Frequently asked questions

On desktop, the top bar has links to Home, Discover, Circles, Collab Boards, Connections, Messages, and your Profile. On a phone, the five most-used sections (Home, Circles, Collab, Messages, Discover) sit in a bottom tab bar — tap the ☰ menu in the top-right for Profile, Connections, Settings, and (for admins) Moderation tools.

Yes, on a phone: swipe right anywhere on the screen to move forward through Home → Circles → Collab → Messages → Discover, wrapping back around to Home. Swipe left to move backward through the same tabs, wrapping the other way.

Home is your feed — posts from people you're connected to and Circles you've joined. Discover is how you find new people by country, language, or interest. Connections is your list of accepted connections plus any pending requests you've sent or received.

Use the theme toggle next to Settings in the top bar (or in the ☰ menu on mobile). It follows your device by default, but you can pin it to light or dark.

Tap the magnifying-glass icon next to your notification bell. One search box covers people, Circles, group chats, and Collaborations at once — filter results by most relevant, most recent, oldest, “current affairs” (active in the last two weeks), or a specific country.

Any name or profile picture you see — in a chat, a comment, a connection list, a Circle's member list, and so on — links straight to that person's profile. It's the same click-through everywhere on purpose, so you never have to hunt for a “view profile” button.

Discover only shows people you haven't already interacted with, connection-wise — once you send or receive a connection request, they drop out of Discover's results (whether it's still pending or already accepted). If a request gets declined, that person can reappear in Discover for a fresh attempt.

Posts are grouped by the feed section the author picked in the composer (defaulting to General) so it's easier to browse what you care about. Each section checks for new posts every 20–30 seconds while you're on the page and adds them to the top automatically — no need to refresh.

This is a one-time Android setting, not a bug. Go to your phone's Settings → Apps → YuKon3t → “Open by default” (some Android versions call this “Set as default” or “Supported links”), and make sure yukon3t.com is toggled on under “Supported web addresses.” Android turns this off by default as a privacy control — the app can't switch it on for you, so it's a one-time manual step after installing.

Yes — an incoming call rings and lights up your screen over the lock screen even while your phone is asleep or in a battery-saving/Doze state, the same as a regular phone call. Accept or decline right from that screen, or tap it to open the app. This needs notification permission for YuKon3t to be turned on (Android asks for this the first time you sign in) — if calls aren't waking your phone, check Settings → Apps → YuKon3t → Notifications.

Incoming calls, missed calls (with the caller's name), and now likes, comments, and connection requests too — these arrive as real Android notifications even when the app isn't open, not just the bell icon inside the app. Tapping one opens the relevant post, comment thread, or Connections list.

Yes, that's intentional. Feed videos share one sound setting for the whole app (tap the speaker icon on any video, or turn your phone's volume up) — unmuting applies to every video in your feed, including ones you scroll to afterward, the same way Instagram's feed works.

Text, photos, and videos from your device or camera, an image pulled from a URL, or an embedded YouTube/Vimeo link. Tap the camera/photo icons in the composer — each opens a small menu for device, camera, or link, so there's one button for photos and one for videos rather than a row of separate buttons.

Every upload is screened automatically before it's visible to anyone else. Content that violates our Community Guidelines (most commonly sexually explicit material) is rejected and never published.

Open the “⋯” menu on any post for delete (your own posts) or report (anyone's). Reports go to our moderation queue and are reviewed with a stated reason either way.

Tap the share icon on any post for a menu: copy the link, share via your device's own share sheet, send it straight to a friend as a message, or share it into a Circle. Device sharing attaches the actual photo or video where possible (not just a bare link), so apps like WhatsApp or Messages show the real post.

Yes — the smiley icon next to the heart on any post (or a message) opens a quick row of common reactions first, plus a “+” for the full emoji picker if you want something else. Picking the same emoji again removes it, and picking a different one swaps it. This is separate from the heart/Like button, so you can Like a post and add an emoji reaction at the same time. The full picker (in posts, comments, and chats) understands informal and non-English search terms too — typing “pray,” “amen”/“ameen”/“aameen,” or “sad” surfaces a small “Suggested” row of relevant emoji above the regular search results.

Yes — under Settings → Emoji style, pick between native, Apple, Google, Facebook, or Twitter/X rendering. Whatever you pick applies everywhere emoji show up: reactions, the picker, and messages.

