News
What’s new in the Yard
Announcements, newest first. Follow along with the news feed.
Also new: a yard's week instead of a leaderboard, and Show me as here
Smaller changes from the last two days — a yard's games page shows what the yard did together and ranks nobody, you can hide that you're here, yard names are shorter, and your own posts nag you less.
HOME opens on your yards
HOME now opens on your yards, one round shape for each, bigger when more is going on. Swipe up for your feed, and the yards fold into a row of tiles at the top.
CHAT on every bar, and see who's typing in your yard's chat
CHAT now sits on the bar everywhere in CommonYard and opens all your chats in one place. In a yard's chat you can see who is typing and who has seen your message, and forward a message to another chat.
A new top for HOME
Your yards now sit together in one cluster on the sky at the top of HOME. Under them, Your next move, Happening now and Came back for you show what to do, what's on and what came back to you.
Next up: the next thing comes to you
Vote, answer or take a side on HOME and the next thing to do moves up right under it, marked NEXT UP. Videos on HOME now run across the top of their card, with the time left on them.
A simpler profile, game invitations as cards, and more
Your profile now leads with you — three figures, your streak and your level. Game and yard links in a yard's chat show as cards, you can swipe across the posts to change yards, and Troll War explains itself.
Swipe through your yards on HOME
The yards on HOME are now pages you swipe through, with what's new in each one under it. Your streak moved to the top bar, and Find a yard and New yard are on the last page, More yards.
Also new: series from the post screen, and fewer interruptions
Smaller changes from the last few days — add a post to a series as you write it, a gear on the yards you run, resetting a yard's link from Invite people, no pop-ups in the middle of a game, and the birthday ask moved to your profile.
Every yard you're in, on your home
The sky at the top of HOME now holds up to five of your yards, and an All yards list for the rest. A yard you've just joined shows up at once.
Press and hold a clip for more
In the clips, press and hold to save, share, copy the link, watch full screen, turn on auto scroll, change the speed, or say you're not interested. Hold an edge to play at 2×.
Games now start on time, by themselves
Every game made on CommonYard now starts at its time and runs itself to the end — no host needed. Makers can still take the controls, and hand them back.
Search finds more, and shows you pictures
Search now finds posts with any of your words, best matches first, and every result shows its picture — the photo, a swipey's first card, or a video's first frame.
Troll: a roast with rules
A new kind of post. Put yourself — or a school, a team, a business or an event everybody knows — up for a friendly roast, set the rules, and the funniest shot is crowned.
Weigh in: seven ways to ask, and you can do it anonymously
Opinions now come in seven forms — hot take, confession, question, pick a side, prediction, story time and debate — each with its own sides. And you can post one anonymously.
A calmer CommonYard
A new home with your yards on the sky, calmer cards where a poll's result grows as you vote, a plainer post screen, notifications in plain words, and What you made in place of Your studio.
Find what you hid, and change your name in one tap
Every post you hide is now kept on a Hidden posts page, where you can bring it back. And your profile lets you change your photo and username right where they are.
Every guide now shows you the screen
CommonYard's how-to guides now have pictures of the app itself — the button to tap and what you'll see — with made-up people and yards, never real accounts.
Sasabonsam: hide, and hope it doesn't find you
A new game for groups. Everybody hides in the yard; every round Sasabonsam searches one place, and the last one hiding sees the sunrise. It replaces The Floor Is Lava.
Yards get sub yards, a study shelf, and games of their own
A yard can now hold smaller yards — a hall, a class, the choir — that members join from its page. School yards get a shelf of study materials, and every yard's GAMES is its own.
CommonYard now has guides and news
A public home for how-tos and announcements, readable by people, search engines and AI assistants alike.
GAMES looks like a game now
The GAMES door was redrawn as an arcade — a sky by day and stars by night, your player card up top, and big buttons for ROUNDS, SOLO and TEAMS.
Points now come as one summary
Instead of an email and a notification for every vote, CommonYard adds up your points and tells you once in a while.
Troll War: the crowd decides
Troll War battles are now won by reactions, not votes. Every reaction on a comeback is a point for its corner — and fighters can't react to their own side.
Yards get the tools to run them
Moderation, join requests, a notice and announcements, events with reminders, yard pictures, handing over, and better ways to find a yard.
Your petition signature is now private
Petitions show how many people signed and how the sides split — never who signed, or which side anyone chose.
Every poll now says when it closes
When you make a poll you choose when it closes — a day, three days, a week or no end — and voters see it on the card.
RateYourSociety now lives in CommonYard
rateyoursociety.com opens on Ghana's Mood, and the rest of RateYourSociety has moved into CommonYard. One account works for both.
Two games to play alone — Penalty Flick and Hot Potato
Flick penalties past a keeper who keeps getting faster, or pass a potato before it burns. Both have a hall of fame.
Find your people. Play, talk, and take part.
Open CommonYard