Making friends can be tricky. Even just interacting with others can be stressful for some. Have you ever finished a conversation with someone  only to replay every second of that conversation over and over in your head afterwards? Or maybe even during the conversation itself, you start overthinking every word you’re saying, taking your mind away from the conversation and leaving you unable to enjoy your time with the person you’re talking to? 

Well, here are some helpful tips for what to avoid doing and what you can do instead to have a successful conversation that you won’t need to rethink later on.

It’s important to show people you care about their life, or at least what they’re talking about, but when it starts turning into you asking question after question after question without you offering anything in return, it might start to feel more like an interview than a conversation.

What to do instead: It is still important to ask questions, but in between their answers add in your own anecdotes, ways in which you can relate or a time when you experienced something similar. After all, the person you’re talking too probably wants to learn about you too.  Instead of asking where they were born, what their parents do, what their dreams are, what’s the answer for that security question on some website without giving them all but two seconds to take a breath between answers, make sure you give them the chance to ask you questions and answer them as well. 

So, don’t ask too many questions, but also don’t talk too much? We’re not quite saying that. Avoid feeling pressured to fill every second of the conversation with interesting facts about yourself or your family’s history, what you ate today, how the weather is, or anything else that comes to your mind. People want to gain an understanding or your personality and your vibes, but you want to give the other person a chance to speak too so you can learn about their personality and their vibes. If the vibe is only talking about yourself and never allowing the other person to equally share, well, then it’s not vibing.

Instead, make sure you’re giving them the opportunity to add in their own interesting tidbits as well. And if they’re the type that doesn’t freely offer their own information, try to encourage them to share as well. Make it clear you want to know more about them, and you’re not just asking over pleasantries. 

While it’s important to share common experiences and relate to those you're talking to, be careful not to one up the other person. For example:

Potential Friend #1: “I had a horrible day yesterday.”

You: “Me too, my day was probably even worse. My fish died.”

Potential Friend #2: “I got tickets to this singer!”

You: “Cool! Oh, you’re sitting back there, I went yesterday and was just inches away from them!”

Potential Friend #3: “I’m so tired.”

You: “Me too, I stayed up really late feeding the homeless. You?”

We’ve all unintentionally done this – tried relating to them and instead ended up one-upping them intentionally. It’s okay to make that mistake, but if you keep doing it over and over, well, that person may not want to share any more information with you, and it could cost you the friendship, if there ever was one, right there. 

Let’s replay the previous conversations, but with some better answers. 

You: “I’m so sorry, do you want to talk about it?”

You: “You’ll have a great time! I saw them recently, and they were awesome.”

You: “Me too. What’d you do last night?”

This is not saying to avoid sharing your stories, but instead, be mindful of how you share them and how what you’re saying might make the other person feel. Don’t immediately discredit whatever your friend or potential friend shares with you. Let them speak, listen to them, make them feel heard, and then open it up to sharing your own stories. 

If you’re talking to someone, focus on them. Don’t do other things on your phone (unless your mom calls, that’s the only pass), take out your fidget spinner, or even a book. When you’re doing this, you’re telling them that the conversation with them is not as important as whatever else you are doing, that you need a distraction whenever you’re talking with them, or that they’re not good enough for your time.

Keep distractions on your photo to a minimum and try to avoid opening other apps or having other side conversations at the same time (again, unless it’s your mom, of course). Try your best to stay in the moment and show the other person that you’re interested in the conversation you’re having with them. 

While there’s many more “rules” that could be said, these are some common behaviors to be aware of. But, most importantly, don’t fret too much over it. Just be aware of what you say and of how you treat others. There’s no perfect strategy to creating or maintaining friendships, but caring is always the best place to start. 

Avoid Doing This To Make Friends

Oh, the holidays… full of joy, gifts, family reunions, tall tales, and quirky traditions. Before November is even over, stores begin to fill their shelves with Christmas-themed decorations overflowing with green and red ornaments, decor and trinkets. Whether or not you actually celebrate Christmas, you see it everywhere, and there is no escaping. While the first signs of Christmas can be exciting at the beginning, it can easily become too much. There are only so many times you want to hear Ariana Grande sing “Tell Me Santa”, and only so many Coca-Cola advertisement variations you can watch until they have the opposite effect. Perhaps you don’t even celebrate Christmas, maybe you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus (for the rest of us), or have your own holiday tradition you follow. Whatever the case may be, the end of December is something some people look forward to, but for others, it can be a difficult or even lonely time.

Maybe you’re dreading that inevitable family photo coming up right when your face just broke out, and you are struggling with your confidence. Or maybe you are scared of getting stuck sitting next to your crazy aunt who kind of smells and won’t stop talking the entire dinner. Or perhaps you made a lot of personal growth in a certain direction that your family might not agree with. Maybe there is some bad blood that will likely unravel at dinner. Or did you make certain diet changes, like going vegan and already mentally preparing to explain to your grandparents how you are not malnourished? There is an endless list of real anxieties, big or small, people may feel leading up to the holidays. 

Contrary to how so many people feel, the holidays are always represented in an idealistic way – where a big, happy family comes together around a warm fireplace and a beautifully decorated tree to laugh together as they open presents. This image of the holidays can make you feel pressure for your Christmas to live up to an impossible standard when actually it’s completely unrealistic (and also shot in a movie studio). Many people even spend the holidays alone or working. Maybe they moved somewhere new, are the last of their family, are in a transitional period in life, or whatever their unique story might be; they might have to spend the holidays alone or just with their pets, even when deep down they would prefer not to. If you have the space and resources, and you know someone who might be spending the holidays alone this year, even just asking if they would want to spend it with you could really cheer up the holidays. The small act of extending an invitation can go a long way, after all, they can always say no.

Over time it seems that the holidays have made many people lose sight of what they are truly about. It has turned into a materialistic holiday that revolves around buying presents for others (and realistically yourself too). There are deals after deals after deals, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, end-of-the-year sales, you name it. It is important to remember that everyone comes from different circumstances. What is a lot for some is a little for others. It can absolutely be hard not to get a little jealous of the ridiculous gifts others might get. Especially with the internet, everyone is showing off the cool things they got, and there can be stark differences in the holiday gifts one person receives compared to another. Some get brand-new cars completely paid off, others might get an avocado (you remember the video). It can feel unfair, but that's when it’s important to look at the meaning behind the gift. Everyone is in drastically different financial situations with different financial responsibilities to uphold. So remember, it is not really about the gift itself, it's about the fact that someone went out of their way to give you something they think you would like, whether it is bought or made by hand with love. The action and intention itself is what is truly special. A good rule of thumb to keep in mind for the holidays is: you should only look at what others have to make sure they have enough. That is what the holidays are really about. Spreading cheer and being kind to one another.

It is truly that simple. We just tend to forget it because of all the holiday madness that goes on. Whatever stressors you have on your plate, just know it will be okay, it might even turn out to be fun! And remember, you never know what other people have going on, so please, be extra loving this holiday season. So whatever you are celebrating, the Yubo team wishes you a happy holiday season!

Oh the holidays… full of joy, gifts, family reunions, tall tales, and quirky traditions. Before November is even over, stores begin to fill their shelves with Christmas themed decorations overflowing with green and red ornaments, decor and trinkets. Whether or not you actually celebrate Christmas, you see it everywhere and there is no escaping. While the first signs of Christmas can be exciting at the beginning, it can easily become too much. Whatever the case may be, the end of December is something some people look forward to, but for others it can be a difficult or even lonely time.

