What's new
Recent changes to Heartbeat, newest first.
- Invite links do what you meant by sending them. Send someone a “one person” link and opening it connects the two of you — no extra step on either side.
- “Up to 5” and “unlimited” links still send you a request to accept, so you can see who's coming through.
- If the person you invited doesn't have an account yet, the invite now carries through signing up and confirming their email — they land connected to you (or with their request sent), instead of on an empty page.
- Paste an image straight into a post — a screenshot, a photo you copied, anything on your clipboard. Works alongside attaching from your device.
- Photos you add now show as thumbnails while you write, with an “×” to remove one before posting.
- “Your circle” is now “Check Your Pulse” (same page, in the menu).
- Links to Heartbeat now show a proper preview card when you share them, instead of a giant cropped logo.
- iPhone fix: the Pin and Mute buttons on the Connections page were showing up blank. They have their labels back.
- The menu on phones is now a clean full-width panel that scrolls on its own — no more dragging the page behind it or ragged edges.
- The Connections page is tidier — the invite-link form is folded away behind “+ New invite link” until you need it.
- “Followers” is now “Connections” — on the page, in the menu, everywhere. You connect with someone, and it goes both ways; “follower” never quite fit.
- Two people with the same name? Their @handle (always unique) now shows next to the name on the Connections page, and you can give someone a nickname like “Dad” right from a request — before you even accept it. Only you ever see it.
- Ads are on. You'll see one every so often as you scroll the feed — set like a small notice in a local paper, marked “Advertisement,” placed by hand.
- They're not targeted. The ad you see isn't picked from anything about you; advertisers only ever learn how many people an ad reached. There's a short “About ads on Heartbeat” link on every one.
- Accounts for anyone under 18 don't see ads at all.
- Heartbeat is for the whole family now — including kids. A parent can set up an account for a child under 16 from Settings → Family: the parent approves every connection, sees everything the child posts and everything in their feed, and can close the account any time.
- Someone 16 or 17 signs up on their own. Younger than that, a parent sets it up.
- Accounts for anyone under 18 never show ads, don't ask for a location, and can't make shareable invite links. Comments are off on a child's posts — reach them through their family.
- Sign-up now asks your date of birth, and for now is open to people in the United States only.
- New “A child-safety concern” option when you report something — it goes to the top of the queue. There's a new Child Safety page in the footer for parents.
- Nicknames for your people — call a connection “Dad” or “Mom” on the Connections page. Only you see it; they're never told. Their real name still shows right beside it.
- Hide a topic from just one person: Settings → Muted words → “Hide a topic from one person.” Their posts with that tag leave your feed; nobody else's are touched.
- Give your name a colour — Settings → Profile → Appearance. Everyone sees it, in light and dark. It has to stay easy to read, so it'll nudge you toward a legible shade.
- Posts that disappear — when you write or edit one, set it to remove itself after a day, a week, a month, or on a date. A small “⏳ disappears in…” note shows on the post.
- New “Check Your Pulse” page (in the menu): everyone you're connected with, each with a heartbeat that runs strong when you've been in touch lately and fades when it's been quiet. No numbers, no ranking — just a picture.
- New in Settings: Billing. It shows how many people you're connected with and how that works — the first 12 are free, and a bigger circle takes a small monthly subscription that scales with your connection count. Subscribe and Manage buttons are there now.
- A quiet note on the Connections page once you reach your 12 free connections, so nothing about a bigger circle is a surprise later.
- New Inbox (in the header). Connection requests and the odd note from the site owner land here — when someone asks to connect, or accepts your request, you'll see it. No email, no notifications; you check it when you're here.
- Settings is now split into sections — Profile, Contact, Location, Reactions, Muted words, Notifications, Account — with a menu across the top instead of one long page.
- The gentle pause before a heated comment is now a single short line, not a list of questions.
- Rewrote the “What Heartbeat is” walkthrough in plainer language.
- The EKG pulse lines render with clean, full points again everywhere.
- A security pass ahead of opening Heartbeat up more widely — mostly under the hood (a written key-management + rotation procedure, a check that nothing user-written can inject code, a dependency audit). The only change you might notice: sending a burst of connection requests, or looking up many contacts in a row, now asks you to wait an hour.
- Small fixes: the light/dark toggle in Settings no longer stretches across the card, and the Comment / Cancel buttons under a post now match the button style used everywhere else.
- You can now report a post or a comment — the small “Report” link on a post's page or under a comment. Pick a reason, add a note if you want. Reports go straight to the site owner and stay private; you'll just get a “thanks, we'll take a look.”
- Behind the scenes: a proper review queue for the owner, with the ability to hide a post or comment or suspend an account when a report checks out.
- The tag filter now works the way it should: naming a tag HIDES those posts from your feed, so you can skip a topic without unfollowing anyone. (It was doing the opposite.) The Tags page hides a topic when you tap it.
- Feed posts no longer whisk you away on a stray tap — use “View full post” or “Comment” to open one. Links you paste into a post now work right in the feed.
- The Comment / Save / Edit / Delete buttons now share one consistent look everywhere.
- Links you paste into a post or comment are now clickable (on the post's page and in comments).
- A Clear button and a gentle reminder now sit next to the feed's Filters, so a filter left on doesn't quietly hide posts.
- New “My Comments” page (in the header) — everything you've commented, with edit and delete.
- Click anyone's name to see just their posts (the ones you're allowed to see).
- Edit button now sits right next to Delete on your own posts.
- Long posts stay expanded longer before they collapse in the feed.
- Feed filters now stick — set a tag or date range once and it stays put across reloads and logins until you clear it.
- New here? The beta pages now list two demo accounts (Bob and Alice) you can add for an instant feed — they accept everyone automatically.
