Platforms & apps
Page 5 of 11
π· Topic challenge Β· Platforms & apps edition
Have you seen it? Platforms & apps only.
This is not the main game. Only Platforms & apps records come up, and the desk hands out its own titles and badges, from Still Has A Hotmail to Founding Member. Your main-game file is left alone.
Start the Platforms & apps challenge βΆRecords open on their real pages. Answer on each one.
Badges on offer5Five Β· the app updated10Ten Β· you were verified once25Twenty-five Β· you left first
β Aliven.β 2
Zillennial
The micro-generation born around 1993β98 β too young for the millennial pause, too old for the Gen Z shake β who remember dial-up and had a smartphone at school. The record's entry for the people who fit neither list and made their own.
βΈ 2020peak 2022still up
β Deadn.β 1
30-50 Feral Hogs
A sincere question about protecting children from wild pigs, asked in the middle of a gun-control argument. About four days of the best jokes of the year and then, correctly, silence.
βΈ 2019peak 2019β 2019
β Dyingphr.β 2
Big Brain Time
A YouTuber in a beanie saying 'yeah, this is big brain time' after a stupid decision β the 2019 phrase for false genius, and the sibling of 'galaxy brain'. The record's entry for the beanie as a mark of intelligence.
βΈ 2019peak 2020still up
β Alivephr.β 2
Big W
A win β 'big W', 'Ws in the chat' β as the internet's way of congratulating anything, from a sports result to a friend's dentist appointment. The record's entry for the letter as applause.
βΈ 2019peak 2022still up
β Aliven.β 2
Comfort Character
A fictional character who makes you feel safe β a comfort character β as the 2019β21 vocabulary for the specific love of a person who does not exist. The record's entry for the noun that made a thing everyone had into a thing everyone could say.
βΈ 2019peak 2021still up
β Dyingn.β 3
Hot Girl Summer
The original summer-girl phrase β from a rapper's song and persona in 2019 β meaning a season of confidence and fun, which produced every summer-girl variant since and a trademark. The record's entry for the summer that started the calendar.
βΈ 2019peak 2019still up
β Deadn.β 2
Kane Trophy Curse
The joke that Harry Kane could not win a trophy β not at Spurs, not at Bayern in his first season, not ever β which ran for six years, gained a chart, and died on a Sunday in May 2025 when his club won a league while he watched from home. The record's entry for a curse lifted by someone else's result.
βΈ 2019peak 2024β 2025
β Dyingn.β 3
Kombucha Girl
A woman tasting kombucha, disgusted, then reconsidering, then disgusted again β two seconds of expression that became the format for any mixed reaction. The record's entry for ambivalence as a face, and one of TikTok's first exports to the wider internet.
βΈ 2019peak 2019still up
β Aliveabbr.β 3
LLM
Large language model β the research term for the text-predicting neural networks behind ChatGPT and its cousins, which left the papers around 2019 and entered every LinkedIn post in 2023. The record notes 'LLM' is now used to mean the chatbot, the company, the industry and the general feeling that something is happening, and that the word 'large' is the only part everyone agrees on.
βΈ 2019peak 2023still up
β Deadn.β 3
Neumorphism
Soft shadows making buttons look extruded from the page. Beautiful on Dribbble, unusable in a browser, and gone before anyone shipped it.
βΈ 2019peak 2020β 2021
β Aliven.β 3
POV Format
'POV: you're the dog and I've come home' β a video from a point of view, which by 2021 had drifted so far from 'point of view' that 'POV: me' was common and nobody minded. The record's entry for the caption that stopped meaning what it says.
βΈ 2019peak 2021still up
β Alivephr.β 2
Poor Little Meow Meow
A character who is terrible and whom the fandom insists is a small wet cat that must be protected β a poor little meow meow β as the phrase for the villain who is loved anyway. The record's entry for the sympathy that ignores the body count.
βΈ 2019peak 2021still up
β Deadn.β 3
Renegade
The dance of early 2020 β to 'Lottery' by K Camp β done by every teenager and by the platform's biggest stars, who did not credit the fourteen-year-old who invented it until a newspaper asked. The record's entry for the dance and for the credit.
βΈ 2019peak 2020β 2020
β Deadn.β 4
Spicy Nuggets Petition
The May 2019 campaign, begun when Chance the Rapper tweeted about Wendy's discontinued spicy chicken nuggets and the company's account replied that two million likes would bring them back. Twitter supplied the likes, 2.2 million of them, and the nuggets came back that summer. The record's entry for the like button doing something.
