Building HeyNaija in the open

Create an account using a valid invite, with server-side invite redemption.

P0Availability not verified

Sign in and out using an emailed code rather than a password.

P0Availability not verified

Confirm the email address used to create an account.

P0Availability not verified

Use the configured Google identity provider to access an invited account.

P0Recorded in production

Regain account access while distinguishing email-code sign-in from a separate recovery process.

Email-code sign-in restores access if you can receive email; a separate process for losing that email account is not provided.

P0Availability not verified

Require new beta members to state that they are 18 or older.

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Publish short public posts and delete your own posts.

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Attach up to four processed images to a post, with descriptions for screen readers.

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Read and expand nested replies with paginated conversation context.

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Like a visible post and remove your like.

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Pass an existing post to your followers without duplicating it in their feed.

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Add your own words to a shared post while keeping the original in context.

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Share a post from an in-app popup to WhatsApp, X, Telegram or Facebook, or copy its link.

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Give shared post links descriptive titles, text and available images.

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Read Latest and Following in time order, with explanations of Following entries.

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Save visible posts to a bookmark list that only you can read.

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Follow and unfollow members to shape your Following feed.

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Edit your photo, name and bio, and browse separate Posts, Replies and Media views.

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Find members, public communities and matching words in posts and replies.

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Browse, join and leave communities, and read or post in their public feeds.

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See replies, likes, reposts, quotes, follows and moderation outcomes inside HeyNaija.

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Control which accounts and conversations you see using block and mute.

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Report posts or accounts for moderator review under published rules.

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Ask moderators to review an account suspension and receive the outcome.

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Moderators can remove a profile photo or clear a name and bio without suspending the account, and site moderators appoint community moderators in the app.

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Limit repeated posting, social actions, uploads, reports and other requests.

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Screen image and video uploads before publication through an approved scanning service.

P0Recorded in production

Make takedown, preservation, escalation and safety-contact procedures operational.

Reporting, takedown, CDN purge and safety alerts work; counsel's answers, retention decisions and a rehearsed response are still outstanding.

P0Availability not verified

Download your own profile, posts, social choices and account-status records as JSON.

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Provide a usable route to delete an account and handle privacy requests.

Members can delete their account in Settings, and requests by email are recorded and answered. The privacy policy names the founders as the data controller, and how long deletion records and moderation evidence are kept (set by the operator on 8 Nov 2026, enforced hourly, counsel to confirm).

P0Not live

Deploy reviewed releases with health checks and a documented rollback path.

Staging and production are deployed; the revision each one runs is not verified.

P0Recorded in production

Recover the service and its data from a usable off-site backup.

A local database restore rehearsal is documented; deployed backup checks, media recovery and a current restore rehearsal need confirmation.

P0Availability not verified

Detect service and backup failures and alert a responsible person.

Health checks, a backup-monitoring hook and external uptime checks of the live sites exist; alerts for errors and failed backups, and who responds, need confirming.

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Keep core journeys usable on low-cost phones and slower connections.

Responsive layouts and image resizing exist; measured low-end-device and constrained-network acceptance is still outstanding.

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Read feeds, paginate, post and like with JavaScript disabled.

Streamed social pages still depend on JavaScript; the existing no-JavaScript social tests are expected failures.

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Explain current rules, privacy commitments and the proposed governance framework.

The charter, rules and privacy policy apply during the pilot but contain unresolved details; the constitution remains an unadopted proposal.

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Publish who is responsible for HeyNaija, how it is funded and how to contact them.

Founder-supplied names, operator details, funding information and contact addresses are still needed.

P0Not live

Give readers a real way to comment on governance drafts and see responses.

P0Not live

Publish the source under the existing AGPL licence, and review code ownership and third-party rights.

The source code is public. The review of code ownership and third-party rights, release notes and security disclosure guidance are still to come.

P0Recorded in production

Help newcomers choose interests, communities and people to follow.

P1Not live

Choose which activity should create notifications.

P1Not live

Rename your handle or move your account to a new email address from Settings.

P1Availability not verified

Web addresses in a post are links, and the first one gets a card with the page's title, text and a picture.

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Attach a GIF to a post: it plays in the feed, can be paused, and shows its first frame to readers who ask for less motion.

P1Availability not verified

Mention a member by handle and notify the person mentioned.

P1Not live

Ask an informal question with selectable responses in a post.

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Let authors set clearer boundaries around replies to their posts.

P1Not live

Add updates to your own post over time, so people can follow one story from start to latest, and reply to the update they are about.

P1Not live

Discover recent active conversations using a simple engagement score.

P1Availability not verified

Improve Nigerian topic and category discovery with understandable selection rules.

P1Not live

Open a topic feed by selecting a hashtag in a post.

P1Not live

Choose a post to keep at the top of your profile.

P1Not live

Keep a welcome post and essential community guidance easy to find.

P1Not live

Give communities their own uploaded visual identities.

Moderators can add, replace, remove and take down a community photo in the API, covered by API tests; members can report a photo and site moderators remove it from the moderation queue, also covered by API tests. The web editor, the report page, the queue entry and the end-to-end test have not been run yet, and uploads are only as safe as upload scanning, which is still blocked.

P1Not live

A community's moderator can notify every member of a new post in it, at most once a day; any member can turn that off for one community or for all.

P1Not live

Receive the same notifications by email, grouped into one message, with a one-click way to stop.

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Optionally receive social activity as push notifications outside the app.

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If you have been away a few days, get a few conversations you missed once a week, each saying why it was chosen, with a one-click way to stop.

P1Not live

Open Home on Discover: recent posts ranked by rules published on the site, from public activity only, with a reason on every post.

P1Availability not verified

Improve keyboard, screen-reader and small-screen access across the product.

