The Shiijak user manual

Create an account

Install Shiijak on your iPhone or Android phone and open it. You can join with an email and password, or with Google or Apple — either way you land in the same place.

1. Open the app. You'll meet a short intro carousel; tap Request your seat at the bottom. (Already a member? Tap Sign in beside it.)
2. Fill in your email, the @username you want, a password, and your display name — the name people actually read. A short bio is offered, and it's optional.
3. Or skip all that: tap Continue with Google / Continue with Apple.
4. Allow notifications when the phone asks, unless you'd rather not — you can change it later in Settings → Notifications.
5. We email you a verification link. You can look around before clicking it, but verify soon — a banner at the top of your feed keeps nudging you.
6. Finally, pick what you're into — you choose starter topics (Books, Magazines, Life Lessons), not people. Tap the cards, then Go to my feed. You can Skip and decide later.

Sign in and sign out

1. Sign in with email + password, or the same Google/Apple button you signed up with.
2. Forgot it? Choose Forgot password and follow the emailed link.
3. To sign out: Profile → Settings → Sign out (at the bottom, in red).

The five buttons at the bottom

Everything in the app hangs off these: Home, New post, Activity, Messages, Profile.

Write a post

1. Tap New post in the bottom bar.
2. Type. The counter shows 0/500; it turns against you as you approach the limit.
3. Optional: add a photo (🖼), an emoji (☺), or a topic (below).
4. Tap Post. A confirmation appears with a VIEW shortcut to your new post.

File a post under a topic (and a second one)

Topics are how a post gets found later. A post can carry two: a main topic and a second "also relevant" one.

1. In the composer, tap + Add topic.
2. Search or pick from the list — Leadership, Bestsellers, Mindset…
3. The topic appears as a chip under your draft. Tap the chip's label to swap it; tap ✕ to remove it.
4. Shortcut: type # in the body and an autocomplete appears — choosing from it files the post too.
5. A second topic shows as a dimmer chip marked · also relevant. Two is the maximum, and they can't be the same topic twice.

Fix a typo — the 15-minute window

1. On your own post, open the ··· menu and choose Edit.
2. Change the text and save. The post shows a quiet · Edited mark afterwards.

Delete a post

1. Open the post's ··· menu.
2. Choose Delete post (in red) and confirm.

Decide who may quote you

Quoting wraps your post inside someone else's commentary. You choose who's allowed.

1. Per post: pick the option in the composer before you post.
2. For everything: Settings → Who can quote my posts.
3. Three choices: Anyone · People I follow · Nobody.

Following vs For You

• Following — only people you follow, newest first. Predictable.
• For You — ranked by what you read and engage with.

Reply

1. Tap the 💬 icon under a post.
2. Write your reply (same 500-character limit) and tap Post.

Repost, or quote

Two different moves behind the same ⟳ icon.

1. Tap the ⟳ icon under a post.
2. Choose Repost — passes it to your followers as-is, with your name on top.
3. Or choose Quote — opens the composer with the post attached, so you can say why.
4. Tap ⟳ again on something you reposted to Undo repost.

Endorse a post

1. Tap ♡ to like.
2. Or press and hold ♡ for the fuller vocabulary: Like, Insightful, Respect, Endorse.
3. Tapping your existing choice removes it; picking another swaps it.

Save a post for later

1. Tap the 🔖 bookmark on any post.
2. Find them all again: Profile → Saved.
3. Group them into Collections if you save a lot.

Share a post

1. Tap the ➤ icon, or the ··· menu.
2. Share via… hands it to your phone's share sheet.
3. Copy link puts a public link on your clipboard.
4. Send post in a message passes it to someone in a DM.

See less of something

1. Hide a single post from the ··· menu — it leaves your feed and teaches the ranking.
2. Mute a person to stop seeing them without unfollowing or telling them.
3. Mute words in Settings to keep a subject out of your feed entirely.

Follow a topic, and pin it

1. Open any topic (tap a #chip on a post, or search).
2. Tap Following to follow it — its posts start reaching your feeds.
3. Tap ★ Pinned to Home to park it as a shortcut at the top of Home. Eight pins maximum — after that you'll be told the rail is full (you still follow the topic; pinning only controls the shortcut).

Browse the Newsstand

Topics are grouped into sections — Books, Magazines, Life Lessons — like a masthead.

1. On Home, tap Newsstand or Browse all →.
2. Pick a section to see its topics, then a topic to read it.

Search

1. Tap the 🔍 in the top-right of Home.
2. Search people and posts; recent searches are remembered.

Start a conversation

1. Tap Messages → the new-message button, and pick someone.
2. Or open their profile and choose to message them.
3. Write and send. Photos ride along with the 🖼 button.

React to a message

1. Press and hold any message.
2. Tap one of the quick reactions — ❤️ 💡 🤝 😂 😮 — or ＋ for any emoji at all.
3. The reaction appears as a chip under the message. Tap your own chip to take it back.
4. Later, use the ☺+ chip beside existing reactions to add another without the long press.

