What’s inside
Everything Hourglassdoes
Share, chat, compete, and discover ... all against the clock.
Share images & video
Post images or vids to any room. If a room supports videos, your clip goes live alongside photos. Supports common image and video formats.
Albums
Upload up to 100 files (10 without an account) as a single album. They share a vote count and comments. Download them all at once.
Live chat
Every room has a live chat open to anyone. Share your opinion, quote posts from anywhere, and find people to connect with.
Upvotes & downvotes
Each post can be upvoted or downvoted. Votes sort the feed and build your lifetime karma score. Careful what you post, too many downvotes and it'll be hidden.
Karma & flair
For registered users, every upvote your post earns adds 1 to your lifetime score. Hit certain milestones and you'll earn permanent chat flair. Internet points!
Ephemeral by default
Posts have a configurable lifetime set by the room or category. When the sand runs out the file is deleted from storage, not just hidden, actually gone forever.
Battle rooms
A tournament in a room. Everyone submits one post during the submission window, then the bracket locks. Head-to-head rounds let the crowd vote on each match. The post with more votes advances. The last post standing is champion.
Guess rooms
Post a blurred image with a secret answer. Others type their guesses in chat. When someone nails it, the original un-blurs for everyone in the room.
Password-protected rooms
Lock any room with a password. Share the passphrase with who you like, everyone else just sees a locked door. Perfect for private galleries or invite-only threads.
Faceoff rooms
A nonstop hot-or-not arena. Drop your best shots into an open pool, then vote head-to-head — A or B? Every pick feeds a live Elo leaderboard that ranks the whole room. No bracket and no finish line; entries just keep climbing (or sliding).
Caption contests
The host posts one image; everyone submits a caption. A bracket runs and the room votes match-by-match.
Reveal / drip rooms
The host posts blurred media set to an engagement milestone — so many upvotes, or so many comments. The instant the room hits it, the post un-blurs for everyone at once. Open for anyone to host.
Bounty / request rooms
Post a request as the room itself; everyone else fulfills it with their own media on the standard grid. The requester picks the winning submission.
Direct messages
Send private messages to any registered user. Share a room post directly into a DM, or attach a file. Close the thread to stop messages both ways and purge history.
Media swap
Enter the swap queue with a media item of your choosing. When another user does the same, you're matched and each gets to see the other's post privately.
Reporting & moderation
Flag any post or chat message for review. Moderators handle reports in the order they were received, and issue punishments as appropriately as possible.
Anonymity, Privacy & Security First
No account needed to browse, chat, or post. We ask for an account only when it's impossible to ensure safety otherwise. Either way, we do not collect, sell or share your data. Your posts stay on our servers exactly as long as you see it on the site. When it expires here, it's wiped from our server immediately, not just hidden. The ONLY exception is illegal content, so keep it clean.
›Is Hourglass really anonymous?
Yes. You can read, post, and chat without an account, and posts aren't tied to a public identity unless you make one. Registering is optional and only exists so you can keep a name, karma, and albums across rooms.
›Do I need an account to use the chat rooms?
No. Every mainstream room is open to anonymous visitors — you can browse, post images and video, and chat without signing up. A few extras (Media Roulette, DMs, hosting contests) do require a free account.
›How long do posts last?
Not long, by design. Default rooms clear their media every 15 minutes, and each category can set its own timer. When a post's timer runs out it's deleted for good — the file is purged from storage at the same time, not just hidden from the page.
›What is Media Roulette?
A one-for-one random media swap. You enter the queue with a post of your choosing and get matched with another user who did the same, and each of you privately sees what the other put in. It's part of the adult section, so it's 18+ and requires a free account.
›What are Reveal (drip) rooms?
A room type where the host posts blurred media that stays hidden until the room earns it. Once a post hits its engagement milestone it unblurs for everyone at once, so the reveal is a shared moment rather than a private unlock.
›What kinds of rooms can I create?
Ordinary image and video boards, plus typed rooms where the category allows them: Battle tournaments, Guess rooms, Caption contests, Bounty requests, Reveal drips, and Faceoff (A-or-B) arenas.
Ready to look around? Browse the anonymous chat rooms.
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