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These updates are currently only available in English.
Know it first when our partners announce their events!
When one of our partner organisers puts on a new event, we'll let you know so you don't miss it. You're fully in control of which ones reach you.
Until now, new events only showed up when you happened to open your hangouts page. Now you'll get a heads-up whenever an organiser publishes one, so a concert, workshop or market you'd have loved doesn't slip past you.
You decide which notifications you want to receive. Head to your profile, open Notifications, and you'll find a new "New events from partners" section with its own email and push switches. Turn them off entirely, or keep them on.
We also merged the category filter: "Notify me about these categories" now covers both friend hangouts and partner events in one place, so muting, say, sports means it everywhere. The "notify me even if it clashes with my calendar" setting works across both too.
Every email has a one-click unsubscribe, in case you change your mind later. ✨
You can now join or sign in to belongi with one tap using your Google account. New members who sign up this way skip email verification entirely.
On the login and register pages you'll find a new "Continue with Google" button. Tap it, pick your Google account, and you're in.
Signing up this way skips the whole check-your-inbox step: Google has already verified your email, so we don't need to verify it again.
If your Google account shares your date of birth, we prefill that too (belongi is 18+ only). If it doesn't, we just ask you for it once.
Already have a belongi account with the same email? The Google button signs you into that same account, and from then on both ways of signing in work. Password login isn't going anywhere.
Privacy-wise: we only receive your email address and, if shared, your date of birth, once, at the moment you sign in. No ongoing access to your Google account, and we never see your Google password. Details are in the updated Privacy Policy.
We also fixed a bug where some of you were asked to log in again way more often than the intended once per month. Sorry about that, and thanks for your patience!
You have now one more way of adding friends. We also shipped a batch of accessibility fixes.
Until now, the only way to become friends with someone was to send them your invite link. Now it's easier for someone you to add a friend you met through a hangout.
When you open someone's profile, you'll see an "Add friend" button right there. They get a request like always and they have to accept it.
One condition: you need at least one interest in common. It's the same rule that decides whether you can join each other's hangouts, so if you could hang out together, you can be friends.
Once you're friends, that same profile gets a "Plan a hangout together" button, which takes you straight to proposing a time.
Invite links are still there ✨ They still work for anyone, interests in common or not.
On the accessibility side: links are more distinguishable and visible.
We also bumped contrast in a few places that were too light to read comfortably.
Events from organisers, and a way to go together 🎪
Venues and organisers can now put their events on belongi. You'll find them at the top of your hangouts page, and you can turn any of them into a small hangout and go with up to four other people.
Events look a bit different from hangouts, they can be: a concert, a workshop, a market, etc., put on by whoever is running it. There's no cap on how many people go, and no application to fill in. They show up for everyone, whatever your interests are.
What you can do with one event? Find like-minded people to go with you. Open an event and hit "Attend event and create this hangout", and start a hangout with the details already filled in: the title, the description, where it is, when it starts. All you do is check it over and create it. Then up to four other people with similar interests can join you, and you go as a group instead of on your own.
If somebody has already started a group for that event, you'll see it listed on the event page, so you can join theirs rather than starting a second one. Or start your own anyway if the timing suits you better.
Everything else works exactly as it always has: your hangout is still yours, with the same five-person limit, the same group chat, and the same say over who joins.
While event cancellations might happen, we'll let you know about it as soon as it happens and the hangouts built around it are cancelled too. Your group chat stays open for a bit so you can sort out something else together.
Being an organiser is invite only for now. If you'd like to advertise an event, reach out to support@belongi.app telling a bit about your event and organisation. ✨
Now you can pass a hangout ownership on to someone who already joined it. You can also write a welcome message that greets your buddies the moment the chat opens.
Hit "Cancel hangout" and you'll see a third option: transfer ownership. Pick one of your accepted buddies and they take over as organiser.
They get everything you had: editing the details, accepting new people, cancelling, or handing it on again themselves.
The group chat stays exactly as it is, including the messages you already sent.
You leave the hangout when you hand it over, so your spot opens up for someone else. If you still share an interest with the new organiser, you can apply to rejoin later like anyone else.