Yes — the GIF button (next to the emoji button) in the post composer, a chat, or a comment box opens a search. Pick one to attach it, the same way you'd attach a photo.

Feed videos autoplay muted as you scroll to them, and pause once you scroll past — tap the speaker icon on the video to unmute (see “Turning up my phone's volume unmutes a video” above), or tap the video itself to pause/resume.

Tap the zoomed-in photo once (a plain tap, not double-tap) to snap it back to its original size — double-tap still zooms in and out the same way it always has, this just adds a faster way back to normal size without leaving the viewer.

Yes — tap the microphone icon in the post composer (or a chat message box) to record a short voice clip; it's transcribed and dropped into the text box for you to review and edit before posting or sending. This is separate from the round mic/send button in a chat, which instead sends the recording itself as a voice note — the dictation mic sits next to the emoji button and always produces editable text.

Connect is the existing mutual friend request — you pick why you want to connect (friendship, cultural exchange, professional, community, or travel tips), the other person has to accept, and it unlocks messaging and calls between you. Subscribe is one-directional and needs no approval — subscribing to someone means you get notified whenever they post, add a story, repost something, go live, RSVP to an event, or join/create a Circle. You can subscribe to someone without being connected to them, and vice versa. Both icons sit next to the share icon on every post you see — Home, a Circle's feed, search results, and Collab Board postings.

Open anyone's profile — yours included — and tap the “Subscribers” or “Subscribing” count near their name for the full list. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to anyone directly from those lists, not just from a post.

Posts past a certain length are truncated in feeds so a single long post doesn't push everything else down the page — tap “Show more” to read the rest in place, and “Show less” to collapse it again. This applies wherever posts are listed, and to a repost's own caption too. There's no meaningful limit on how long a post itself can be — write as much as you need, and readers can always expand it.

This shows up if your tab had been open since before we shipped an update — it's not a connection problem, just a stale page. Refresh the page and try again; nothing you were about to post gets lost from retrying.

Yes — everywhere on YuKon3t, older items load in automatically as you scroll, whether that's Home, a profile's posts, a Circle's channel feed, search results, Connections, or the subscribers/subscribing lists. Nothing to tap. (Home separately checks for brand-new posts every 20–30 seconds and adds those to the top automatically — that's different from loading further back in the feed.)

Tap “Go Live” above the Home feed, give it a title, and optionally scope it to a Circle instead of everyone. To join someone else's stream, tap their avatar in the “Live now” strip and choose to watch, or ask to join the stage.

Watching is read-only — no camera or mic access. Guest and co-host both put your camera and mic on the stage in a split-screen view alongside the host (co-host is meant for someone helping present, guest for someone dropping in briefly, but they work the same way). There are 3 stage spots total, shared between guests and co-hosts, on top of the host — watching has no limit.

The host and any co-hosts can tap “Record” to start a cloud recording — once stopped, it shows up in a Recordings list on the stream with a download link. Anyone in the stream can tap “Screenshot” to save a frame; your browser will ask you to confirm what to capture, since that's how a screenshot of live video works across browsers.

A stream ends itself automatically once the host and any co-hosts have all been away for 30 minutes straight (no one with hosting privileges still active in it) — this is a cleanup measure so an abandoned stream doesn't sit “live” indefinitely. A brand-new stream always gets a 30-minute grace period regardless, so it's never ended before anyone's had a real chance to join.

Yes — a “Write something...” box sits over the stream itself; anyone watching can type a comment and everyone else sees it scroll in above it in real time.

Yes — tap the minimize icon (top-right on a call, bottom-right on a live stream) to shrink it to a small video widget docked in the corner while you browse anywhere else in the app. The call or stream keeps running the whole time; tap the widget's expand icon to bring it back full-screen, or its hang-up icon to end it without expanding first.

A photo or short video (up to 2 minutes) on your profile that disappears automatically after 24 hours. Tap the “+” on your own profile picture to add one — anyone who can see your profile can view it while it's active.

Yes — once you have an active Story, a small “+” badge appears on your story ring (both on Home and your profile) so you can keep adding more without limit, in addition to tapping the ring itself to view your existing stack.