Don't Let This Holiday Season Bring You Down

The bromance. A term used to describe two men in a close friendship. It’s a beloved and popular word, used frequently in our society. But, why do we feel such a need to use such a word to describe a male friendship? Why can’t male friendships just be friendships? The assumed need of a unique term to describe the male friendship phenomenon is in itself something to consider. 

You’re probably familiar with the “bromance.” If not, it’s defined (by actual dictionary publishers) as “a close nonsexual friendship between men.” It’s also a mixture of “brother” and “romance,” despite having no romantic intent. Bromance would be used to describe the friendship between those like Joey Tribbiani and Chandler Bing (Friends), Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee (The Lord of The Rings), and of course, Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne (Dumb and Dumber). It’s that ultimate friendship between men other people might strive to have, or, just love watching unfold. 

While you may hear bromance used more frequently while discussing famous actor pairings or fictional characters, these definitions of what a male friendship should look like affects real life as well. Boys and men alike feel as if they can’t form those close friendships due to what others may think of them. In a 2021 poll by The Survey Center on American Life, it was revealed that American men who deem themselves to have “no close friends” have gone from 3% in 1990 to 15% in 2021. While that may seem like a small percentage, a quintuple increase is a significant indication of the issues that might be plaguing male friendship. 

Bromance had its first national appearance in the 1990s thanks to Dave Carnie, editor of the defunct American skateboarding magazine, Big Brother. He used this word to describe skateboarding friends who would have to spend a lot of time traveling and boarding together. Since then, the idea of needing to describe a male friendship as a Bromance grew in popularity thanks to movies like Superbad (2007) and I love You, Man (2009). Both these movies focused on extremely close male friendships who eventually both said, (unsurprisingly) “I love you” to each other. While connecting emotionally to each other should have been a heralded breakthrough, it instead was the punchline of a comedy movie. As displayed by Hollywood, men can’t just share their emotions freely. It always needs to be something to laugh at, and that’s a key problem of the term, bromance. 

But, why is bromance even used in the first place?

Simply put, we use the term “bromance” because of the societal pressures on men when it comes to emotions and relationships. There is no such thing as a “sismance” – or when two girls are close friends – that’s just called friendship. When a girl and a boy are friends, it’s still just friendship. But, when two boys are friends, that’s when it’s no longer a friendship and instead becomes referred to as a bromance. While it seems like just a comedic title for a friendship, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes. Referring to male friendships as “bromances” has an impact. 

How does using “bromance” limit male friendships?

If men were to share their emotions with fellow friends, they’d be seen as unmasculine. If men were to hug or show physical signs of affection for each other, they’d be referred to as a couple. It was so outlandish in the early 2000s media that two men could be affectionately physical with each other that Friends dedicated an entire episode to men napping together and the connotations involved with that. 

As children, boys can freely experience the emotions they encounter. But, as they get older, they’re discouraged from sharing those feelings with one another. They are conditioned to connect with each other over stereotypically “masculine” activities like watching or playing sports instead of actually talking to each other about their days, how they feel, issues they’re facing or what the latest is in their lives. In 2019, Movember polled over 4,000 men across the world about the pressures to “man up.” The study found that 77% of men polled believe talking is an effective way to deal with problems, while 76% of those polled believed that talking openly can provide a positive impact on their mental health. Despite those answers, 38% of men said they avoided discussing their feelings with one another so as to not appear unmasculine. And 21% said they just do not have anyone to talk about their problems with or would rather avoid doing so.

Friendship is an essential part of life, regardless of gender, and we should all be encouraging friendships no matter who they’re with or what they look like.

The bromance. A term used to describe two men in a close friendship. It’s a beloved and popular word, used frequently in our society. But, why do we feel such a need to use such a word to describe a male friendship? Why can’t male friendships just be friendships? The assumed need of a unique term to describe the male friendship phenomenon is in itself something to consider.

Why do we use the term, bromance?

2022 has been an amazing roller coaster for Yubo, a year full of challenges but more importantly, full of big achievements. The app has evolved significantly, releasing new updates and features with three main focuses: making the app safer than ever before, creating tailored exclusive features for users to find friends more easily, and finally, diversifying our user experience on livestreams.

We updated our reporting system. Although our reporting process has always been simple and accessible for our users in allowing them to communicate concerns about suspicious or harmful behaviors, user profiles or situations they experience on the app, we have improved the tool further to make it more effective for our Safety Specialists. This enables Yubo’s safety team to address any issues that are flagged by our users and take appropriate actions much faster than ever before. 

Users are now able to share more information and submit a longer message explaining any troubles they are facing on the app. Users can also now add up to four media files to their reports in order to provide our Safety Specialists with more context and help them to better understand the problem.

Our users’ safety is our number one concern, and it is important to Yubo that every user has sufficient agency to acknowledge how they are feeling and report any profiles or behaviors that are harmful or make them uncomfortable. 

We introduced a new age verification system in partnership with digital identity provider Yoti. Thanks to this new feature, Yubo has officially become the first social media platform to age-verify 100% of its users all over the world, with all users successfully verified in less than 3 months. With comprehensive age verification, Yubo can help ensure that everyone on the app is the age they say they are and give users confidence in who they are interacting with online. It also helps to prevent fake profiles, bots and people with bad intentions from accessing the platform, and to ensure users are socializing with others in their similar age group with a higher level of accuracy.

Making Yubo as safe an environment as possible where users feel empowered to interact online is of key importance to Yubo. This is why we give our users control of who they decide to and also why we allow them to block or report any users they are having problems with. 

We developed an audio moderation technology for livestreams, released for our English-speaking users in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. In partnership with Hive, a new machine learning AI was released that tackles challenges of real-time audio analysis. The AI records and automatically transcribes 10-second snippets of audio in livestreams of 10 or more people. The text is scanned by the algorithm instantly and only transcripts containing words or phrases that violate Yubo’s Community Guidelines are flagged for review by Yubo’s safety specialists. Transcripts with no suspected violations are not reviewed nor kept. As this technology continues to improve, it will help Yubo detect hate speech, bullying and harassment, violence and self-harm. 

We created an “Elite Pack” that our users can purchase for access to exclusive new features. This pack is an extension of the “Power Pack,”it  which provides users with unlimited swipes, a boost (to maximize the visibility of your lives), a turbo (to make your profile more visible in swipes) and a spotlight (to highlight your profile by putting it at the top of other users screens) each week. On top of that, with the “Elite Pack”, users are now able to send DMs to other users before they become friends, appear first in swipes for anyone they like and have access to their swipe history.

NEW to Yubo: Elite Power Pack

We expanded our “Pixels” collections, with more than 313 pixels released this year. Launched in 2021, Pixels are collectible digital art representing characters, emotions or personalities that users can purchase within the app. Users can collect as many Pixels as they’d like to add on their profile or send as a gift to their friends. Each new collection is created in collaboration with artists from all over the world – from Ulises Mendicutty’s futurist pink portraits, Velvet Kid’s anime-inspired creations to Lili Bellons’ watercolor illustrations, this year has been rich in creation for Yubo. 