βΈ 2019peak 2019β 2019
β Aliven.β 2
Spotify Wrapped Discourse
The first week of December, when everyone posts their listening statistics and argues about them β and, in 2024, the year the summary was read aloud by two AI podcast hosts and everyone hated it. The record's entry for the annual data-as-personality festival.
βΈ 2019peak 2024still up
β Deadn.
Storm Area 51
A joke event proposing to Naruto-run past the guards, RSVP'd by two million people. About 150 turned up on the day, and the meme died of the difference.
βΈ 2019peak 2019β 2019
β Deadn.β 4
Twitter Political Ad Ban
Twitter's decision, announced by Jack Dorsey on 30 October 2019, to stop all political advertising on the platform worldwide, on the argument that political reach should be earned rather than bought. The policy lasted until January 2023, when the company under Elon Musk reversed it. The record's entry for the ban that was itself a statement.
βΈ 2019peak 2019β 2023
β Aliven.β 2
Vibe (Noun)
The atmosphere of a thing, as the decade's most-used noun β 'it's a vibe', 'the vibes are off', 'vibe check' β a 1960s word revived in 2019 and installed, by 2021, in every sentence about anything. The record's entry for the word that replaced 'feeling'.
βΈ 2019peak 2021still up
β Deadn.β 1
Woman Yelling at a Cat
A crying woman and a confused cat at a dinner table, arguing about anything. Two unrelated photographs that were perfect together for about eight months.
βΈ 2019peak 2019β 2020
β Aliven.β 7
Y2K Aesthetic
Chrome, translucent plastic, low-rise everything, an optimism about the future. Named by people born after it had been proved wrong.
βΈ 2019peak 2022still up
β Aliven.β 3
Bongo Cat
A simple drawn cat hitting bongos in time to any song, which became a website, a Twitch overlay that plays along with your keyboard, and the internet's most cheerful musician. The record's entry for the cat that plays everything.
βΈ 2018peak 2018still up
β Deadn.β 2
Bowsette
A week in September 2018 when a new Mario item that turns Toadette into Peach was applied, by the fandom, to Bowser, producing a character who was on every art site in the world within days. The record's entry for the fastest fan-art explosion on file.
βΈ 2018peak 2018β 2018
β Aliven.β 3
Cancel Culture
The practice of collective withdrawal of support β cancel culture β named as a phenomenon in 2018 and argued about every day since, by people who think it is a mob and people who think it is consequences. The record's entry for the phrase, and the argument, which is not filed.
βΈ 2018peak 2020still up
β Dyingn.β 2
Cap
A lie β 'that's cap' β and the π§’ emoji for calling one, from Atlanta slang into everyone's mouth by 2020 and, with 'no cap', into every advert by 2022. The record's entry for the hat as a falsehood.
βΈ 2018peak 2020still up
β Dyingn.β 3
Change My Mind
A man at a folding table with a sign β a claim, then 'change my mind' β as the 2018 format for any opinion presented as a challenge. The record's entry for the table as an argument, filed for the format and not the man.
βΈ 2018peak 2018still up
β Aliveadj.β 3
Chaotic Good
A person who does the right thing in the wrong way β from the role-playing alignment chart to the internet's favourite self-description in 2018β20. The record's entry for the tabletop term that became a personality type.
βΈ 2018peak 2020still up
β Aliven.β 3
Close Friends
The green ring: a story shared with a chosen list, which became a social hierarchy β who is on it, who was removed β and a genre of content that is more honest because fewer people see it. The record's entry for the feature that made friendship a setting.
βΈ 2018peak 2021still up
β Aliven.β 3
Cocomelon
A children's YouTube channel of nursery rhymes with a baby called JJ, watched by so many toddlers so intensely that it became a byword for overstimulation and the reason a lot of parents feel guilty. The record's entry for the channel as a diagnosis.
βΈ 2018peak 2021still up
β Aliven.β 3
Dark Mode
The system-wide black-background setting that arrived on the Mac in September 2018 and the iPhone in 2019 and was immediately treated by its users as an identity rather than a preference. The record notes that dark mode had existed on terminals since before the screen was invented, and that the people who demanded it in 2018 were demanding a return to 1978, with better fonts.
βΈ 2018peak 2019still up
β Alivev.β 2
Doomscrolling
Continuing to read bad news past the point of information. The rare coinage that named a behaviour people already recognised in themselves.
βΈ 2018peak 2020still up
β Aliven.β 2
Essay (Too Long)
'Not reading your essay' β a reply of more than two lines, dismissed as an essay, as the 2018 way of losing an argument by declaring the other side too long. The record's entry for the length as an insult, and for 'I'm happy for you tho, or sorry that happened'.
