Yubo, the leading platform for young people to socialise online, has today launched ‘Express Sessions’ to support Gen Z users with mental health. 

Within ‘Express Sessions’, users can find a safe space to talk, vent and seek help and peer support from the Yubo community for their everyday life issues. Several sessions will be organised every month for the rest of the year.

The network, which has a Gen Z user base of over 50 million across 40 different countries, is continuing to take steps to ensure the platform is a safe space for young people to interact with their friends. Unlike other social media platforms, Yubo does not have influencers or likes, instead, users are encouraged to meet new people and develop meaningful connections online via livestreams. 

In continued efforts to promote and support digital wellness, Yubo is giving all of its UK users direct access to online mental health support and resources via Partnership for Young London. This is part of a wider global initiative, where all users in Yubo's four key global markets - UK, US, Canada, Australia and NZ - will have access to localised helplines to support them.  

Ahead of World Mental Health Day on the 10th of October, Yubo is also holding a series of events to help support its users and educate them on where additional support resources can be accessed. The events include interactive talks and Q&A sessions with transgender model AJ Clementine on her experience with mental health issues and body positivity; and mental health advocate Emily Rios focused on the fight against suicide. As well as this, users get free access to a meditation session hosted by power users already involved on the App and a relaxing bedtime story session with Irish-based influencer Shane.  

Alongside this, Yubo recently released a number of safety features on the app, including Muted Words feature, which allows users to specify any word, abbreviation or emoji that they find offensive, harmful and triggering to them which they no longer wish to see in comments or content on the app. Users will also be able to choose from whom to mute the words - for example, they can block from all users or just those that aren’t on their friends list. Yubo will then automatically hide comments containing these words from the user's view.

Yubo Launches Express Sessions

Yubo, the leading platform for young people to socialise online, today announced it has added 35 additional gender identities and 50 pronouns to its platform. The update strengthens Yubo’s support for its young users and positions the platform as the first to offer pronouns and genders in multiple languages, including 11 others in addition to English.

Yubo is committed to being a platform where Gen Z can express themselves, without fear of judgement, especially for the LGBTQIA+ community, which has always been an active and important user base for the platform. Since April 2020, 2.8 million Yubo users feature the Pride Flag in their bio, with more than 4,000 LGBTQIA+ centric livestreams taking place each day, adding up to an average of 1.45 million livestreams per year internationally, discussing gender identity, sexuality, LGBTQIA+ politics, debates, and more.

LGBTQ+ Life Around The World | Yubo 2021 Pride

In conjunction with LGBTQIA+ focused NGO, Mermaids, who seek to educate and inform wider society on gender identity by helping professionals accommodate and reassure gender-diverse young people, the below genders have been added to the platform, as of today. In alphabetical order:

The below pronouns have been added to the app, so users can add their chosen pronouns to their tag section on their profiles. In alphabetical order:

“Since I joined in 2019, Yubo has had a special place in my life. It's where I can be myself, be true about my interests, and share my hopes and dreams with other people in my community. Through Yubo, I've met new friends from around the world, and connected further with other members of the LGBTQ+ community on the app. Adding more pronouns allows people to be more themselves, and allows them to identify themselves by their desired pronouns. Yubo is consistently building an even more inclusive platform to connect, inspire, and share your life with others, and listens to what their LGBTQ+ users want to see within their app.” – Alex, he, him, his (18)

“Since the onset of Yubo, we’ve believed in being a platform where there is a space for everyone.” said Sacha Lazimi, CEO and Co–Founder of Yubo. “It’s important that younger generations feel seen, accepted, and have methods of expressing themselves, especially in online and digital environments. This is an important step in ensuring that our entire community feel accepted and included when making new friends on the app, providing our LGBTQIA+ users with a variety of genders, so they are able to represent themselves authentically.” 

Matt Moore, Corporate Fundraising Manager at LGBTQIA+ focused NGO, Mermaids, said “It’s extremely important that organisations like Yubo are taking these steps to make their platforms a more inclusive place for gender-diverse young people. We are glad to see that Yubo is constantly working to make the app a  space where Gen Z members of the LGBTQIA+ community can express themselves, without fear of judgement.”

Throughout Pride Month, Yubo will feature several international in-app conversations and panels discussing key issues and topics that are top of mind for LGBTQIA+ youth. Yubo worked together with its users - in the U.S., France, United Kingdom, and Australia - who identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community to pick the topics they felt were the most pressing between each other and allies.

Ash, a 18 years old French user explains "It's a great initiative that Yubo has had. These lives allow young people from the LGBTQIA+ community to exchange on many different themes. Adolescence is a time when we are searching for ourselves, and thanks to Yubo and the LGBTQIA+ community present on the app, I was able to put my questions into words. Now I know that I am non-binary and I am looking forward to the gender fluidity live show! ".

