iYabbr News

Want the iYabbr app before everyone else?

Hey iYabbr fam!

A while ago we told you about our brand new Android app. It works just like the website, but you also get notifications on your phone when someone sends you a message, comments on your profile or adds you as a friend.

Before Google lets us put the app in the Play Store for everyone, it has to be tested by at least 12 people for 14 days in a row. And that's where YOU come in!

Signing up is now super easy!

There's a new box on your Home page called Become an iYabbr App Tester! Here's how it works:

1. Fill in the email address of the Google account you use in the Play Store on your phone (usually your Gmail address).
2. Tick the box to confirm you have an Android phone and can keep the app for 14 days, and hit Sign me up!
3. We add you to the test list (this can take a day or two) and send you the test link in your iYabbr Mail.
4. Open the link on your phone, tap Become a tester, and install iYabbr from the Play Store.
5. Keep the app for at least 14 days and open it every now and then. That's it!

Every single tester brings the public launch closer, so please sign up and tell your friends!

Good to know:
- The app is for Android phones only for now. Sorry, iPhone friends!
- Testing is free and you can leave the test anytime.
- Your Play Store email is only sent to the iYabbr team to add you to the test. It's never shown on your profile.
- Already sent us your Gmail in a PM? Then you're already on the list, no need to sign up again!
- Found a bug or something weird in the app? Let us know, that's what testing is for!

Thanks for helping us make iYabbr even better!

Questions? Send a message to @iyabbr or email support@iyabbr.com.

Development on iYabbr is continuing at full speed, and another large batch of features and improvements is now live. 💙
This update focuses heavily on social features, customization, moderation, safety and making iYabbr easier to use for new members.
💬 More ways to be social
Profiles and posts have received a lot more functionality.
💌 Friend Testimonials
Friends can write testimonials for your profile. You decide whether to approve them before they become visible.
📊 Polls
Create polls directly inside bulletins and blog posts.
🔁 Reposts
Found a bulletin worth sharing? You can now repost it.
👥 Friend Circles
Organize your friends into your own circles, including a special Close Friends circle. Blog posts can also be shared with Close Friends only.
📝 Drafts & Scheduled Posts
Not ready to post yet? Save something as a draft or schedule it for later.
⏳ Time Capsules
Write something today and choose for it to unlock anywhere from 1 month to 5 years into the future.
📚 Blog Series
Connect multiple blog posts together into a series with easy « previous | next » navigation.
📸 Better Albums
Photo albums now support slideshows, and you can drag your pictures into your preferred order.
🎵 Profile Song History
Your profile can now remember your previous profile songs.
🔢 Retro Hit Counters
Add a classic visitor counter to your profile with 5 different styles.
👗 Dollz Maker
Create your own pixel dress-up character and even use your finished Dollz creation as your profile picture.
🌐 More ways to discover iYabbr
We’ve also expanded how members find people and content around the site.
🔗 Webrings
Profiles can join Webrings, complete with the classic:
« Previous | Random | Next »
🔎 Improved Search
Search now covers more of iYabbr, including:
- Blogs
- Groups
- Events
- #Hashtags
- Webrings
#️⃣ Hashtags & Trending
Hashtags now work across the platform, including a Trending This Week section.
@ Mentions
You can now mention other members using @username.
📰 Friends' Activity
A new activity feed lets you see what your friends have been up to and react to their activity.
🕰️ On This Day
Rediscover old moments and activity from the same date in previous years.
🎉 More profile fun
iYabbr profiles continue to become more personal.
🧩 Rearrange My Profile
Drag profile boxes into the order you want and hide sections you don't want displayed.
🏆 Layout of the Week
Creative profile layouts can now get some extra recognition.
📝 Surveys & Friend Quizzes
Create surveys and classic “How well do you know me?” quizzes for your friends.
👋 A better start for new members
Joining iYabbr should now feel much easier.
✅ Complete Your Profile Checklist
New members receive a checklist to help finish setting up their profile — completing it earns 100 Credits.
🗺️ Welcome Tour
A new guided introduction shows first-time members around the main parts of iYabbr.
🆕 What's New
There’s now a dedicated What's New page, while newly added features can temporarily display little NEW! labels in the menus.
💙 Official iYabbr Account
Every new member now starts with the official iYabbr account as their first friend and receives a welcome comment.
The account is designed for official platform communication and cannot send or receive private messages.
🛡️ Bigger moderation & safety improvements
A lot of work has gone into giving staff better tools while improving protection for members.
⚠️ Warnings
Staff can issue account warnings that remain visible until the member confirms they've read them.
⏱️ Temporary Suspensions
Accounts can now be suspended for 1–30 days, with access automatically restored when the suspension ends.
📝 Private Staff Notes
Moderators can leave internal notes on member accounts through the new admin Member Details page.
🖼️ New Member Picture Review
The first 3 pictures uploaded by a brand-new account can be held for staff approval.
🔔 Report Follow-ups
If you report something and staff take action, you'll now receive a notification.
🚨 Automatic Quarantine
Pictures reaching 3 reports can automatically be hidden and moved into private quarantine so the original image link stops working.
Posts and comments can also be automatically hidden after reaching the report threshold.
🛡️ Expanded Safety Alerts
Safety monitoring now covers more areas, including group chats, forums, room chat, comments and replies.
Additional safety keyword alerts are available for private messages and IM conversations involving under-18 members.
👥 Age-aware People Lists
Top friends, friend lists, comments, replies, stickers and birthday cards now follow age-group protections.
Logged-out visitors only see adult members.
👨‍👩‍👧 Parent & Quiet Hour controls
We’ve added more options for families using iYabbr.
🌙 Quiet Hours
During configured quiet hours, IM and notifications can be disabled overnight.
👪 Parent Page
Parents can access their own dedicated page and lock quiet-hour settings.
📧 Monthly Parent Summary
Parents can receive a monthly overview relating to the account they're supervising.
🔐 Account & privacy improvements
📱 New Device Login Alerts
You'll receive an email when your account is accessed from a new device.
⚖️ Ban Appeals
Members can now submit an appeal if their account has been banned.
🔗 External Link Warning
Clicking an outside link now takes you through a “You're leaving iYabbr” page first.
Links inside posts are also properly clickable now.
📥 Download My Pictures
Members can download all of their uploaded pictures together as a ZIP archive.
♿ More comfortable & accessible
🌙 Dark Mode
iYabbr now has a dedicated dark viewing option.
😌 Calm Mode
Prefer fewer animations? Calm Mode disables effects such as blinking and glitter.
⌨️ Keyboard Improvements
Better keyboard focus and a new skip link make navigation easier without a mouse.
🔥 Streak Reminders
Members can optionally receive reminders before losing an activity streak.
🛠️ Even the error pages got some love
Getting lost doesn't need to be boring.
The new retro 404 page includes search to help you find your way back, while error screens now offer a convenient Try Again button.
📢 More tools for the iYabbr team
We’ve also added:
📣 A site-wide announcement banner
🏷️ Official profile labels for:
Founder • iYabbr Staff • Moderator
These make official team accounts easier to recognize around the platform.