- The header and footer now run the full width of the page — logo far left, menu far right.
- The light/dark theme picker moved from the footer to Settings → Profile → Appearance.
- The home page now shows a daily nudge — one small way to connect with people away from a screen, a new one each day.
- “What’s new” moved off the home page to its own page, linked from the footer and the menu.
- New Heartbeat logo throughout — the updated wordmark, with a transparent background so it sits cleanly on light and dark.
- Rewrote the “Why Heartbeat” walkthrough: it now leads with what the site is for, then one screen each on how — including how advertising and subscriptions work.
- The logo now comes from one place, so it updates everywhere at once when the artwork changes.
- Fewer pulse lines: the footer and the bottom of the feed now use a plain thin blue rule instead of an EKG line.
- The “Why Heartbeat” walkthrough is now full-screen (header and footer step aside), each screen sits on its own card, and the text wraps more cleanly on phones.
- Footer links renamed: “How it works” → About, “The beta” → Beta Testing.
- The Code of Conduct now opens by describing Heartbeat as a social contract — a place everyone keeps up together.
- New “Why Heartbeat” walkthrough (in the footer, and on the way in) — a short, paged intro to what makes Heartbeat different. Shareable at /welcome.
- Signing up now starts with that walkthrough, then the form. It's skippable, and it only shows once.
- Filter your feed by tag and/or date range — the “Filter this feed” control on the Feed page.
- New Tags page (in the menu): the tags people around you use, sized by how often. Tap one to filter your feed.
- Mute a connection (their posts leave your feed, connection stays) or Remove one entirely — both on the Connections page, both silent.
- Long posts are shown collapsed in the feed with a “Read the full post” link.
- Invite links — make a shareable link (Connections page) so someone can send you a request without you swapping contact details first.
- Pin the people who matter most (Connections page) — their posts get marked in your feed, with a “Pinned only” view.
- New view option: keep reactions but hide the counts (Settings → Reactions).
- The comment box now offers a gentle pause when a comment reads heated — with “Post anyway” right there.
- Pulse dividers render cleanly again, including in the footer.
- Header order is now Feed, My Posts, New Post — and New Post is now a red button, not just a link.
- Removed the auto-delete-old-posts setting — delete posts yourself instead, one at a time or in bulk (My Posts → Bulk delete).
- Fixed the sticky header so it actually stays put while you scroll.
- Header nav reorganized — Feed, New Post, and My Posts are now top-level; Help moved into the name menu.
- The header now stays put (sticky) as you scroll.
- Delete your own posts — one at a time, or in bulk by tag/date range (My Posts → “Bulk delete”).
- Removed the star-rating system on posts and comments — it didn't fit Heartbeat. Reactions stay.
- Your own posts moved out of the Feed into their own “My Posts” page (in the menu under your name).
- Dark mode — switch it in the footer (Auto / Light / Dark).
- Save posts with the ☆ button; find them again at /saved.
- New Help section (“How Heartbeat works”), linked in the menu and footer.
- Change your email address from Settings, with confirmation.
- Account settings: auto-delete old posts, archive your account, or delete it (14-day grace).
- Signup now asks for your first and last name separately — both required.
- You can change your name any time in Settings → Profile (for a marriage, a typo fix, etc.).
- New “Muted words” setting: hide posts and comments containing words you'd rather not see. Only affects your view; the author never knows.
- A built-in profanity/slur list is muted by default — you can turn it off.
- The feed now has a bottom: 20 at a time, an “Older posts” link, and a “you're all caught up” marker. No endless scroll.
- You can now edit your own comments, not just your posts. Edited comments are marked “· edited,” same as posts.
- Settings holds your defaults for comments and reactions; each post overrides them in one place — its “Comments & reactions on this post” section, when you write or edit it.
- You can now change a post's “Reactions on this post” setting when editing it, not just when writing it.
- The reaction “+” now shows the emoji-picker shortcut for your device (⌃⌘Space on Mac, ⊞ + . on Windows).
- Editing a post can now add and remove its photos, not just the text and tags.
- Removed pull-to-refresh — use the “⟳ Reload” button. (It was a slot-machine-ish gesture and janky on iPhone.)
- Following is now mutual — when someone accepts your request, you follow each other.
- You can only add people by an email or phone number you already have for them. No directory, no name search.
- New “Beta” section: work through the test plan and leave a note on anything you try — everyone testing sees everyone's notes.
- A shareable page at /beta explaining what Heartbeat is and how to help.
- You can now edit your own posts — body, tags, and audience. Edited posts are marked.
- Every post needs at least one tag now — that's how your followers filter their feed.
- Tag suggestions are always there: from what you're writing, plus your own most-used tags.
- Suggested tags now wait for your OK — tap to add them as you write, nothing auto-tags.
- Control what people can react with on your posts and comments — or turn reactions off.
- Hide reactions entirely, just for you (Settings).
- Set reaction rules per-post when you write it.
- React with any emoji, as many as you like, on posts and comments — right from the feed.
- Reload and Back buttons throughout.
- Photos now upload straight from your phone — bigger limit, auto-resized, HEIC supported.
- GPS location is stripped from uploaded photos so it can't leak to your audience.
- Fixed a redirect loop that could lock you out after a password reset.
- Writing a post is now its own “New Post” page, separate from the Feed.
- The New Post page shows your own posts; the Feed shows people you follow plus you.
- Posts now have reactions, comments, tags, and photo attachments.
- The poster controls comments on each of their own posts.
- Mobile navigation now collapses into a menu instead of scrolling sideways.
- New Code of Conduct — read it and agree when you sign up.
- Every page now shares the same header, logo, and colors.
- Auth, follows, and posting are live — sign up and give it a try.
- Heartbeat is under construction — the first version of the site is live.