children, with viewers paying through apps including Bigo Live. The Times did not name JOYY; Hunterbrook Media, which disclosed a short position in JOYY's shares, made the connection to the store removal.

JOYY's statement to investors on 20 December 2024 said it had a "zero-tolerance policy" against child exploitation, had added stricter rules on user content since the removal, and was reporting violations to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Google Play reinstated the app that day. JOYY's 2025 annual report says Apple followed in early January 2025.

Its moderation system, by its own account, combines AI models trained on "millions of policy violations", word filters in more than 20 languages and "thousands" of in-house and contract moderators. The same report warns that because streams happen live, the company cannot check content before it is broadcast. That is the core problem with any gift-based live app: the money flows in real time, and so does the harm.

Who is Bigo Live for?

Adults only, if you go by Bigo's own documents. The privacy policy says the company does not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18 and deletes it when it finds a minor's account. Apple rates the app 18+, listing frequent mature or suggestive themes, infrequent sexual content or nudity, loot boxes and messaging.

Google Play tells a different story. There, the same app carries a Teen rating. A parent checking the Android store would see a label that the company's own policy contradicts. Age checks happen only when money goes out: JOYY says users who withdraw earnings must give their full name, date of birth and ID, but nobody has to verify an identity to sign up, watch or send gifts.

How Bigo Live uses your data

Apple's privacy label says identifiers may be used to track you across other companies' apps and websites. Linked to your identity are precise and coarse location, purchase history, phone number, user content, user ID, device ID and how you use the app.

The privacy policy, last updated in January 2024, goes further. It lists your phone's IMEI and IMSI numbers, MAC address, SIM-based location, advertising IDs, and data from Facebook, Google and other accounts you connect. It links your activity across devices and lets Bigo share data with group companies for advertising and analytics. Bigo says it has not sold personal information under California's definition.

The Google Play data safety form says the app shares no data with third parties. That sits badly with Apple's label, which declares tracking, and with the policy's own text on ad identifiers. Where the two disagree we score the broader one.

Blocks and bans

Bigo has more government blocks than most apps on our list. India's IT ministry put Bigo Live on its June 2020 list of 59 blocked apps on national security grounds, and JOYY's 2025 annual report still cites the Indian block as a risk. Pakistan's telecom regulator blocked Bigo in July 2020 over complaints about "immoral, obscene and vulgar content", then lifted the block 10 days later after the company promised to moderate content under Pakistani law. On 14 February 2026 Turkey's telecom authority, the BTK, blocked Bigo Live and eight similar apps, including SUGO and Poppo Live, by administrative order; no reason was published. We found no privacy fine anywhere.

Indonesia came close to a block in 2024. The communications ministry, Kominfo, sent PT Bigo Technology Indonesia a second warning letter on 21 August 2024, after a first on 16 July, with no fine. Its online patrols had found 121 accounts linked to gambling content between late May and early August and 32 accounts with pornographic content in mid-August. The minister, Budi Arie Setiadi, said a third warning would mean a block, and Bigo promised to clean up and tighten moderation, the state news agency Antara reported. We found no block after that. Indonesia had also blocked Bigo Live in 2016 over pornographic streams and lifted the block after the company's founder accepted the ministry's conditions, detikINET recalls. A warning without a legal order is context under our rules, so it takes two points off the regulatory score.

How to use Bigo Live more safely

1. Keep it off children's phones. On Android, do not trust the Teen rating; block the app in Google Family Link.
2. Turn off precise location for the app and hide your location in Bigo's privacy settings.
3. On iPhone, refuse the tracking request. On Android, delete your advertising ID in Google settings.
4. Set a monthly limit with Apple or Google before you buy diamonds. Gifts are sent instantly and cannot be undone.
5. Ignore streamers or "agents" who ask you to move to another app, pay outside Bigo or send photos.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (22) is the weakest factor, because of the 2024 abuse reports, the store removal and a rating gap that lets the app look teen-friendly on Android. Regulatory record (38) reflects national blocks in India and Turkey, a short one in Pakistan and Indonesia's 2024 warnings, without any fine. Privacy (35) reflects ad tracking and broad device identifiers. Security (48) is middling: no known breach, but no public bug bounty and only partial encryption promises. For a similar voice-room app, see SUGO.