All of these paid features allow our users to personalize their profiles and diversify their app experience. Yubo plans to continue providing its users with valuable and creative offerings with amazing new partnerships to be revealed soon. 

We revamped our live feed. In order for our users to have a more tailored experience from a content perspective, our new feed has been designed this year to adapt to each specific user. The feed now takes into account what a user likes, who they are friends with or what they are looking for on Yubo. The layout has been redesigned, segmented into categories of interests scrollable horizontally, all while still being able to browse the next categories vertically.

The Lives with your friends are also now prioritized on the feed to help our users continue to build strong friendships by, for instance, participating in recurrent lives with people that share similar interests, passions or cultures.

We recently released new interactive lenses, available using Snap’s Camera Kit tool. In addition to more than 30 filters already integrated on the app, our users now have the possibility to play games and challenge their friends through interactive, exclusive and fun lenses. For example, Yubo recently introduced a filter game called “Pixel Muncher,” where the goal is to catch as many falling Pixels on the screen as possible with your opened mouth on camera. The biggest scorers win! In “Fish Frenzy,” you have to take your fish as far as possible by opening your mouth to make him swim slower or faster while avoiding obstacles in your way. The longer you hold, the higher your score will be. 

We’ve moved forward in integrating more product features and updates on Android. It’s now possible for our Android users to screenshare content during their Live, making the experience more engaging and participative. This has been highly requested by our users for a while as it allows them to share pictures, videos, music or any other content they want their new friends to relate to or experience with them. 

The new Live feed has also been implemented on Android, and iterations are still running to adapt the initial version to users’ needs and preferences. Early 2023, we will also integrate the YouTube player, already available on iOS, as a new exciting feature for our Android audience. 

Yubo's 2022 product updates recap

Gratitude: the quality of being thankful; a readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness

The year is already coming to a close and we know a lot has happened. Life is full of the good, the bad, and the -non-literal- ugly, it's safe to say that life likes to dish out a good mix of the three (sometimes all at once). When prompted to look back on 2022, as with most years recently, the initial reaction probably tends to be something along the lines of “oof.”

We understand th is reaction, but while every year has its difficult times and unfortunate events, there is also a lot of good that happens as well. It’s all about how you frame it. It's easy for negative things to come to mind first, especially when you’re already feeling downbad. However, that shouldn’t cast a dark cloud over the entire year, it might be quite the opposite actually. Let's go back to the word at the top of the page: gratitude. Gratitude is the act of being thankful, it is the warm appreciation you feel when looking at the great things in your life and that life in general has to offer, and it often leaves people in a much better mood. While people were busy posting that they are #grateful they did not always feel that way. Again, gratitude is an emotion. Fortunately, it is pretty easy to move towards feeling grateful, because all you need to do is count your blessings.

“It’s the little things in life.” You’ve definitely heard that before and likely rolled youtube eyes. But time will teach you that it has always been the little things in life. A lot of people want to make it big and watch the sunset from the back of their yacht. Well a yacht costs a lot of money and you can watch the sunset for free from a bench or from your window. Perspective. That's pretty incredible when you think about it right? Life is full of the little things and acknowledging them can make life at least a little better.

There are fun little tricks you can do that will remind you of all the amazing things you have in your life. For example, every time you feel cold water, whether that be from washing your hands, the rain, or the shower, list three things you are grateful for. It doesn’t always need to be grand – most of life isn’t – it just needs to be genuine.

Another aspect of life many seem to take for granted are relationships. That bond you share with other people: be it your family, friends, classmates, or even just that person you always run into but don’t really know. All of those connections are special because out of the millions of people and places in the world, you and that other person happen to be in the same place at the same time, and have this shared experience together. That’s technically a statistical miracle, but because it happens every day we tend to take it for granted. We even take our friends for granted, blowing them off to order takeout and binge a TV show (although sometimes that is peak existence). We should be incredibly grateful for our friends, they are the family we choose or so happened upon. Knowing somebody will be there to make you laugh, smile, support your crazy ideas, and be a shoulder for you to lean on is really incredible. Even knowing that you would happily do that for one of your friends is plenty to be thankful for. If there is somebody you owe a quick thank you to, maybe now is a good time to tell them.

We also wanted to take the time to say thank you. Seriously, this isn’t an obligatory “we’d like to thank our valued customers” type of thank you, we are genuinely thankful for you. If you just like reading our blogs, enjoy our Instagram page, or love our app, we appreciate it. Not everyone has the privilege of having people support their dreams (our dream being to help people create new friendships and connections online) and when over 60 million people continue to support Yubo’s vision, it is pretty hard not to be grateful for that. Every single team and member of Yubo is thankful for our users. You make our jobs fun, challenging, and genuinely rewarding.

With Thanksgiving coming up tomorrow, if you celebrate, we would like to wish you a happy turkey day (to the vegans too). There is something special about when family and/or friends come together simply to share a meal and their time with each other. We also hope that you will continue to focus on all the little things life has to offer past Thanksgiving, every day is full of them.

Thank You

Everyone has heard the age old expression, “opposites attract.” Whether you’re talking about The Beauty and the Beast, Ron Weasley and Hermione, Wall-E and Eve, or Shikamaru and Temari; opposites attract is one of the oldest tropes in fiction. But, does the same idea apply to platonic relationships? Do similar interests matter when making friends? Yes, and no. 

Similar Hobbies & Interests Make it Easier to Make Friends

If you research how to make friends, most articles such as this one, will tell you a key component to making friends is through joining something. Whether it’s a club, organization, or even a fandom, the key is to be with like-minded individuals who share similar interests to you.

For example, if you’re a major anime fan, head over to an anime convention! As described in a cosplayer thread, conventions are “the easiest way to make new friends… it's easy to just chat with people.” Any fan of anything absolutely loves to talk about their theories, reviews, ideas, or just their love of that topic! It’s easy to start off any conversation, or soon-to-be friendship, with an opener about your common interest. In a recent survey directed towards Americans about friendship, 51% of surveyors said they have activity friends, meaning those that they participate in different activities with whether it be hobbies, sports, or anything else social. 

Making friends by absolutely fangirling over a concept doesn’t just have to be something that happens in real life either. Thanks to social media, and of course, the internet, people from all over the world can meet those with similar interests to them! Online friends may be a bit more rare than real-life friends with 39% of surveyors from the previously mentioned survey saying they have friends that they purely only interact with on the internet, and never in person. But, these bonds can be twice as strong. 

You might have noticed this yourself, but humans tend to be more confident online than in person. Of course, this might make you think of internet trolls, who have confidence because they’re able to hide, but for this instance, we’re taking a look at a more positive side of internet interactions. So, what are the reasons behind the boosted confidence and how does it help you make friends?

When introducing yourself to someone online with a known interest similar to yours, you can get straight to the point of discussing your passions. No more wasting time with the obligatory (and boring) greetings. Plus, talking about a shared interest instantly brings a level of excitement to the conversation that you both share. You’ll feed off each other's energy and thanks to the safety of your screen, you don’t need to think of strong responses right away. You have time to read what they said, process it, think of what to say, and send a worthy reply. Just because you need some more time online (usually) to add to a conversation, doesn’t make the conversation any less genuine. 

At Yubo, we want to make meeting and making new friends as simple as possible. That’s why we added the add by tag feature to be the ultimate icebreaker. 