βΈ 2018peak 2021still up
β Aliven.β 3
Fediverse
The federated universe of servers that talk to each other β Mastodon, and its cousins β as the name for the social internet that nobody owns, which everyone joins during a Twitter crisis and most leave after. The record's entry for the alternative, which is always there.
βΈ 2018peak 2022still up
β Deadn.β 4
Google Podcasts
A podcast app that did the job, retired so that podcasts could be shown inside a music app instead. Nobody asked for either half of that sentence.
βΈ 2018peak 2021β 2024
β Deadphr.β 3
Hit or Miss
'Hit or miss, I guess they never miss, huh?' β a cosplayer lip-syncing in a shop, which became the first TikTok meme most people saw and the reason 'you got a boyfriend? I bet he doesn't kiss ya' was shouted in public in 2018. The record's entry for TikTok's first export.
βΈ 2018peak 2018β 2019
β Dyingn.β 2
Hun
A woman selling a multi-level-marketing product in your messages β 'hey hun!' β as the name for the type, coined by the anti-MLM internet in 2018 and used since for any message that begins with warmth and ends with a link. The record's entry for the greeting as a warning.
βΈ 2018peak 2019still up
β Aliven.β 3
MLM Discourse
The internet's turn against multi-level marketing β the subreddit, the screenshots of 'huns', the documentaries about leggings β which made 'MLM' an insult and a genre in 2018β21. The record's entry for a business model becoming a meme about itself.
βΈ 2018peak 2021still up
β Aliven.β 3
Notes App Apology
A screenshot of a phone's notes app containing an apology, posted by a celebrity as if the format lent sincerity β and the internet's recognition that it lends the opposite. The record's entry for the confession as a screenshot, and the reason 'notes app' is now an adjective.
βΈ 2018peak 2021still up
β Aliven.β 2
Polite Cat
A cat with a small, closed-mouth smile of great restraint, used for the moment you are being very patient about something β 'polite cat' β since 2018. The record's entry for the cat that is not saying what it thinks.
βΈ 2018peak 2019still up
β Alivephr.β 3
Post and Ghost
Posting something and logging off before the replies β 'post and ghost' β as the only healthy way to say something controversial, and the record's entry for the exit as a strategy. The replies are read in the morning, by which time it is somebody else's argument.
βΈ 2018peak 2021still up
β Aliven.β 6
Reply Guy
A man who replies to every post by one woman. Catalogued in nine types in 2018 and none of them have gone anywhere.
βΈ 2018peak 2019still up
β Aliven.β 2
Sad Cat Thumbs Up
The crying cat, with a thumb up β 'it's fine, I'm fine' β as the reaction for accepting bad news with false composure. The record's entry for the cat that lies about being okay.
βΈ 2018peak 2020still up
β Aliven.
Surprised Pikachu
A yellow mouse with its mouth open, for outcomes that were entirely predictable. The reaction face most attached to consequences, and consequences are not running out.
βΈ 2018peak 2018still up
β Deadn.β 3
Walmart Yodeling Kid
A boy yodelling Hank Williams in a supermarket aisle, filmed by a stranger, and, within a month, at Coachella and on a country chart. The record's entry for the supermarket as a stage and the most successful busk in history.
βΈ 2018peak 2018β 2018
β Dyingn.β 2
Birdsite
Twitter, as called by people who had left it β 'the birdsite' β with the mild contempt of the emigrant, and the record's entry for the nickname that stopped making sense when the bird was removed in 2023.
βΈ 2017peak 2022still up
β Dyingn.β 3
Boss Babe
A woman running a business from her phone, in her own description, usually selling leggings or shakes to her friends β the girlboss's downmarket sister, and the record's entry for the hashtag that marked a whole economy of hope.
βΈ 2017peak 2019still up
β Aliven.β 7
Clout
Online influence, as a currency. Chasing it is an accusation; having it is the point of everything.
βΈ 2017peak 2019still up
β Aliven.β 3
Clout Chasing
Doing anything for attention β a beef, a stunt, a fake apology β as the accusation 'clout chaser', which is applied to anyone visible by anyone less so. The record's entry for the pursuit of the algorithm named as a vice.
βΈ 2017peak 2019still up
β Aliven.β 3
Cold Take
An opinion that is obvious, late, or both β a cold take β as the opposite of the hot one, and 'nuclear take' for the one that is too hot to survive. The record's entry for the temperature scale of opinion, which runs from 'water is wet' to 'unsubscribe'.
βΈ 2017peak 2020still up