The option only appears once someone has actually been accepted, since there has to be somebody to hand it to.
Speaking of chats: a brand new one with people you haven't met yet is a hard place to say the first thing. So when you create a hangout, you can now add an optional ice breaker, a hello or a question, and we post it as your first message the moment someone is accepted.
Nobody sees it before that, and you can leave it empty if you'd rather start the conversation yourself.
Found a hangout someone else would love? Hit "Share" on the hangout page and send the link anywhere, no belongi account needed to preview it.
Anyone you send it to sees what the hangout is about, when it is, and roughly where, so they know whether it's their thing before signing up for anything.
Private details stay private. The full address is still only shared with accepted participants, and who's going stays hidden until someone joins the group.
Hangouts still keep their own application filters, like one gender only, for example. So please just share the link with someone you think is eligible to join to avoid frustration.
Track your progress and collect badges for things like joining your first hangout, adding a friend, or suggesting a feature.
Every badge is made of one or more small tasks — some are one-and-done, others (like hosting hangouts or adding friends). The number showing on the stamp shows how many times you've accomplished it!
Your earned badges show up on your profile. Tap one to see what it's for.
You can also see other user's badges and see what they've been up to on belongi!
Request a feature + smarter calendar notifications 🙋
Suggest and vote on what we build next, and if your calendar is connected, we'll now skip notifying you about a friend's hangout when it conflicts with your schedule.
Head to "Request a Feature" in the nav to propose something you'd like to see, or vote for someone else's idea. A new sprint starts every two weeks, you can propose one feature and vote for up to two others per sprint.
Prefer not to attach your name to a suggestion? You can post it anonymously.
The highest-voted feature is a signal for us, not a promise. We pick what to build manually, weighing votes alongside everything else on our plate.
If you've connected your Google Calendar, "new hangout from a friend" notifications now skip you automatically when the hangout overlaps with something already on your calendar. It was never a personal invite anyway, just a heads-up, so no point getting it if you're already busy.
Want them regardless of conflicts? There's a new toggle for that in Profile → Notifications.
Propose a hangout to a friend + connect your calendar 📅
Skip posting an open hangout and waiting for applications: propose a time directly to a friend, and optionally connect your Google Calendar to see your own free time while you pick.
Open a friend's profile from Profile → Friends and tap "Propose hangout" to suggest a time directly to them.
They can accept your proposed time, decline it, or suggest a different one back. Keep going back and forth until you both agree, there's no limit on rounds.
Connect your Google Calendar (optional) to see your own free time slots while picking a date. We only ever read free/busy blocks, never your event titles or details, and you can disconnect at any time from the picker.
If your friend also connects their calendar, suggested times take both of your schedules into account.
Once you both agree on a time, it becomes a real hangout automatically, chat included, just like any other hangout.
Check the new "Hangout invites" section at the top of your hangouts page for anything waiting on your response.
Now you can invite and connect with friends in belongi
Go to Profile → Friends and click "Add friend" to get your personal QR code and/or link. Share it however you like. Once the other person logs in or signs up, you'll get a request to confirm you're friends.
Set an optional nickname in your profile. It's only visible to your friends. No more guessing around by username.
Friends' hangouts now show up first when you discover hangouts, ahead of everyone else's.
Creating a hangout? If you've added at least one friend, you can now mark it "Friends only".
You can preview the full profile behind any friend request (sent or received) before deciding, and remove a friend at any time from your profile.
Switch the whole app to German with one tap, and pick your favorite accent color from four options.
Pick your favorite accent color in Profile → Appearance. Available colours: pink, orange, blue, or green. Orange is now the default for new members!
Tap "EN" / "DE" in the top nav to switch the entire app language instantly. This includes: hangouts, profile, FAQ, and legal pages all follow along.
The German translations for our legal documents (Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, Community Guidelines) are machine-translated for now and pending a full review — the English version is authoritative if anything looks off.
Fixed some buttons that weren't working right on certain browsers, plus you can now add a link to your hangout.
The "Leave hangout" and "Report hangout" buttons weren't working properly for some people (mostly on Brave). That's fixed now!
The report window sometimes made the page behind it scroll instead of the window itself. Also fixed.