What are tags on Yubo? Yubo tags are interest-based signs that can be added to any user’s profile. Users can add as many tags as they’d like! All they have to do is go to their profile, click “tags,” and then pick their favorite tags from any of our 18 categories:

TV & Podcasts, Games, Music, Movies, Sports, Food, Languages, Schools (higher education only), Places, Manga & Anime, Lifestyle, Activities, Pronouns, Brands, People, Books, Spirituality, and of course, Yubo.

And then, if a user would like to add someone else with the same tags, all they have to do is open up their profile, click on the said tag, and then they’ll see a list of those who all have the same tag in their own profile. Watch a full tutorial and explanation of the add-by-tag feature below!

Find your Friends on Yubo with Add by Tags

Are Friendships Stronger because of similar interests?

Having similar interests can definitely make friendships easier to form and maintain. If the two of you are into the same musician, you can listen to their music together. If you’re both obsessed with the same tv show or book, you can read it or watch it at the same time. If you’re into basketball, you can discuss strategy or the game that’s on. Having similar interests or hobbies can help ensure you never run out of something to connect on or talk about with that friend. 

Do you need to share interests to be friends?

No. While having similar hobbies or interests can make friendships easier, it does not reflect the quality of your friendship at all. Opposites attract doesn't just apply to romantic pairings on the screen, but also to your friends in real life. Many friends have stark differences that end up complementing each other. When making a friend, or evaluating a current friendship, all that truly matters, is how they make you feel. 

Do Similar Interests Matter When Making Friends?

Yes, Yubo does not cost anything. It’s a free app to download from the Appstore or Google Pay Store. All Yubo’s main features are free to use.

One thing that makes Yubo unique when compared to other social apps, is our freemium model. We provide our users with the option to purchase bonus features to enhance their experience on the app, similar to what is often seen across gaming culture. Again, Yubo and all of its core features are completely free to use, but some users who want a bit more out of their Yubo experience might want some of the bonus features offered.

Is Yubo Free?

YuBucks are Yubo’s in-app currency that allow users to purchase things like Pixels and Boosts from our in-app store. There are a variety of YuBuck bundles users have the option to purchase, offering different quantities to better fit their wants. We noticed that our community often tops up their YuBucks balance quite often, so we introduced a YuBucks subscription which gives users 3,500 YuBucks every week at a discount rate. You cannot send YuBucks to other people, but you can send your friends Pixels!

Pixels are Yubo’s in-app digital collectables. At the time of writing this Yubo has released 13 editions of Pixels! Each new Pixel edition is done by a different artist that Yubo collaborates with in order to deliver fresh and amazing Pixels every time. Most Pixel collections are limited editions, which means that they are only available for a limited time. Others have made it to our Pixel Hall of Fame and are around forever. For example, the Zodiac Pixel collection will always be available because our users like sending friends their zodiac signs on their birthdays. And of course, there are other classics like Dabocado and Rhinomillion that we just don’t have the heart to get rid of.

You might be wondering, what does a Boost do on Yubo? Well, a Boost promotes the livestream you are in, making it more visible on the livestream page so other people are more likely to see it and join you and your friends. When our community tries to host games or funny conversations that pair better with a large audience, they will boost their live in order to get more engagement.

You have the option to do a single boost or you could go big and do a 30x boost! Other lives might be boosted as well, so it is good to know that the live with the most Boosts is the top live and the rest follow in Boost order. Many boosted lives going on at the same time may cause a Boost war, where users will try and out-boost other lives to claim first. But there's a catch (literally). Boosts only last for two minutes and then they expire. This is where the phrase, “catch the Boost” came from. If you hopped in a boosted live, you definitely heard it.

With the Power Pack you get a free Boost, Turbo, and Spotlight every week and unlimited swipes, plus the ability to see who swiped on you.

Spotlight puts your profile at the top of users home screens, making it easier than ever to form new connections. As soon as they click on your spotlighted profile, they can send you a message, so you better be ready to talk!

Turbo makes your profile a priority in the swipe section. After activating Turbo, your profile will be the first one to appear in everyone's swipes – talk about getting noticed. There are time options for Turbo as well. If you have the Power Pack or the Elite Pack, which we will get to next, you get a free Turbo every week that lasts five minutes. But, if you have some extra YuBucks lying around, you can use those to increase the time duration to up to two and a half hours! 

While the Power Pack is definitely powerful, a little pun intended, the Elite Pack is the all access pass to Yubo. Elite Pack owners get everything the Power Pack has to offer plus a few more features, like: sending messages before you become friends, appearing first in swipes to everyone you swipe right one, and being able to see your swipe history. 

Again, every core feature of Yubo is completely free. The Power Pack, Elite Pack, Pixels, and YuBucks are for those who are willing to spend a little to get more out of Yubo. Please enjoy our app responsibly. Occasionally, Yubo hosts fun “competitions” or giveaways on Instagram and Twitter where you can win awesome Pixels or even the Power or Elite Packs for free!

Yubo does not cost anything. It’s a free app to download from the Appstore or Google Pay Store. All Yubo’s main features are free to use. One thing that makes Yubo unique when compared to other social apps, is our freemium model. We provide our users with the option to purchase bonus features to enhance their experience on the app, similar to what is often seen across gaming culture. Follow the Yubo team as they present all the paid features that can enhance your Yubo experience.

Is Yubo free?

Generation Z is leading to be the most influential generation of all time. They’re a generation of people who grew up witnessing injustices on social media, who went through a global pandemic during what was supposed to be the best years of their life, who can amplify their voices with a simple tweet, and who are excitedly changing traditional norms of society. 

Today’s Midterm elections in the United States are the first time we as a nation will be able to see the true impact of Gen Z on U.S. politics. To better understand Gen Z and their crossover with politics, we sent out a poll to over two thousand Yubo users of voting age in the United States asking for their views on the upcoming election and American politics.

Gen Zers (typically) are those born from 1997 to 2012, and currently counts for those of ten to twenty-five years of age. In the United States, Gen Z is the most racially diverse generation thus far with only 52% of Gen Zers being white, while their predecessors, Millennials, were 61% white. They also happen to be on track to be the highest educated generation we’ve seen, already enrolling a higher percentage of Gen Zers into college than Millennials had respectively. This sets Generation Z to not only be a more informed group, but a group who better represents all people within the United States.

Will Generation Z Vote in the upcoming elections?

Out of over 2,000 Gen Z users polled, 69.8% of surveyors said yes to voting in the upcoming election. By 2024, Millennials and Gen Z are estimated to account for the largest percentage of U.S. voters, giving them a real opportunity to make changes. But, what type of changes may these be?

What topics matter most to Gen Z when voting?

50% of surveyors said the Economy was the most important topic to them. This was followed by social justice at 43%, healthcare at 42%, and employment at 32%. Taxation, education and climate change all had similar numbers near 30%. Foreign policy/relations and international trade were the least picked options. 

Gen Z’s concerns match what their generation has gone through. Many have graduated from high school, expecting to move out, only to be hit with the high costs of homes, rent and interests rates, plus a worldwide pandemic affecting employment. Due to the increase of social media, Gen Zers are more aware of social justice issues than ever. In a study done by Reach3, they found that 77% of those asked, said TikTok helped them learn more about social justice, as well as politics. An early display of the power social media has on politics can be seen with one of the past presidential candidate’s rallies receiving over 1 million RSVPs, just for less than nineteen thousand supporters to show up in person. What caused this fakeout? Young supporters of a Korean Pop band wanting to make their idols proud by taking a stand for what they believed in. All communication was done strictly through social media. 

