Aora - SJSU
What your friends are up to
Only for iPhone
Free
Aora is your school, full screen.
Open it and you are in what your campus is actually doing tonight. Not an endless feed from everywhere. The people you go to class with, the plans forming for later, the parties happening now.
PLANS
Start one in a few taps: a name, a night, a time, a place, a cover. Say you're going and your face lands on it. Friends can comment and invite people even if they aren't going, and when nothing's coming up, the most popular plans are right there to start from. When a plan starts, everyone going gets a ping: it's on.
PULL UP
One message to the people you'd actually text. Send it to a few circles at once, or to everyone, and see who's pulling up.
STORIES THAT DO NOT HAVE TO DISAPPEAR
Post in one shutter, photo or video. Double-tap to like, and see who liked yours. Keep the ones worth keeping: name a highlight and it stays on your profile after the 24 hours are up, and shows up on Home under its tag.
ROOMS, NOT A FEED
Tags are rooms. A party, a class, a bit that got out of hand. Open one and you are in everything posted to it, newest first, with the people who are already there.
NIGHTS THAT ACTUALLY HAPPEN
Make an event in under a minute. Send one link and people RSVP by name, whether or not they have Aora. See which of your friends are going. Run the door from your phone with a code that rotates, keep a waitlist, and let the night fill a shared album everybody at it can add to. Hosting a chapter meeting instead? Take a roll.
SHARE IT ANYWHERE
Any event or plan turns into a full poster for your Instagram Story, with a link so people can say they're coming from there.
YOUR HOUSE, IN ONE PLACE
If you are in a house, it gets its own: a feed, a calendar, an album, points, dues, contacts and a roster, one tap from Home. Officers can see where everyone stands without a spreadsheet and a group chat.
MESSAGES BUILT FOR A NIGHT OUT
Reply to a story and it opens a thread. Send a voice note. Turn on vanish mode when it is that kind of conversation.
CRUSHES
Pick people quietly. Nobody is told unless it goes both ways.
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Aora is campus only. You join with a school email or an invite from someone already in, and you only ever see your own school.
Every post can be reported and every account can be blocked, both ways, instantly. We have zero tolerance for objectionable content and abusive users.
more great design and user experience
great design and user experience
Plans is a map now. Tonight, tomorrow and the weekend as pins: your friends' plans, Pull ups you can ask into, and events on campus. Tap a pin to see who's going and say you're in. Long-press anywhere to start a plan at that spot, or search a venue and the pin drops where it is. Pull ups can carry a place now, so they land on the map too, and one tap keeps one open three more hours. Your house page is one scroll: tonight's event, who's out right now, announcements you can mark as seen, chats, photos. The camera is just Post and Friends, with a quick walkthrough of how a Friends film comes together overnight. Lots of fixes and polish.
1.2.6 4h ago
A new Home. Every day you get a prompt at a random time, made for an SJSU day, and your answer is a Take your friends can see. Friends' Takes unlock for 24 hours once you post yours. The top of Home shows who's around: a status, an open invite, or the cover of the event they're going to tonight. Statuses and Pull ups can have a message and last as long as you pick. Pull ups can carry a photo, start later, and friends you didn't invite can ask to come. One tap says you're down. Ask your friends anything and they answer on camera. Plans show the Pull ups you're in, and you can text a friend an invite straight from your contacts. A new intro and walkthrough show you around. Lots of fixes and polish.
1.2.5 3d ago
Plans. Start one, pick a time and a place, add a cover, and see who's going. Every night is its own plan, friends can comment and invite people even if they're not going, and when nothing's coming up, the most popular plans are right there to start from. "It's on." Everyone going gets a ping when a plan starts. Pull Up sends to a few circles at once, or to everyone. Double-tap a story to like it and see who liked yours. Events and plans turn into a full poster you can share to your Instagram Story. Events show which of your friends are going, highlights people saved show up on Home under their tags, your house is one tap away from Home, and feeds, plans and messages load much faster. Lots of fixes and polish.
1.2.4 Oct 11
What's new
- Plans. Start one, pick a time and a place, add a cover, and see who's going. Your friends can comment and invite people, even if they aren't going.
- "It's on." Everyone going gets a ping when a plan starts.
- Pull Up. Send it to a few circles at once, or to everyone.
- Likes on stories. Double-tap to like a story, and see who liked yours.
- Share to Instagram. Events and plans make a full poster for your Story.
- Friends going. Events now show which of your friends are going.
- Highlights on Home. Stories people saved to their highlights show up under their tags.
- Faster everywhere. Feeds, plans and messages load much quicker.
- Lots of fixes and polish.
1.2.3 Oct 10
Plans are here: say what you're up to and when, see who's going, and comment on each night, even when a plan runs over several nights. Add a cover and a place from Apple Maps, invite friends, message everyone going, or share a link anyone can answer. Home is new, with your plans up top and the tags people are posting to tonight. Double-tap any story to like it, or pinch to zoom in. Pull Up turns a story into an invite to close friends, friends, your houses or specific people, in any mix. New widgets show your story, Close Friends, plans, or a quick camera. Plus a simpler Settings, an optional check-in for events, and lots of fixes.
1.2.2 Oct 7
Film. A disposable camera in your story camera: shoot up to five 3-second clips with no preview, then develop them into one reel to post or share.
Your story on your home screen. Add the Aora widget to see your live story's score, and how much it moved since you last looked.
Houses run themselves. Admins can step down or hand off, Treasurers and Social Chairs get their own tools, announcements reach everyone, dues have due dates with reminders, and points can be reset for a new semester. House pages got a Chats tab, links up top, a Needs-you list for admins, and your house now sits pinned at the top of Messages.
House chats and group chats: rank-run house chats, mutes from a minute to 30 days, polls with "See votes", and voice notes you can like.