💙 iYabbr keeps growing.
This update adds another huge layer of social features, customization, moderation and safety to the platform — while keeping the nostalgic, personal feeling we're building iYabbr around.
Thanks to everyone joining us during these early days, trying out new features and helping us improve.
More is coming. ✨

We’ve been busy adding a huge amount of new content and features to iYabbr. The platform is still growing, but this update brings some of our biggest additions yet. 💙

🛋️ My Room
Every member can now have their own customizable pixel room.
You can walk around, sit down, chat with speech bubbles, customize your avatar, decorate your room, move and rotate furniture, stack smaller items on tables, switch certain items on and off, and change your wallpaper and flooring.
You can also visit other members’ rooms, leave likes, and discover rooms through the new Room Navigator.

🪑 537 New Furniture Items
The catalogue has received a massive expansion with 537 new pieces of furniture across 26 new sections.
New themes include Christmas, Lodge, Candy Land, Ice Palace, Space, Beach, Zen, Spooky, Diner, Kitchen, Bathroom, Office, Garden, Club, Royal, Gamer, Music, Library, Hotel, Valentine, Easter, Pets, Y2K, Sports and Window Views.
We also added new color variations for sofas, beds, chairs, lamps and TVs in Bedroom, Living Room and Tech.

🌆 Window Views
You can now add animated-style window views to your room, including forests, cities, beaches and skyscrapers.
These automatically change between day, sunset and night depending on the visitor’s real local time.

✨ Better Furniture Rendering
We improved how furniture is drawn so items now appear in the correct order and no longer overlap incorrectly.
We also fixed several furniture art issues, including beds, sofas, the throne and PC.
Furniture images are now versioned too, so updated artwork should appear immediately without old cached images getting in the way.

💎 Limited Rares
A new Limited Rare can appear each month with a limited number of individually numbered copies.
Members can collect them, and rare items are displayed in the new Hall of Rares.

🎨 Graphics Maker
You can now create your own nostalgic graphics directly on iYabbr.
The Graphics Maker includes:
- Blinkies
- 88×31 buttons
- Glitter text
- A public graphics gallery
- Shareable codes

💖 Sticker Walls
Profiles can now have a Sticker Wall, giving members another way to decorate and personalize their page.

🎂 Birthday Cards & Friendiversaries
Friends can now sign birthday cards for each other, and iYabbr can celebrate Friendiversaries when friendships reach milestones.

❤️ Reactions
You can now react to:
- Bulletins
- Blog posts
- Pictures

🔥 IM Streaks
Active conversations in instant messages can now build up a streak, complete with a flame indicator.

🎁 Gifts
Shop items can now be purchased as gifts for your friends.

👀 Who Viewed My Profile
Members can optionally enable profile visitor tracking.
It works both ways, meaning you only participate if you choose to use the feature yourself.

🏷️ Tag Friends in Pictures
Friends can now be tagged in uploaded pictures.
Tagged members get the chance to approve the tag before it appears.

📸 Pic of the Week
We’ve added a new weekly picture contest, with separate competitions for younger and adult members.

💤 Away Messages
You can now set an away message for instant messaging, including automatic responses while you’re unavailable.