Surprisingly, when we polled our users asking if they share their political opinions on social media, 61% of users said no while 72% of users said they believed sharing political opinions on social media has an impact. 

How does Gen Z determine who to vote for?

We know the topics most important to Gen Z, but now, how do they pick a candidate? Well, in our Yubo poll, 68% of surveyors said they would choose a candidate based on their specific ideas and plans while only 17% said they would choose a candidate based on their party alone. Gen Z is seeking a candidate who truly represents their beliefs, instead of just representing a party they’re supposed to align with. They’re ready to move on from the traditional style of politics, and truly focus on the individual who can shape the country into the view they want to see. 

When asked if American politics are outdated, 64% of respondents answered yes with 55% of them blaming this on the two-party system, electoral college, winner-take-all voting, and the requirements to vote. 25% of poll takers, however, believed the two-party system is the key reason American politics are outdated. 

How Can You Be More Involved in Politics?

You don’t need to have thousands of followers to make a difference, all you need is to use your voice. First and foremost, go out and vote! After that, you can post your beliefs to whichever social media platform you may have. If you’d prefer to stand for what you believe in more physically, then volunteer for a campaign or attend peaceful protests throughout your community. You can join a nonprofit organization to spread their message or donate to your favorite NGO. However you chose to be a part of the change is up to you, and no matter how small the action may seem, it only needs to impact a single individual to ignite change. 

Generation Z is leading to be the most influential generation of all time. They’re a generation of people who grew up witnessing injustices on social media, who went through a global pandemic during what was supposed to be the best years of their life, who can amplify their voices with a simple tweet, and who are excitedly changing traditional norms of society. 
On the occasion of the Midterm elections in the United States and to better understand Gen Z and their crossover with politics, Yubo sent out a poll to over two thousand Yubo users of voting age in the United States asking for their views on the upcoming election and American politics.

Gen Z and Voting

Let’s be honest, despite being an extremely toxic behavior, trolling is harmful! Nowadays, everyone has crossed paths with a troll on social media, not only do they tend to be irritating, but what’s most impressive is their dedication to cruelty by creating drama and negativity online. You’ve probably wondered, how do these trolls find the time and energy to connect online and feel the need to purposely provoke or attack individuals. It’s difficult to understand their why, and sometimes, to detect it. Most trolls on social media do not have a precise purpose or plan, except for making sure they trap you into a conversation or situation you don’t want to be a part of.

What’s the typical behavior of a troll?

Trolling is essentially posting hateful or inappropriate content that targets others purposely or commenting virulently to someone else’s post. In most cases, trolling reaches a point where it can be considered as online bullying or harassment. They look to get a response, whether it’s forcing a reaction or emotionally affecting you, and then they keep pushing in that direction until it becomes impossible for you to not respond and engage into a never-ending and painful debate.

That type of behavior is difficult to combat and manage for social media platforms, governments and authorities as trolls create multiple accounts a week, jump from one to another with an obviously fake name and no location. For this reason, the trolls feel increasingly powerful and untouchable as they can’t be held accountable for their actions online.

Not all trolls are bad trolls though. Some are just trying to have some fun. They goof around and make jokes that don’t attack anyone. But, they still can be irritating for continuously spamming certain posts, by sharing hundreds of memes a day for instance. 

Being confronted with trolls online every day can end up affecting your self-esteem and mental health, especially if you are directly targeted or criticized by a crowd. Indeed, another typical behavior is to act as a group. Repetition is what can make it unbearable for you to ignore and when it reaches a point where you can’t ignore it any further. Online hate is not only criticisms about your looks, choices or personality. Online hate can include hateful comments about race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and everything that makes you “you”. 

Long term, it’s tricky to keep a distance mentally with negative and absurd comments. This type of online activity can result in depression, helplessness and anxiety for its victims. That’s why it’s so important not to let trolling last and to address it right away by an adult or specialists that can support you in dealing with the trolls and how you respond to them

There are many resources online, we provide some useful links on our website.

There is no magical solution to remove trolling, of course, and most of the useful tips rely on you to follow them in order to deal with trolls efficiently. But there are a couple of things you can do to protect yourself from these behaviors.

First and foremost, and I know it seems easy to say, but just ignore them. Follow this famous quote, “Silence is better than unnecessary drama”. Don’t play their game, be better than them. The main fuel that feeds their harmful comments is your response. If you become a participant in the conversation, then they will see it as the perfect opportunity to ridicule you until you break. You can also help protect others. If everyone ignored the trolls, then, they would no longer have that entertainment value gained from trolling and they might consider investing their time into something else -- at least that’s our hope for the future.

Another tip is to find the right balance between monitoring your social media accounts to make sure it doesn’t escalate and knowing when to step away. When it becomes overwhelming, just close the app, put your phone away, talk to some of your friends, watch a Netflix show, take care of yourself until the wave of anxiety or potential anger has passed. The good thing about the internet is that there is such a flow of information and messages circulating every day that they will quickly jump into another drama starter and leave you alone. You can safely delete their comments, block them, and move on to a positive mindset right away. In addition, every social media has a support team you can report the trolls to, and of course, if you ever feel threatened, contact the police. 

How To Mute Words and Report on Yubo

Another useful thing to remember is that you can record or screenshot any negative comments or DMs you receive before they get deleted so that you keep actual proof of what happened, which would later be useful to try and catch perpetrators.

Even if their reaction can be unpredictable, before posting anything, look at it twice and make sure you anticipate the kind of replies you might get. Don’t forget you can delete your posts or comments at all times if you have doubts. 

Let’s be honest, despite being an extremely toxic behavior, trolling is harmful! Nowadays, everyone has crossed paths with a troll on social media, not only do they tend to be irritating, but what’s most impressive is their dedication to cruelty by creating drama and negativity online.

What's Trolling on Social Media?

Witches, warlocks, goblins and ghouls can give quite a fright, but what will await you on Yubo this Halloween night? Find your zodiac sign below to see what the crystal ball has predicted. 

Taurus - Reaffirming to the streamers that there will NOT be scary stories shared. While you love the festivities of Halloween, you can do without the spooky parts. Be ready to tell them every few seconds that there’s a strict no scary stories allowed policy in your livestream rooms. Let that Taurus energy shine. 

Aries - Falling for the Trick on Yubo Live. Trick-or-treat except it’s a trick with no treat. There’s not many ways for others to trick you, but people tend to get extra creative on Halloween. When you choose “trick” during the game on live, you won’t be expecting the jump scare you’ll receive. It probably won’t be a lesson learned, but your Yubo friends will make sure you don’t forget that moment for a while. 

Gemini - Ghosthunting on Yubo Live. You're determined to prove to the viewers that your house is indeed haunted. Whether it’s true or you made up the horror story about the sweet family who lived in the home 200 years ago, no one will know for sure. But, now's the time for you to show just how haunted that house is. The lights begin to flicker. Is it the ghost or did you overload the circuit? 

Aquarius - Making New Friends, completely unrelated to Halloween. What? It’s already Halloween? You’ll be just hanging out on Yubo, messaging some awesome new, totally not spooky, people. If you’re up to it, you’ll be extra kind and send them a special Halloween pixel. 