Emoji and stickers

Two different things, and the difference matters.

1. Tap the ☺ button beside the message box. (In DMs this button belongs to the sticker tray — if stickers are off in your build, use your keyboard's own emoji key instead.)
2. The Emoji tab types a normal emoji into your message — between words, deletable with backspace.
3. The other tabs — Essentials, Newsroom Reactions, Deal Flow, After Hours — are Shiijak's own drawn stickers.
4. Tapping a sticker stages it; nothing sends until you press Send. Send it alone and it arrives large; send it with text and it sits inline, at text size.

Colour-code a conversation

Give a chat a colour so you always know which thread you're in. Only you ever see it.

1. In a conversation, tap the 🎨 palette icon at the top-right.
2. Pick a colour — Paper, Rose, Sage, Sky, Butter, Lilac, Slate, Crimson.
3. The thread takes on that wash, and the conversation gets a matching stripe in your inbox.

Sending with no signal

Once you press Send, the message is yours to keep — it survives losing signal, quitting the app, even a reboot.

1. Send normally. Offline, the message waits in a queue and shows as queued.
2. When you're back online it sends itself, in the order you wrote them.
3. A message that truly failed can be tapped to retry, or long-pressed to copy or delete.

Calling someone — not from the phone

If you've gone looking for a call button in a conversation and can't find one, you haven't missed it.

Edit your profile

1. Profile → Edit profile.
2. Change your display name, bio, and avatar.

Go private

1. Settings → turn on Private account.
2. New followers now have to ask. Their requests wait in the Activity tab, under Requests — approve or decline each one there.

Who can see a post you share

Worth knowing before you paste a link into a group chat: Shiijak has a public front door. Anything you post from the app that isn't private can be read by someone who has no account at all, if they have the link.

1. Public posts and public profiles open for anyone. A link you share works for people who aren't members — they can read, but they can't reply, like or follow without joining.
2. Topics, Sections, the Newsstand and Explore are readable without an account too.
3. Everything of yours that matters — your feed, composing, messages, saved posts and settings — needs an account.
4. If you'd rather none of this applied to you, turn on Private account above.

Share Your 10

Ten things you'd vouch for, in each of eight categories — what you read, watch, listen to and love. It's a taste résumé, not a follow list.

1. Profile → Share Your 10.
2. Pick a category: Books, Magazines, Artists, Homes, Vacation Spots, Quotes, Movies, Games.
3. Add entries (each up to 200 characters, with an optional note), reorder them, and save.

Block someone

1. Open their profile → the ··· menu → Block.
2. Blocking is mutual and silent: you both vanish from each other's view, and they aren't told.
3. Muted accounts and muted words have review lists in Settings. Blocks don't — to unblock, go back to that person's profile.

Delete your account

1. Settings → Delete account (bottom, in red).
2. Read what goes and what stays. Posts, likes, reposts and your follow graph are removed; your username is retired for good.
3. Re-enter your password (skipped if you only ever signed in with Google or Apple).
4. Type your @username exactly to arm the button, then confirm.

Change the theme (light / dark)

1. Profile → Settings → Appearance.
2. Choose Light, Dark, or follow your phone's setting.

Change the app's colours — the Theme Store

Beyond light and dark, the app itself can wear a different palette.

1. Settings → Appearance → Theme Store.
2. Tap a theme under Free to apply it immediately.
3. Themes marked 🔒 Premium aren't purchasable yet — they're shown, but locked.

Make the text bigger

1. Settings → Text size.
2. Pick one of five sizes from the list — Small, Default, Large, Larger, Largest. It applies the moment you tap; there's nothing to save.
3. A live Preview card underneath shows what a post will actually look like at that size.

Change the language

1. Settings → App language.
2. Pick from 18 languages, each shown in its own script. By default the app follows your phone.
3. Set your Timezone here too — it decides how every timestamp reads.

Notifications & sounds

1. Settings → Notifications.
2. Choose what's worth interrupting you for — follows, replies, mentions, messages.
3. In-app message sounds are here too (not in the DM settings screen), along with five sound choices and a Pause notifications schedule.

Translation Beta — off by default

1. Settings → turn on Translation (marked BETA).
2. There is no Translate button. Posts in another language are simply translated for you as you read.
3. The original always stays visible underneath, with a quiet "Translated from …" line. You're never shown a translation instead of the words someone actually wrote.

Two-factor authentication — not in the app

If you've scrolled Settings looking for it: it isn't there, and you haven't missed it.

Report a post or a message

1. A post: ··· menu → Report, then pick a reason.
2. A message: press and hold it → Report.
3. Reports are reviewed by a human moderator. You're told the outcome, and you can appeal a decision made about your own content.

Something's broken, or you hate a feature

Shiijak is young and honest about it. If a feature annoys you, that's useful information.

1. Most things you dislike can be turned down rather than endured — check Settings first (ranking reset, mutes, muted words, notification switches, quote permissions, DM permissions).
2. Still wrong? Tell us — include what you tapped, what you expected, and what happened.

Known gaps — things that aren't there yet