How to YipYap
Everything you need to know, in five minutes.
YipYap is a group chat for communities that organizes itself. Here's how to get started — and how to make it work for your group.
Download the app, or open it in your browser.
YipYap runs natively on iPhone, iPad, and Mac — or works instantly in any browser. Your account syncs across every device you sign in on.
Join a community, or start your own.
A community is a private group — a team, an alumni network, a class, a club. You can belong to as many as you want, and switch between them instantly from the sidebar.
- Join using an invite link from an admin.
- Create one yourself in under a minute — you become its admin.
- Every community is private by default — no public discovery.
Every community is organized into topics.
Topics are like channels — a space per subject. When you post, you pick a topic first. Members can follow the ones they care about and archive the ones they don't.
- Admins create topics; members can propose new ones.
- Archive a topic to stop receiving notifications for it.
- Search across every topic in every community you're a member of.
Every message is its own thread.
This is the core idea. You don't post into a stream — you start a thread. A link, a photo, a question, an announcement — each becomes its own conversation with replies, reactions, and rich previews.
- Reply in context — no scrolling back to find what someone said.
- @mention people, react with emoji, and attach photos or files.
- Mark-as-read respects mutes and topic archiving.
Control what reaches you, down to the thread.
YipYap notifies you for mentions, replies to your threads, and activity in topics you're subscribed to. You can tune it per community, per topic, and per thread.
Turn push, email, and badges on or off for a whole community.
Archive or mute any topic you don't want to hear from.
Follow a specific thread, or stop following one that's gotten noisy.
Running a community
A few tips for admins.
Start with a handful of topics.
Four or five is plenty. You can always add more as the community grows.
Share the invite link.
Members join in a tap. Admins can revoke and regenerate the link anytime.
Promote members to admins.
Admins can add topics, remove users, and edit community settings.
Pin an intro thread.
A welcome thread with norms and expectations sets the tone for new members.
Ready to start your community?
Free to start. Private by default. No credit card required.