Cancer - Hiding from the scary stories in layers of blankets, but still streaming. You have a love-hate relationship with scary stories. They terrify you, but they also exhilarate you. You will invite different users up to share their spookiest story, and with each story you’ll grab another blanket to create a protective layer between the monsters and you. You’ll eventually grab your dog, cat, or ferret for more comfort, but you’re too enthralled by the story of the woman in the rosebush. Spoiler: it’s thorny. 

Leo - Collecting All of the Halloween Pixels. Did someone say limited edition spooky pixels? You love showing off your pixel collection, so you’ll make it more special by adding the most exclusive pixels you can. Perhaps you’ll even be inspired to mimic one as your Halloween costume: the evil jack o’lantern, zombie jock, stylish witch, classic creepy doll, hip vampire, or the Skeleton who’s bad to the bone? Just avoid dogs if you chose the last one. 

Virgo - Taking your Live audience on the carefully laid out trick-or-treat route you’ve made up. Would some consider you as a little old to be trick-or-treating? Possibly, but we celebrate you for embracing the Halloween spirit. All the past years of trick-or-treating have prepared you for this night: the night where you’ll reach a record high of candy received. Your viewers will be in awe at your skill and it may even inspire them to go trick-or-treating one more time. 

Libra - Brainstorming 100+ different halloween Live titles. Halloween Fun. Too basic. Ghouls and ghosts. No one will understand that. Pumpkin Spice. Yeah, you’ll figure it out eventually. You’ll keep changing it throughout your Live. The viewers and other streamers will critique your choices, and cause you to change the title yet again. But, eventually, you’ll come across the perfect spooky name for your livestream. 

Scorpio - Hosting the makeup or special effects Live. It’s time to show off that artistic talent you’ve been practicing for months. Will there be gore, fright, or just something that shows well under your ring light? We cannot wait to see what creative look you’ll be creating!

Sagittarius - Wearing the best costume ever. While the crystal ball can’t foresee what costume that is, it’s clear that it’s unique. That costume will become your new personality for the next few months. It’ll take over your profile pictures, profile videos, bio section, and you may still even wear it a few times afterwards when invited up to stream. 

Capricorn - Hosting the Halloween Dance Party. Scream & Shout because it’s time to host the most epic Halloween virtual dance party ever witnessed. Heads will Roll at the amount of Spooky, Scary Skeletons doing the Time Warp in perfect unison. Whether you’re playing Thriller or a Ghostbusters remix, make sure you join the party before I Put A Spell On You. After all, This is Halloween. 

Pisces - Sharing Their Craziest Halloween Story. What’s the scariest thing on Halloween? The antics a Pisces gets up to. We know you have some absolutely insane stories to share, and we’re sure your fellow Yubo users can’t wait to hear them. No matter how many times you’ll tell the story, it will never get old and it never fails to leave your listeners a little ghostly. 

Yubo Horoscope: Halloween

Despite both logos being yellow, Yubo is not affiliated with Snapchat and is its own live social discovery app for Gen Z. However, Yubo does have a partnership with Snapchat revolving around the Snapchat Camera Kit.

Yubo Origin Story

If you have spent time on the livestreaming section of Yubo, you might have noticed camera filters similar to ones on Snapchat. Again, Yubo is not connected to Snapchat, it just utilizes Snapchat’s Camera Kit – which is an AR tool that Snapchat provides for platforms to use! It allows platforms and creators to use Snapchat’s filter system and features in other apps. Snapchat is the social media hub of face filters - from ones that put fun little butterflies on your cheeks, to ones that completely warp your face. Snapchat filters have even begun dipping into augmented reality and filter-based games! Snapchat also has an open filter system, where practically anyone can create custom filters and upload them to Snapchat for others to use. Since Snapchat has become the mecca for face mobile app filters, they decided to share their technology through a Camera Kit. Livestreaming is a large part of how users interact on Yubo so it made sense to naturally integrate filters to make Lives more fun and comfortable. Instead of working from the ground up, Yubo partnered with Snapchat to use its already amazing technology to spice up livestreams with fun filters. That is why you will notice a small watermark that says “powered by Snapchat” when using them. In addition to the Camera Kit lenses, Yubo also creates its own filters and game filters to be used exclusively in the Yubo app! 

In fact, Yubo just debuted its first filter-based game, Pixel Muncher! In this game, Pixels, which are Yubo’s in-app digital collectables, fall from the sky, but so do spiked wrecking balls. The goal is to catch as many Pixels as you can without catching the wrecking balls. Players will also notice three hearts at the top of the screen, every time a player accidentally eats a wrecking ball, they lose a heart. If the player eats three wrecking balls, the game ends and shows them their score. After the player catches a certain amount of Pixels, the game gets faster and speeds up the rate at which they fall. Just like any other filter in the Yubo app, multiple people can play Pixel muncher at the same time. So don’t be surprised if you see a live with ten people on stage playing Pixel Muncher to see who gets the highest score.

Yubo added face filters to its livestreaming feature for two reasons. The first reason is simple: it's fun. With tons of filters for users to choose from there are endless livestreaming possibilities. Lives can be themed where everyone on camera is an alien or a Dorito chip - we don’t judge. Users are always trying to find new and funny filters to show their friends. The second reason is to help take the edge off of social anxiety. Some people are shy and don’t want to fully expose their face on camera, but still want to interact beyond being camera off. This is where filters can really help bridge that gap and make users more comfortable. With filters they can more confidently interact on screen with other users. Maybe all they need is a subtle filter that adds butterflies or flames to their cheeks, maybe they like using the Yubo-favored “big mouth” filter. Or perhaps they only want their eyes and mouth to be visible, so they lean towards the alien, sloth, or even banana filter.

Yubo’s Interactive Filters: Be what you want, when you want

Yubo is one of the few social media platforms that is actually “social”. When you think of social media, many platforms involve scrolling through carefully curated feeds or highly-edited content. While this format of course offers value in its own way, it tends to encourage more passive engagement and lead to parasocial relationships. Instead, Yubo focuses on creating an environment that allows for authentic interactions. Yubo users have the chance to talk with others in real time through Yubo’s signature livestreaming feature or share direct messages with others as well. 

Ultimately, Yubo saw the need to help create new connections, not just give them the tools to stay connected to people they already knew. While implementing filters might seem like a small step towards that goal or even an industry standard at this point, it is largely important to ensure every user has the tools they need to form new connections. Yubo is a stand alone app with industry leading safety technology and 60M users across the world. Yubo strives to be the leading live social discovery app for Gen Z and will continue to create genuine connections online.

We both have an amazing yellow logo and this seems to confuse some people. But Yubo is not affiliated with Snapchat and is its own live social discovery app for Gen Z. However, Yubo does have a partnership with Snapchat revolving around the Snapchat Camera Kit. The Yubo team is here to show you all its advantages!

Is Yubo connected to Snapchat?

That is up to you to decide! When you create a Yubo account, the app will ask if you would like to allow Yubo to use your location, you can then select “yes” or “no.” Sharing your location is not required to use Yubo, but it does slightly hinder the Yubo experience. Of course, you can change your location sharing settings at any time. Simply go to Settings > Safety and Privacy > Location > here you can turn on or off “use my location” and you can decide if you would like to hide your city as well. We give users full control over their privacy when it comes to the Yubo app and interacting with other users.