While viewing a Story, tap the right side of the screen to advance through that same person's own Stories, or the left side to go back through them. To jump to a different person's Stories entirely, swipe left (next person) or right (previous person) anywhere on the screen — swiping always moves between people, regardless of which of their Stories you're currently on.

Yes — viewers can tap an emoji to react (you'll see who reacted when you open your own Story) or type a reply, which arrives as a direct message. Replying only works between people who are already connected, same as regular messaging.

You need an accepted connection first — send a request from their profile or Discover. Once connected, message them from Connections or start a new conversation under Messages.

Swipe a message to the right (or open its “⋯” menu and tap “Reply” if you're on desktop) to quote it in your reply — the other person sees exactly which message you're responding to, useful once a chat has moved on to a few topics at once.

Yes — the chat composer has an “Add a photo” and “Add a video” button (device, camera, or live recording), a GIF button, plus a microphone icon for a recorded voice note. Any message you send can be deleted for yourself, or for everyone if you sent it.

Yes — tap any photo in a message to open it full-screen, the same viewer used for post images (pinch or scroll to zoom, tap outside or the X to close).

No — opening a conversation lands you at the top, next to their name and the call buttons, not scrolled down into old messages. It only auto-scrolls to the newest message for ones that arrive while you're already sitting in that chat.

Tap the phone or video icon on a connection's profile or in your chat with them. They'll get a ring (with your chosen ringtone — pick one under Settings → Calls) and can accept or decline. Accepting connects you into the call right away, even if their phone was locked or the app was in the background when it rang.

That's the ringback tone, so you know the call is actually going through while you wait for them to answer — it stops as soon as they answer, decline, or you cancel.

This happens if a previous call to that person is still marked as ringing or active (for example, if a call got interrupted). You'll see a popup offering to cancel that stuck call and immediately place a new one — tap “Cancel it & call again.”

Start one from Messages → “New group”: pick a name and at least 2 of your connections. Public groups can also be found under “Discover groups” — search by name and request to join. If you created a group, open it and use “Add members” any time afterward to bring in more of your connections.

A free interest or identity community — hobbies, causes, cultures, anything a group of members wants to organize around. Anyone can create one; joining and creating are always free.

Search for it when creating the Circle — the list covers general topics (Travel, Culture, Technology & Startups, and more) plus specific job types and professions (Bookkeeping, Civil Engineer, Cybersecurity Analyst, Linux Administrator, and dozens more), so you can land on exactly the right one instead of a generic “Professional” bucket. You can pick up to 5 categories for a single Circle if more than one genuinely fits.

Yes — the owner or a co-admin can tap the pencil icon next to the Circle's name on its page to change the name and/or its categories at any time. Its URL never changes when you rename it, so existing links and bookmarks to it keep working.

Open the voice channel and tap “Invite” to pick from the Circle's members — any member can invite another, not just the owner/co-admins. The channel shows a running count of how many invites are pending, accepted, and declined. Accepting an invite doesn't drop someone straight into the room by itself — they still tap in to actually join, same as anyone else.

A place to find cross-country skill exchanges, mentorship, professional services, events, and projects — the “Type” field is a searchable list (skill exchange, tax advising, bookkeeping & accounting, career counseling, sales & marketing, and dozens more) rather than a fixed handful of options. Posts can be scoped to specific countries or marked “worldwide.” Once you're a participant, you get access to that collaboration's group chat (text, photos, and videos) and a live video session with screen sharing, uploaded materials, and recording.

Public collaborations are announced to everyone and listed on the Collab Board — anyone can tap “Request to Join,” and the organizer or a co-admin screens each request (Approve/Decline) before granting access. Private collaborations are invite-only: the organizer picks specific connections to invite, either when posting or later via “Invite people” on the collaboration's page, and they're never listed or searchable — only the organizer and whoever's been invited or already joined can see them at all. An invited person sees an Accept/Decline banner on the collaboration's page until they respond.

Only the organizer or a co-admin can start a session from cold — they'll see a “Start session” button on the collaboration's page, and tapping it connects them right away, no extra confirmation. Everyone else only sees a “Join session” button once one's already underway (before that, the page just shows “Waiting for the organizer to start the session”). If a session's already underway when you go to start or join it, you'll get a quick “ready to join?” prompt first, since walking in on people already talking is a bigger interruption than starting fresh — decline it and nothing happens, you're not added to the call. Either way, the call opens full-screen automatically; tap the minimize icon (bottom right) to shrink it to a small widget while you use the rest of the app, the same as a 1:1 call.