📧 Weekly “What You Missed” Email
Members can receive a weekly summary showing some of the activity they may have missed while away.

🌙 Dark Layout Improvements
We fixed several areas that were difficult to read when using dark profile themes, including:
- My Room
- Away messages
- Kudos labels
- Sticker Wall text

🛠️ Fixes & Improvements
We also fixed several issues behind the scenes, including:
- Squashed furniture images in the catalogue
- Catalogue rows not lining up correctly
- A Shop gifting crash
- Old room messages not clearing properly
- Furniture layering problems
- Outdated furniture images being cached

There’s been a lot added lately, and there’s still much more planned.
iYabbr is continuing to grow one feature at a time. 💙

Thanks to everyone who’s joining early, testing things out and helping shape the platform.

A lot has been added to iYabbr recently, and the platform is starting to feel much more alive. Here’s what’s new:

🏅 Badges & Profile Stats

We’ve added a full badge system with 20 pixel-art badges across four rarities: Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary.

Many badges unlock automatically as you use iYabbr, including milestones for friends, comments, pictures, blog posts, groups, events and activity streaks.

We’ve also added six new automatic badges:

🎂 Birthday — visit iYabbr on your birthday
🛡️ Veteran — be a member for 1 year
📜 Forum Regular — make 50 forum posts
🎟️ Event Goer — attend 5 events
💜 Collector — collect 10 badges
🌟 Superstar — reach 1,000 profile views

And everyone joining during 2026 can earn the special Early Adopter badge along with 100 Credits. 💙

Profiles now also include a Stats section showing things like your member date, profile views, friends, comments, posts, pictures, groups, badges and best activity streak.

🪙 Credits are here!

iYabbr now has its own virtual Credits system.

You can earn Credits simply by being active: posting comments, using the forums, uploading pictures, making friends, writing blogs, hosting events and unlocking badges.

There’s also a daily reward streak starting at 10 Credits and increasing up to 40, with an extra +50 Credits every 7th day.

When your reward is ready, you’ll see a spinning 🪙 coin in the header with a red notification.

Your new My Credits page keeps track of your balance, daily streak, activity progress and Credit history.

Credits are completely virtual — they cannot be bought with real money or transferred between members.

🛍️ The iYabbr Shop

The new Shop launches with 27 items to personalize your profile.

You can unlock:

✨ Photo frames
🌈 Name effects
🌌 Profile backgrounds
🪄 Custom cursors
🏅 Collectible badges

Every item has a live preview using your own avatar or username.

When you buy something, it can be equipped immediately, while the new My Stuff section lets you switch between everything you own.

📅 Events

You can now create and join events directly through iYabbr.

Events include:

🎉 Parties
🎵 Concerts & Shows
🤝 Meetups
🎂 Birthdays
…and more.

You can RSVP with I'm going!, Maybe or Can't go, see guest lists, invite friends and even add events directly to your phone, Google Calendar or Outlook.

Your homepage also has a new My Events section showing upcoming events and invitations.

Hosts can edit or cancel events, while members can report inappropriate events.

👥 Groups & Forums

Groups have officially arrived!

Members can create their own communities around interests such as Music, Gaming, Fan Clubs and many more.

Groups can be Public or Private, and every group has its own classic-style discussion forum.

Forum owners and moderators can:

📌 Sticky topics
🔒 Lock discussions
🗑️ Remove posts
👥 Manage members
🛡️ Assign moderators

There’s also a new main Forum page showing the latest discussions from public groups across iYabbr.

Your profile can now display the Groups you're part of too.

🔔 Notifications

New notifications have been added for things such as:

• Event invitations
• Event RSVPs
• Event cancellations
• Group join requests
• Accepted group requests
• New forum replies

Many of these can also be sent by email.

🛡️ Safety improvements

We’ve also added extra protections for younger members.

Events and group member lists are restricted by age group, adults can create 18+ groups and events, and younger users won’t see content that isn’t appropriate for their age group.

Public events are also limited so adults’ meetups aren’t automatically shown to teenagers they don’t know.

💙 And we’re only getting started.

iYabbr is still actively being developed, but the foundation keeps getting stronger with every update.

Thank you to everyone joining early, testing features, sharing feedback and helping us build a nostalgic social platform that feels fun and social again.

Welcome to the early days of iYabbr. 🚀

We’re excited to announce that iYabbr is now live! 🎉

The platform is still very much in development, but the foundation is here — and we’re ready to start welcoming our first users.

iYabbr is being built as a nostalgic social media platform, inspired by the days when social networking felt more personal, customizable, and actually social. A place to create your profile, meet people, share what you’re up to, and simply have fun online again.

Things may still change, features will continue to be added, and you might occasionally stumble across something that isn’t quite finished yet. That’s part of joining us this early — you get to see iYabbr grow from the very beginning.

🌐 iYabbr is live
🛠️ Development is ongoing
👥 New users are welcome
💬 Your feedback can help shape the platform

If you miss the old-school social web and want to be part of something new with a nostalgic feel, come join us!

Welcome to iYabbr. 💙

— The iYabbr Team