Australian Yubo user and LGBTQIA+ community member Asher (she/her), adds, “I’ve made so many amazing friends who also identify as part of the LGBTQIA+ community through Yubo. I absolutely love how open and supportive we are towards one another, and I’m very thankful to have genuine friends to bond over our unique experiences with at the touch of an app.”

Looking to discuss gender identity, or just have fun? We have a full program of LGBTQIA+ events featured on Yubo throughout the month of June.

Yubo announced it had added 35 additional gender identities and 50 pronouns to its platform. The update strengthens Yubo’s support for its young users and positions the platform as the first to offer pronouns and genders in multiple languages, including 11 others in addition to English.

Yubo Offers a More Inclusive User Experience

Yubo, the leading platform for young people to socialise online, today kick starts its mission to abolish social media ‘followers’. The brand, which has more than 45M Gen Z users - is urging it’s army of users to drive the message ‘friends, not followers’ and plans to roll out a number of new initiatives across the year to help them do so.

Sacha Lazimi, CEO and founder of Yubo, said, “I read that people with more than 200 followers are more likely to say they felt pressure about the way they look than those with fewer followers. This resonated with me - so unlike other social media apps, Yubo is urging our users to not be a follower and instead socialise online in an authentic way and create genuine online interactions without the pressure of ‘how many followers’ they have. Be a friend, not a follower.”
“We’re not stopping at telling them though - watch this space for more initiatives over the coming months where we'll help users on the mission.”

Unlike other social media apps, Yubo has built a platform without influencers or likes, enabling its Gen Z users to socialise online without the pressure of ‘how many likes’ content gets. The app’s leading livestream technology allows users to jump into real-time livestream chat rooms and authentically socialise with peers in a safe environment.

To date, this unique pressure-free online environment has resonated with Gen Z across the globe. In the first two months of 2021, daily streaming increased by over 8,7%. Its Gen Z audience are also actively engaging in streams with hand raising in lives increasing by a little less than a quarter (24.5%) and live screen sharing up by a fifth (23.7%).

“One of Yubo’s goals is to combat loneliness among teenagers and young adults, by enabling them to meet new people online and make friends,” Sacha continued. “As we seem to be on a steady path out of the pandemic it is an important time for us to be there to support young people through this stage - maybe even facilitate some real-life meetups when possible.”

Yubo is celebrating making friends not followers by showcasing the friendships that have been formed and flourished over Yubo. Its users around the world have shared their experiences, including London-based 20-year-old Angelica (Angel) and 21-year-old Mjay who met in January 2021 during a Yubo livestream discussing, and instantly bonding, over shared political views. Now they count each other as best friends, streaming together every day, despite never having met in person.

Mjay said, “For me, I always felt like there was a stigma attached to meeting people online...I was very wary until I met Angel, but meeting her has opened my eyes to making friendships online, and I felt safe communicating and streaming on Yubo. I never thought I would make a friend during lockdown, but Angel is one of my closest friends, I'm so much more open to making friendships online now I have had such a good experience.”

“It's broken down the stigma for me too, 100%, you can make genuine friendships online. This is probably one of the best friendships I have made for a very, very long time. We have the same interests and just bonded and clicked straight away, it just feels right,” said Angelica.

In Australia, Sarah, a 20-year-old, joined Yubo in July 2020 as she wanted to make more friends and speak to more fellow Aussies during lockdown. During this time, Sarah virtually met her now good friend Paisley, who she hopes to meet face-to-face at the end of this year.

“Living in a regional town in NSW can be isolating, so it has been incredible to find a digital community where everyone can feel connected and form genuine friendships regardless of where they are in the world. I’m hoping to move to Queensland later this year, and Paisley and I are counting down the days until we can finally meet in person.”

And friendships can be international. Federico and Paul-Antoine, from Monaco and France, respectively, are part of a group of friends of about ten people and spend all their evenings together on the app: "We met people on the app who have now become our close friends. We create sincere friendships because we can talk about everything: our days, our classes, our problems... It's the perfect application to create links with people, and to meet incredible people. We talk to each other every day, there is a real bond of trust between us.”

"We also have a lot of fun imagining new game concepts: recently we did a livestream in which we reproduced famous choreographies, with an average of 100 people at each livestream," explains Federico

Yubo kick starts its mission to abolish social media ‘followers’. Yubo is urging it’s army of users to drive the message ‘friends, not followers’ and plans to roll out a number of new initiatives across the year to help them do so.

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