OpenBook

CHANGE: The Notifications section in Settings now has a short step-by-step guide showing exactly how to turn message notifications on: add OpenBook to your home screen, open it from that icon, then tap Allow. It also explains that on a computer you can skip the home-screen step, and what to do if you tapped Block by mistake.

UPDATE: You can now be notified about new messages. Turn on notifications in Settings and a new direct message reaches you with a sound and a red count on the OpenBook app icon, even when OpenBook is closed. It works best on your phone once you add OpenBook to your home screen. It is fully your choice: opt in per device, turn it off any time, and like everything here it never touches anyone karma, standing, or reach.

CHANGE: We tidied the left menu into a clearer order (Get started, Friends, Groups, Saved, Invite friends, Jury duty, Suggest us, Support OpenBook), and moved the light and dark switch up to the top bar as a quick moon or sun button so it is always one tap away. The Suggestions page is now called Suggest us.

FIX: On phones the row of buttons under each post (like, comment, share, save, report) was too cramped. It now shows clean, easy-to-tap icons on small screens, with the text labels still there on bigger screens and a tooltip on each. The share count still shows next to the share icon.

UPDATE: OpenBook is much easier to find and share now. Every public community has its own shareable page, there is an Explore page and a What is new page anyone can browse, and shared links show a proper preview image. Search engines can now understand and index our public content, so people can discover OpenBook on Google, the honest way. Private posts, private profiles, and private communities stay completely private, as always.

UPDATE: Your public posts and profile are now shareable to anyone, even people without an account. Share a link and it shows a proper preview, and it opens to the real content with a friendly Join button. Search engines can find public OpenBook content too, so the more we share, the more OpenBook grows the honest way. Friends-only posts and private profiles stay completely private, as always.

UPDATE: A warmer welcome for new members. A fresh account now lands on Invite friends, your Home feed fills up with Discover so it is never empty on day one, and the sign-up page shows how many of the first 5000 founding spots are left. Founders keep the Pioneer badge forever.

FIX: On a profile, the action buttons (Message, Friends, Follow, and the rest) now sit in a tidy two-up grid instead of one long row, so the name and stats get their space back and no longer get squeezed. A small polish for a cleaner profile header on desktop and mobile.

UPDATE: Five new things to make OpenBook nicer to use. Save any post to a private bookmarks list that only you can see. Repost to share a post with your own followers, with an optional comment. Search across people, communities, and posts from the top bar. Link previews turn a bare link into a titled card. And content warnings let you blur a sensitive post behind a short label, so hard topics can exist without being forced on anyone. None of these touch karma, standing, or reach.

FIX: We made blocking complete and instant. When you block someone you now disappear from each other everywhere, not just the main feed: community and group feeds and their member lists, search results, and even notifications from before the block. A block also can never touch anyone karma now, so you can no longer vote on or react to a blocked person comment. We also added a limit so a flood of brand-new accounts cannot spam your mentions. Blocking still only changes who can reach you, never anyone standing or reach.