You can now add an optional event link when creating or editing a hangout. Can be useful if you already have a Meetup, Eventbrite, or similar page for it. It shows up right on the hangout page.
Thank you so much for the bug reports and suggestions!!
Dark mode is here! 🌚
Try belongi on dark mode
Hello belongers! We finally have a dark mode theme for the app.
Preferences respect your OS preference or is overwritten by your choice if you click on the theme toggle.
Found any bugs? Have any feedback? Please write to us! support@belongi.app
New email look, chat alerts, and more room to plan
Redesigned notification emails, faster alerts for unread chat messages on the day of your hangout, more room to schedule ahead, and more hangouts at once.
All notification emails (verification, applications, password reset, unread chat) now use a redesigned, on-brand template instead of plain text 💅
Unread group chat messages now get emailed to you — and if it's the day of the hangout, that email goes out right away instead of waiting, so last-minute plans don't get missed!
You can now schedule a hangout up to 3 months (12 weeks) ahead — previously limited to 2 weeks.
You can now have up to 5 active hangouts at once (previously limited to 3).
We also track some anonymous, aggregate usage counters (like how many hangouts get created or applied to) to help us understand what's working. This never identifies you individually. See our Privacy Policy for details.
Cleaner design on onboarding (registration) and some exciting news 👀
The onboarding page got some improvements! Fresh design, no more cramped feel.
The interest selection list is now collapsible by category also providing a cleaner look.
We got almost all the foundation for our Android and iOS app! More news soon! ✨
In-browser and email notifications are here!
You can now get notified when your hangout application is accepted or rejected — right in the browser, and optionally by email too.
Now you don't need to keep refreshing belongi to see updates anymore!
Browser notifications appear instantly when you're online. You'll be asked for permission the first time. Accept them to be informed about your hangouts status and updates.
Email notifications are opt-in. New members have them on by default; existing members can enable them in Profile → Notifications.
You can turn email notifications on or off at any time from your profile settings.
Make sure to add noreply@belongi.app on your email contacts to make sure they don't end up on the spam folder!
belongi just got a whole new look!
We redesigned everything from scratch! Honestly? We're kind of obsessed with how it turned out 🥹
Fresh and bolder new visual identity. No more corporate looks!
Not only the colors but we also fixed how some buttons and links look so they're not ambiguous.
Onboarding is leaner and faster: fewer steps, check hangouts faster.
Some similar interests were combined and some new were added. Can you tell which ones?
Thank you SO MUCH for the feedback! We could never do this without you.
Hangouts times are fixed
The bug with the hangout time was fixed
Unfortunately we had a problem with the date and time used which didn't consider the Summer Time. This is currently fixed! Thanks for your report and sorry for any inconvenience.
More room for your interests
You can now add up to 25 interests to your profile (previously 20).
The minimum is still 5 — that keeps matching meaningful.
Onboarding, profile editing, and discovery tips now reflect the new limit.
Report system for hangouts
We care about our community safety. You can now report hangouts that may violate our Community Guidelines or Terms of Use.
On any hangout you do not organise, use the "Report hangout" button next to the description to flag a concern.
Choose a reason, describe what happened, and optionally ask to be notified about the outcome.
Please just report a hangout if you're sure it violates our Community Guidelines or Terms of Use. Reporting for no good reason might lead to a block of your account due to abuse.
Improvements to hangout discovery
Discover now shows every open hangout in Berlin, sorted by how many interests you share with the organiser.
Hangouts with the most interests in common appear first; ones with no overlap are listed last.
If you and the organiser share no interests, the hangout is greyed out and cannot be opened — hover to see why.
You still need at least one shared interest to open a hangout and apply to join.
New avatar picker with background colors
Choose from preset Croodles avatars and pick a background color that suits you.
Avatars are now stored on belongi instead of loading from an external service.
During onboarding you can pick one of 12 background colors designed for good contrast with the doodle strokes.
Email verification improvements
Clearer verification flow and the option to resend your confirmation email.
Registration no longer asks for your postcode upfront — that comes during onboarding.
If your link expires, you can request a new verification email from the login and register screens.