As a social discovery app, we want our community to make genuine connections. Yubo prioritizes showing you people and lives that are closer to your location, if you choose to share it. Don’t worry, this does not mean you are always going to be swiping on your neighbors. It simply means you will see lives and people closer to you first. For example, if you live in New York, you will see New York-based lives before you see Chicago-based lives. But, we also understand the fun in meeting new people from completely different backgrounds, which is why we don’t limit the reach of people you can meet on Yubo. We encourage making new friends, whether they be in the same city or another country.

You can control the regions you would like to see for both swipes and lives!

To change the location settings for Yubo’s swipe feature, head over to Settings, then Swipe Settings (it has its own tab). Here, you will see a location tab, tap it to change your swipe settings. You can choose between three main options: country of location first, all around the world, or country of location only. If you select the country of location first option, you will be able to select the maximum distance away of users to show you. It can be anywhere in the range of 18 miles to 65 miles. That’s about 19 kilometers to 104 kilometers for pretty much everyone outside of the United States. You even have the option to hide your profile from swipes, which means other people will not see your profile in the swipe section.

Once you are at the Live page, in the top left corner you will see a hamburger (the stack of lines, yes, it is actually called a hamburger). Tap it and you will see live filters. If you select distance, yubo will show you lives in order of distance, starting closer and getting farther. On this page, you will also see a location menu, where you can choose specific countries or select the worldwide option. Just like that, you can virtually travel around the world!

Changing your location on Yubo is fast and easy. All you need to do is go to Settings > Safety and Privacy > Location. Here you will see a tab that reads, “city.” Simply tap the city tab to refresh your location! You cannot manually enter a location because we believe in creating an authentic user experience and we do not want to give any power to potential trolls. 

Does Yubo use my location when the app is closed?

No, Yubo will never use your location unless you are actively using the app. We do not want to infringe on any of your privacy rights, nor your data. Additionally, we do not share any of your location data with anyone. It is kept safe and secure with us!

What if I don’t share my location with Yubo?

If you decided to disable location sharing on your Yubo account, it won’t hinder the Yubo experience at all! You will still be able to access lives from all around the world, meet people within similar interests in the swipe section of the app, and use almost every feature Yubo has to offer. The only features you will not have access to are the location-based features. These include filtering the swipe radius closer to your location and showing lives closer to your first. Instead, the lives and users will be tailored to you by the country you signed up with if you are even using those features in the app. You don’t need to share your location to enjoy Yubo. Additionally, users who are 17 years of age or younger, you will not be able to share your location at any time. We disabled this feature to ensure the safety of our younger users.

So, if you want to meet new people with similar interests near your or on the other side of the globe, hop on Yubo, the safest place for young minds to connect.

At Yubo, we place the safety of our users at the heart of everything we do. And this concern also includes protecting the privacy of Yubo users. Of all the information we share every day on the internet, location is a very valuable piece of data and sometimes it is best kept to oneself. It's always important to know who you're sharing your location with, so here's a quick guide to everything about location on Yubo.

Does Yubo Use Geolocalization?

Safety is at the core of everything Yubo does. No matter what new feature is implemented, Yubo will always prioritize the safety of its community above all else. Yubo aims to create a space where people from all over the world can interact authentically, whether it be in Lives or through swipes. Yubo does a lot to uphold its Community Guidelines through advanced AI, real-time human moderation, and extensive safety features. Even with all of this in place users still might run into something they find harmful or inappropriate. This is why Yubo made its report feature as quick and simple as possible.

Yes. To report a user on Yubo, simply tap on their profile. In the top right corner, you will see a shield with an exclamation mark icon, tap on that and select “Report”. Next, there will be a set of categories you can select to give better context to the situation. If you would like, you can even type an explanation as to why you are reporting the user and add photos or videos as well to further support your report and to help the Yubo team effectively investigate the issue.

To report a Live on Yubo, tap on the number of participants or swipe right on the screen to pull up the Live information. Next to the Live title, you will see a shield with an exclamation mark icon. Tap it and select a category to give moderators more context. Similar to reporting a user, you have the option to type an explanation and provide photos or videos to the report. It is that easy and takes well under a minute to report a user or livestream on Yubo.

What happens after you make a report on Yubo?

After you report someone or something on Yubo it is immediately sent to a real-time moderator, or otherwise known as a Yubo Safety Specialist. Our team of Safety Specialists work 24/7, 365 all around the world. When a report is submitted, members of our safety team will review the report and look over any additional information provided. Depending on the scenario, they might have enough information to make a decision just from the report – for example, if a user is reported for having uploaded inappropriate media to their profile. The moderator can simply confirm this, remove the media, and potentially even give the user a temporary ban from uploading media depending on the severity of the case. If a Live is being reported, oftentimes moderators will need to monitor the Live in order to make a fair and accurate judgment. This is why submitting additional information, such as photos or videos, helps moderators come to the right decision much quicker.

If you are reported on Yubo, this means that a moderator came to the understanding that you violated Yubo’s Community Guidelines. Depending on the violation, the results can range from a warning to a short temporary ban from uploading media or joining lives to a permanent ban from the Yubo app. If you were given a ban that you feel was unfair, you can contact our support team here.

If there is a user who is dampening your Yubo experience, you can also block them by tapping the shield icon with an exclamation mark, then selecting “Block”. When you block a user, they are NOT notified. They will also not be able to see your profile, contact you, watch your live, or see your comments in lives anymore. The same will happen for you as well. You can always unblock users at any time by going to your profile, tapping the settings icon, tapping “Safety and Privacy” then tapping “Blocked Users.”

Since Yubo is dedicated to creating a safe space for users to enjoy socializing, they also added a Muted Words feature, where you can decide what words you would not like to see. With this feature, you can choose to hide any words, phrases or emojis from across the app that you might find personally harmful or triggering. 

The user who has been reported will never know who reported them or for what reasons. All the information that goes into a report is strictly confidential in order to protect the users’ privacy. This is also essential to creating a safe space, as Yubo does not want users to be afraid to report bad behaviors. Naturally, moderators will see the report, the category selected, and any additional information the user decided to provide. However, this information is only used to give the moderator context on the situation and never goes any further. The moderator then assesses the situation and refers to our Community Guidelines and safety practices before deciding how to resolve the situation and what action to take.

While we know the idea of reporting can be overwhelming at first, at Yubo we try to make it as easy and straightforward as possible and can assure you that our safety team works hard to help our community feel safe. At Yubo, there is no place for harmful or hateful content or interactions in any form and we plan to keep it that way!

Safety is at the core of everything Yubo does. No matter what new feature is implemented, Yubo will always prioritize the safety of its community above all else. Yubo aims to create a space where people from all over the world can interact authentically, whether it be in Lives or through swipes. This is why Yubo made its report feature as quick and simple as possible.

Can you report someone on Yubo?

How Does Yubo's Reporting feature Work?