Keyboard controls, image descriptions and responsive layouts exist; a full accessibility conformance audit is still needed.

P1Availability not verified

Follow your device's light or dark setting, or choose one in Settings.

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Add HeyNaija to your home screen or desktop from the welcome steps or Settings, where your browser offers it.

P1Availability not verified

Let members choose how much media loads on limited connections.

Settings has a data-use choice (Automatic follows the browser's Save-Data hint, Save data, Always load) that holds post pictures and GIFs back until tapped and leaves link pictures out. Avatars still load, the moderator queue is unchanged, video is not supported, and savings on real constrained networks are not measured.

P1Not live

Suggest a feature or report a problem from inside HeyNaija, add your vote to other ideas, and follow each one from review to release.

P1Availability not verified

Choose to read a post’s replies with the ones more people answered and liked recently first.

P2Not live

Discover conversations across more Nigerian states, cities and local communities.

Lagos and Abuja communities exist; wider geographic discovery and location-specific trends do not.

P2Availability not verified

Let posters, community moderators and site moderators mark posts and communities 18+, hidden on the server from anyone not known to be an adult.

Members confirm they are 18 or older at signup; asking for a date of birth instead was built and is switched off (8 Nov 2026). Posts can be marked sensitive (the 18+ label, shown the way X does it), on the web and in the apps, behind the adultLabels flag, which is off in production. Marked pictures and video are served privately, by signed URLs that last at most two hours. A community's moderators can mark the whole community, which then only adults find.

P2Not live

Prepare approved age assurance, consent, content and contact safeguards before opening younger accounts.

Child-safety decisions, approvals and implementation must precede any change to the temporary adult-only beta.

P2Not live

Check that a member is 18 or over, separately from identity verification, for features that need a verified adult.

P2Not live

Collect proposals and publish considered responses without implying a binding ballot.

A working consultation channel, responsible reviewers and an agreed process are needed.

P2Not live

Publish real decisions with reasons and supporting records.

P2Not live

Offer optional approved-provider identity verification separately from ordinary signup.

Provider approval, privacy and security review, consent and a working integration are prerequisites.

P2Not live

Let eligible verified members choose whether to display an identity badge.

A live, approved verification process and explicit member choice are required.

P2Not live

Let every eligible adult legal member voluntarily activate equal participation in the platform governance electorate.

Separate formal legal admission, verified adulthood, identity checks, voluntary activation and approved terms are required; online opt-out preserves legal membership and formal meeting rights.

P2Not live

Proposed nonprofit Incorporated Trustees under CAMA Part F, with three founding trustees on initial three-year terms.

Qualified Nigerian legal review, lawful founding appointments, adopted constitution, CAC incorporation and essential asset transfers remain outstanding.

P2Not live

Review ballot secrecy, eligibility and auditability before formal votes.

A secure ballot design, implementation and independent review are required.

P2Not live

Hold lawful member decisions: three trustee seats together at founding-term expiry and every three years thereafter; two representatives annually from readiness.

Activation does not trigger founding trustee re-election. Legal membership, independent secret ballots, formal resolutions and applicable CAC procedures remain required.

P2Not live

Publish actual financial transactions and accountable treasury reports.

An approved operating structure, financial responsibilities and real records are needed.

P2Not live

Support opt-in private conversations between age-verified adults, with message requests, blocking and reporting.

Design only. Messages will be limited to members who are 18 or over, have completed age verification and have turned messages on; not built until age verification exists (owner, 6 Nov 2026). Age verification, message-request and abuse handling, retention and safeguarding approval are needed first.

P2Not live

Organise people into lists for easier reading and discovery.

P2Not live

Organise privately bookmarked posts into collections.

P2Not live

Follow a topic as well as people and communities.

P2Not live

Offer understandable activity insights without inventing reach or audience metrics.

P2Not live

Publish a prepared post at a chosen future time.

P2Not live

Write posts longer than a short post, up to 1,000 characters, with longer pieces to follow.

Posts can be up to 1,000 characters, and lists show the start of a long one with Show more; longer articles with formatting are not built yet.

P2Not live

Support video with accessible playback and appropriate safety processing.

P2Not live

A Games page with your Game Score, the games you can play, season leaderboards, competitions and posts from games, all in one place.

Behind the games feature flag (on in staging, off in production). Competitions are Keno only until chess tournaments (phase 6), and entrants are not notified when one starts or ends.

P2Not live

Link your Lichess account, challenge other members, play and watch games inside HeyNaija, and share results as posts.

Linking, ratings, challenges, playing and watching inside HeyNaija, Chess Arena, result posts and community tournaments are built (phases 2, 3 and 6). Tournament games are played on lichess.org, not inside HeyNaija. Behind the games flag; connecting needs GAMES_TOKEN_KEY.

P2Not live

Pick numbers for a shared draw every few minutes with free daily tokens, and check that any draw was fair.

Playable behind the games flag. Keno competitions and Game Score XP arrived in phase 5; no posts for single Keno draws or wins.

P2Not live

Explore live conversations with moderation and reporting in place.

P3Not live

Voice and video calls between age-verified adults, then small group meetings, screen sharing and Gists (live audio rooms with a few speakers and a large audience), on a self-hosted LiveKit server.

Gists (live audio rooms) are built and being tested with a small list of members; they are not available to everyone yet. 1:1 calls, meetings and screen sharing are paused and remain a design: they need direct messages and age verification first, and recording, moderator access and retention need counsel and governance.

P3Not live

Consider native apps if web and installable-app evidence justifies them.

P3Not live

Explore creator support with suitable payment and accountability arrangements.

P3Not live

Explore crowdsourced context that complements professional moderation.

P3Not live

Explore connections to other networks beyond the existing personal data export.

P3Not live