Tap the screen icon in the call controls (or the call's “…” More menu, if the tray is too narrow to show every icon) to share your screen with everyone in the session. This only works from a desktop browser — phone browsers and the installed Android app can't grant screen-capture permission to a page at all, a limitation of mobile browsers generally, not something specific to YuKon3t. For documents or images, tap the upload icon next to Leave/Minimize instead — the file opens immediately as a shared panel for everyone currently in the call, and stays posted in the collaboration's chat afterward for anyone who joins later.

Tap the red hang-up icon next to Minimize (or on the minimized widget if you've already shrunk it). This leaves the session, not the collaboration itself — the session stays open for anyone still in it, and you can start / join it again anytime from the collab's page.

For a private collaboration, the organizer or a co-admin taps “Invite people” on its page and searches their connections — an “Invited” list on the page shows each invite's status (pending, joined, or declined). For a public one, pending requests show up in a “Join requests” list on the page with Approve/Decline buttons — approving adds them as a participant right away.

Yes — the creator (or a co-admin) can tap “Edit” on the board's page at any time to change the title, type, description, or countries, even after people have joined or a live session has already started. There's no lock on this — edit it as your plans evolve.

A Circle or Collaboration's creator can promote any member/participant to co-admin, giving them the same day-to-day management powers (moderating posts, managing members, promoting further co-admins) — everything except deleting the whole Circle or closing the Collaboration outright, which stays with the original creator.

Go to /advertise — no YuKon3t account needed. Submit your company details, ad copy, a photo or short video, and pick how many days you want it to run; payment is handled securely via Stripe. Every submission is reviewed before it goes live, usually within one business day.

Go to Settings → Invite friends → “Invite from contacts.” On a phone/Android device you can pick contacts directly and text them the app link with one tap; everywhere else, it opens your device's share sheet, or you can just copy the invite link and send it yourself.

Right where you left it. Your posts, photos, videos, messages, Circles, and connections live on our servers, not on any single device — signing in with the same email or username on any device brings everything with it automatically. There's nothing to transfer or restore by hand.

Yes — Settings → Your data → “Export my data” gives you a JSON file of everything tied to your account, free, any time, as a personal backup.

Deactivate hides your profile and posts without deleting anything — signing back in with your password or email link reactivates it automatically. Delete permanently removes your profile, posts, messages, and Circles you own; this cannot be undone.

Use “Forgot password” on the sign-in page. You can also sign in with just your email link if you'd rather not use a password at all.

Search for it in onboarding or under Settings → Edit profile → Interests — besides general interests, the list includes specific job titles and professions (like Tax Advising, System Administrator, or UX Designer), so you're not limited to broad categories.

No — signing up only asks for your email, a password, your date of birth, and how you'd like to verify your account. We assign you a starting username automatically, and you can change it any time from Settings.

When you sign up, pick email or phone — we'll send a 6-digit code to whichever you choose, and you enter it on the next screen to finish creating your account. Didn't get it or the code expired? Just reopen that screen and a new one is sent automatically, no need to hunt for a resend button (though one's there too if you want to trigger it yourself).

After 4 incorrect password attempts, an account locks for 24 hours as a security measure. Resetting your password (via “Forgot password” on the sign-in page) unlocks it immediately — you don't have to wait out the 24 hours. If you're still stuck, contact support and we can send a reset link to your registered email directly.

Control this under Settings → Privacy: your posts can be visible to anyone signed in, or only to your connections, and you can opt your profile out of Discover entirely.

A signal built from things like email or phone verification, account age, profile completeness, and activity streaks, minus any upheld reports against you. It's a reputation signal, not a background check.

In the native Android and iOS apps, yes, in a few places: during a voice/video call (both of you are notified instantly), and when viewing someone else's post, story, direct message, or profile — the owner gets a notification that you took a screenshot. Screenshotting your own content never notifies anyone. This isn't available in a regular browser, since there's no reliable way to detect a screenshot there.

Use the “⋯” menu on a post, comment, or message, or the report option on a profile. Every report is triaged, and every action taken states a reason — see our Community Guidelines for what's enforced.