October 1st began World Bullying Prevention Month – A month dedicated to raising awareness and fighting against bullying, and instead promoting kindness, acceptance and inclusion. As of 2019, according to studies by Pacer, 20% of students have reported being bullied in school and 37% bullied online in their lifetime. Cyberbullying takes place online or digitally and can include crude comments, mean texts, and offensive posts about an individual or group. Effects of bullying, whether in real life or virtually through a screen, can have lifelong effects on its victims such as increased risks of mental health issues and suicide, poor physical health, and damaged self-esteem. With this new epidemic of cyberbullying, what can you do to help prevent bullying on social media for Bullying Prevention Month and beyond? Check out these incredible NGOs and their inspiring initiatives: 

PACER, a national bullying prevention center in the US, strives to promote kindness, acceptance, and inclusion in order to prevent bullying and create a better environment for students everywhere. Interested in learning more about what Bullying Prevention Month is? In collaboration with a student, PACER released a video of how to show your support this month and more information about Bullying Prevention Month (we highly recommend watching this or the other student-made videos proudly displayed on their site). Whether you’re a student, parent, or educator, check out PACER for a number of resources on how to prevent bullying, encourage those who’ve been bullied, and most importantly, strategies for spreading kindness. If you’d like to support PACER, consider taking the kindness pledge, joining the student video contest, or donating to help continue PACER’s free services. 

PACER's National Bullying Prevention Month

Stomp Out Bullying is a leading national nonprofit in the US dedicated to changing school culture for all students. With a motto of being “unapologetically kind” to combat bullying, Stomp Out Bullying is proving kindness is the greatest tool of all. Join them in stomping out bullying by wearing blue to show your support. Stomp Out Bullying also offers important facts to enlighten your world about bullying, a HelpChat crisis line for teens aged 13-24 to turn to, and resources for both educators and parents to advise them on if students are being bullied, or on how to help spread kindness. To support Stomp Out Bullying, consider donating, getting involved, creating a partnership, participating, becoming a youth leader, or purchasing Stomp Out Bullying’s merch. 

Kids Help Phone is Canada’s primary online mental health service with free support to young people open every hour of every day. Their online site offers interactive activities focused on wellness, mental health tips and information, and forums. In 2021, Kids Help Phone reported that they had Canadian youth reach out to them 4.6 million times and that they held 172,000+ counseling and live chat sessions, 242,000+ text sessions, and 100,000+ peer-to-peer community sessions. To support Kids Help Phone, please consider donating, volunteering, fundraising, or even just sharing your own story with Kids Help Phone. 

The Diana Award was founded based on Princess Diana’s belief that young people have the power to change the world and prove so by helping youth unlock their potential, creating opportunities for young people, and inspiring action in them. The Diana Award offers an anti-bullying program across the UK to help youth become student ambassadors to tackle bullying. Their new initiative, #FreeTheShoulders aims to bring people together around the world together to fight all forms of bullying. Join the fight or consider donating, partnering with The Diana Award, joining their programs, hosting a fundraising livestream, or showing your support by wearing the merch.  

Reach Out offers a safe online space for youth to connect with others, improve their mental health, and feel like they’re not alone in what they’re facing. With an online anonymous chat feature, teens can reach out for advice and help, parents can seek guidance on how to support their children, and schools can learn what to offer to improve their students' and staff's wellbeing. Reach Out also offers an online forum community, filled with positivity, for teens and others to reference when needed. If you want to support Reach Out, you can volunteer, donate, fundraise, or spread awareness.

eEnfance Association fights cyberbullying in France by offering French youth, parents, and educators interventions and training on the responsible use of the internet as well as the risks involved. Victims of cyberbullying of any kind can anonymously contact 3018 at any time, any day to get support and advice. Support eEnfance by donating, volunteering, or sponsoring eEnfance. 

How Does The Yubo App Fight Against Bullying?

At Yubo, safety is at the core of every decision we take and we want to ensure users feel like they’re a part of a positive online community. While Yubo has an extensive moderation team and vast safety processes in place, we’ve also added features to give the users control of what they want to see. With our muted words feature, users can choose the words they do not want to see or that they find personally harmful or triggering, and Yubo will never show those words to them in live streams or messaging. Users are also able to block other users they do not want to interact with and easily report anyone they find to be disrespectful. At Yubo, we have strict Community Guidelines in place that prohibit bullying, hate speech, violence, and much more. Any time a user reports a violation of these guidelines, we investigate and take appropriate action. We are always looking for new ways to make Yubo as safe a place as possible and are dedicated to fighting against the harms of online bullying through innovative safety features, user education, and partnerships with important charities and NGOs. 

October 1st began World Bullying Prevention Month – A month dedicated to raising awareness and fighting against bullying, and instead promoting kindness, acceptance and inclusion. As of 2019, according to studies by Pacer, 20% of students have reported being bullied in school and 37% bullied online in their lifetime. Effects of bullying, whether in real life or virtually through a screen, can have lifelong effects on its victims such as increased risks of mental health issues and suicide, poor physical health, and damaged self-esteem. Check out these incredible NGOs and their inspiring initiatives.

How You Can Help Prevent Bullying on Social Media?

Yubo is a live social discovery app that is free to download from the App Store and Google Play. More than 60 million young people use our platform every day to connect and engage with others from all over the world. The app is designed specifically to help young people today expand their social circles online, similar to how they would in real life. Unlike most other social media platforms, Yubo does not use any approval metrics such as likes or followers, which allows our users to express themselves authentically and make genuine friendships without the pressures of performance. 

There are 2 main ways to make friends on Yubo – through livestreams and through swipes. Swiping has become natural for Gen Z as a simple and straightforward way to demonstrate interest in connecting. While swiping is used differently across every type of app you can think of, for Yubo specifically it is focused on finding potential friends – this can be especially helpful when finding others who share similar interests or personalities. On their profiles, Yubo users can add tags, emojis and media that showcase who they are and what they like or dislike. You swipe right on friends you’d like to talk to, and if the other person does the same, you’re all set to start a conversation and strike up a friendship. 

The second way of finding friends is through our livestreaming feature. Users can explore the Live feed page to find live streams they are interested in based on topic, language or title. Once a user finds a livestream they’d like to join, they can jump right in and begin watching. Once they are in a livestream as a watcher, they can also request to join as a streamer. Every user also has the ability to start their very own livestream for others to join. You can have an unlimited number of viewers and a maximum of 10 streamers per livestream. Most of our users actually prefer staying in small circles with friends they feel comfortable with in our virtual community. 

As our concept is to meet people worldwide, you might wonder if our platform discloses users’ location on the app. When downloading the app, Yubo gives each user the choice to share their location or not. Users can also choose to only share their country or city, which allows the app to match them with friends that speak the same language. At any point, this option is easily changeable in your profile, you can hide/show your location at any time.

It is also important to note that the location options are disabled for all users under the age of 18  and their location information is hidden on the app by default. 

How does Yubo make sure its users always speak to real people?

Yubo’s main focus has always been safety, which is why we never stop innovating to create new safety features or iterating on those we have already implemented over the years across the app. We recently released an advanced, platform-wide age-verification process in partnership with Yoti that age-verifies 100% of users on Yubo. Following a successful beta test among our youngest users (13 to 14 years old), we released it to all our users. Today, we’re proud to say that 100% of our users are verified, which we accomplished 3 months ahead of schedule. 

This new system adds an extra layer of security and protection during user sign-up and will reduce the number of bots, fake profiles and bad actors on the platform. It will also help to ensure that users are the age they say, and assist Yubo in age-gating to limit interaction between teens and adults on the platform. 

Yubo's Take

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