Zibbo has circles. Zibbo is not a social network.
Circles help the listings your kid puts up appear higher in the browse results of people likely to want them: neighbours, family, friends of the family. That’s the whole feature. No chat. No social feed. No follows. No kid to kid anything.
What circles do
- Boost circle members’ listings in each other’s browse results
- Show a small badge on a listing when you share a circle with the seller
- Let buyers filter browse to “Circles only” if they want
What circles never do
- No chat, no group message, no forum
- No activity timeline (“X joined”, “Y posted”)
- No circle UI in your kid’s app; circles are a guardian feature only
- No kid to kid follows or friends, ever
- No broadcast messages from circle creators
Personal and neighbourhood — that’s it.
“Oakwood Road families”
You, the guardian, create a circle, give it a name, and get a 6-digit code. You share the code with other guardians via WhatsApp, text, or your school WhatsApp group, wherever your real life community already is. Anyone with the code joins. No approval queue. Kids never see or share circle codes.
- · Unlimited members
- · Rate limit of 20 joins per day (stops bot spam)
- · Codes expire after 30 days; regenerate any time
- · Creator can remove anyone, one tap
“GU2 neighbourhood”
Automatic. If you signed up with a GU2 postcode, you’re in the GU2 circle. Every guardian in your district is too. Used to surface nearby listings without anyone having to do anything.
- · One circle per UK postcode district
- · No names, no custom branding
- · Leave any time from settings; rejoin any time
- · Named automatically, e.g. “GU2 neighbourhood”
Why a circle is safe even if the code leaks
Because no child on Zibbo is identifiable. A stranger who joins a circle still sees only items for sale: no names, no faces, no addresses. The only way they can interact with your household is by making an offer on an item, and that offer lands with you, not your kid. Circles don’t unlock access to anything sensitive; they just change which listings surface first when someone is browsing.
How circles affect browse results
When someone is browsing Zibbo, listings are ranked by a personalised mix: distance, recency, popularity, category match. Circles layer a small multiplicative boost on top:
| If seller and buyer share… | Boost applied |
|---|---|
| A personal circle | +30% |
| A neighbourhood circle | +10% |
| Both (capped) | +40% maximum |
| No shared circle | 0% — listing still visible, just not boosted |
Boosts never override distance strongly. A circle listing 50 miles away still ranks below a nearby listing outside any shared circle. Circle membership affects ordering, never visibility; every listing is browsable UK wide.
Zibbo lives on your phone.
Download Zibbo on iPhone or Android. One app for your kid, one for you — both free.
No trackers. No ads. No account until you download.