Product guides

Home

Your daily block feed

Home is the pulse check - hot posts, live rooms, and the busiest neighborhoods in your Circle. Posts from your Circle and neighborhood get a boost.

Chat

Rooms are where the talk lives

Join a room, speak up, bounce. Real accounts only - share links bring friends in after they sign in.

Live

When your neighborhood goes live

Watch streams, react, and wait for a guest slot when a host opens the floor. Host controls are the room rule.

Browse

Find people, not just posts

Search by name or city, then narrow by state, online now, radius, age, and sort. Avatar tap = Profile Peek; "View Profile" opens the full page.

The Link Up

Meet people who actually show up

Opt in with a real photo. Link Up sends a message request, and you're in a DM once they accept. Your neighborhood shows up first, then your Circle, then everyone. Read the Safety Center before meeting anyone offline.

Circles

Neighborhoods are the map

Circles group cities. Neighborhoods are places people call home. The dock Neighborhoods tab opens this map. Make one your home, or Follow it to see its porch in your feed. Create a missing neighborhood — creator starts as Lead. One home at a time. Your places (Circles header) is follows, the block you lead, and residency — not the same as the top-right home shortcut.

Neighborhood profile

One block, full story

See the Lead, residents, porch, and Lead trust. Top-right My block (or your home's name) opens your block. "Make this home" starts a 3-day move (instant when your home is Urban); Follow watches the porch without moving.

Neighborhood Lead

Who leads the neighborhood (and how they lose it)

Leads write About this neighborhood with its residents and can limit who sets the hero photo. They can hand off. Go quiet for 7 days and succession can pass to the next resident by join order. Not a mayor for life.

Lead trust

Do residents still vibe with the lead?

Residents vote Keep or Vote Out. If Vote Out beats Keep (and the neighborhood has enough residents), the next resident by join order becomes Lead. Visitors cannot vote.

The Porch

The hangout feed

Posts, comments, media, polls - full page or embedded on a neighborhood profile for that block.

Confessions

Anonymous lounge

Everyone posts as Anonymous — no names, no profile peeks. Report still works (mods see the author). Optional paid sign puts your @username on one post only.

Urban Experts

Ask people who know the city

Topic Q&A. Sitting an expert seat means you are on duty. Trust is the product.

The Wire

City news, block edition

City news and longer reads posted by UrbanChat. Read, react, comment, and share. Hot Wire posts can show up on Home.

Games

Play with neighbors

Solo or pull friends into a match. Cross-neighborhood challenges can show on the Circles map.

Points

How points work

Points are UrbanChat's in-app currency. They have no cash value, can't be paid out, and don't expire.

• Earn: check in daily (5 points, 10 with Pro), play games (2 points a game, 15–50 for a win), and invite friends (250 points when a friend joins UrbanChat with your invite). Pro members get 125 points every month.
• Spend: boost your Link Up profile, pin a Porch post, highlight your profile, pin a neighborhood shout-out, sign a confession, or send gifts in Live.
• Top up: buy points in Settings › Plan & wallet, from $5 to $100. Bigger top-ups include up to 40% bonus points.
• Gift: send a gift to a Live host. The host receives 25% of the gift's price in points. Gifts are the only way points move between members.
• Refunds: if a payment is refunded or charged back, the points it bought are taken back. Your history is in Settings › Plan & wallet.

Every price, limit and gift is in the FAQ › Points.

Inbox

DMs + notifications

Private threads, invites, and alerts. Block and report when needed - see the Safety Center.

Profile

Your public face in the neighborhood

Avatar, mood, residency, Lead badge, Block Book. Real photos unlock Link Up. Your People card shows Viewers (who opened your profile, reciprocal — both need it on) and Contacts; turn Viewers off right on the card and it works privately both ways.

Profile vibes. Customize layout lets you reorder cards and pick a vibe — a full theme for your profile only (Night Wire, Flyer Stack, Clean Cut, Pink Porch, Baby Blue, Park Green, Sunset Orange, Sun Yellow), or Match site theme. Visitors see your vibe on your profile; the top bar and the rest of the site stay in their own theme. Prefer every profile in your theme? Turn off Settings → Appearance → Show profile vibes. You always see your own vibe.

Your places

Follows, lead seat, residency

Open from Circles → Your places. Blocks you follow, your residency, the block you lead (**+ New neighborhood** founds a new one), and the last 10 neighborhoods you opened on this device. Following does not replace residency. This is not the dock Neighborhoods tab (that is Circles).