Takes can now be 300 characters, and Repeats can post a whole series of nights at once.
Plus: lots of fixes. Event invite links open the event, cleared group chats stay put, unsending a message no longer hides your other unread ones, and late arrivals get their check-in points.
1.2.1 Oct 2
Your story on your home screen. Add the Aora widget to see your live story's score, and how much it moved since you last looked.
Houses run themselves. Admins can step down or hand off, Treasurers and Social Chairs get their own tools, announcements reach everyone, dues have due dates with reminders, and points can be reset for a new semester. House pages got a Chats tab, links up top, a Needs-you list for admins, and your house now sits pinned at the top of Messages.
House chats and group chats: rank-run house chats, mutes from a minute to 30 days, polls with "See votes", and voice notes you can like.
Takes can now be 300 characters, and Repeats can post a whole series of nights at once.
Plus: lots of fixes. Event invite links open the event, cleared group chats stay put, unsending a message no longer hides your other unread ones, and late arrivals get their check-in points.
1.2.0 Oct 1
Close Friends on your home screen. Add the Aora widget and the latest story from your close friends is right there, before you open the app. Tap it to watch.
House chats. Every house gets group chats its admins run by rank: who can open one, who can post, who manages. Admins can mute a person or a whole rank for anything from a minute to 30 days, and delete a chat for everyone.
Group chats got more: polls with "See votes" showing who picked what, split a new chat off from some of a group's members, and double-tap to like a voice note.
Plus: invite links now ask before connecting you with the sender, the chat bar no longer drops a tap that drifts a little, and the intro lesson's hint finger keeps looping until you make the move.
1.1.9 Sep 29
Tags remember now: stories people save to their highlights stay findable under their tag after the day ends. Find them under "From highlights" on the Tags page, or tap the tag on any older story. "What's the move?" suggests SJSU spots for the time of day, search finds people as well as posts, and profiles lead with your username. Long-press any comment to report or block, event albums have their add card back, and we fixed a crash when reopening a tag room, the intro video pausing, and the camera closing cleanly.
1.1.8 Sep 27
Home is your school's stories, full screen. Drag across the bottom to rate one, swipe to skip to the next person, and flip the rail at the top between tags and the people you follow.
Your stories don't have to end after 24 hours — pick from your archive, name a highlight, and it stays on your profile.
New accounts get walked through their first rating. Houses lead with where you stand — points, dues, passes — and chapter meetings can take a roll. The camera is one shutter for photos and video.
Plus a faster launch, close-friends stories, voice messages, and fixes across events, notifications and chat.
1.1.7 Sep 25
Events
Post a party that is happening right now. Hosts are on the guest list the moment they post. Past events stay on your feed and on your Events page, with a Past section under Hosting.
Memories
Add photos to an event from the event page or the album with the same add sheet you use on your profile, and the album takes you back to the event instead of opening it again.
Houses
Type a house code at signup or in Settings to join a house, or to become one of its admins. House settings show every admin, can mark a member as a pledge, and let you open any member's profile.
Notifications
Event notifications show the event's photo, high ratings show the photo, and a mutual crush shows the heart. A new ask for notification permission shows you what a notification looks like before you decide.
Sharing
Every share link opens the event in the app. Guest passes can be redeemed in the browser, and guests who joined from the link count on the guest list.
Plus fixes to the chat composer, event cards, settings icons and copy across the app.
1.1.5 Sep 13
Crushes got a real home. Your crushes page now opens with a shareable story card — "Who has a crush on you?" — and shows how many people have picked you and how many left a sealed note, without ever naming them. Notes stay sealed until it's mutual, and picks stay anonymous: no auto-follows, no "I joined from your invite" DM, and the anonymous ping now lands on a random 1–6 hour delay so its timing can't give anyone away. The takes tutorial is half as long and ends where it should — on your Friends feed with the challenge button lit. Starting a group message now lets you search your existing groups and add everyone at once. Plus a faster, cleaner profile, and a swipe from the right edge to open settings.
1.1.3 Sep 5
Crushes
Secretly pick up to three people a week. Nobody is told — unless they pick
you back. If you both pick each other, you'll both hear about it and can
start a chat. Changed your mind? You can take a pick back any time.
Challenge your friends
Leave a friend a take: choose a line from the library or write your own.
They get a card with your name on it and answer with a take of their own.
Friends
A new Friends feed on Takes — posts from the people you follow who follow
you back.
Sharing that looks good
Turn your photo into a story card with a QR code and post it to Instagram
or Snapchat. Send any take, post, or profile straight to a friend inside
Aora. Aora links now open the app instead of the browser.
Messages
Group chats up to 50 people, with controls to add, remove, and hand off who
runs them. Conversations stick around even after the post that started them
is gone. Reply directly to a reply in comments.
Profile
Drag to rearrange your photo grid. See who you both follow on someone's
profile. Your own scores appear once enough people have rated you.
Ratings stay anonymous
No score ever reveals who rated you.
Getting started is faster
No photos required to sign up, a clearer intro, and a quicker launch.
Plus dozens of smaller fixes to speed, layout, and copy.
1.1.1 Aug 31
Now you're introduced to someone the moment you join, so there's always a conversation waiting. Followers, Following, and Inner Circle are combined into one swipeable page, response galleries surface the most-loved posts first, and rating is smoother with a new skip option. Plus a faster app, cleaner Activity and messages, and lots of polish and bug fixes.
1.0.6 Aug 18
Meet Secrets. Send a photo or video that arrives locked — it only opens once the other person sends one back, and then it's view-once and gone. Screen recording is blocked, and if anyone screenshots a Secret, the whole chat gets told. You can now add text right onto your photos before you send, give shots a new look with camera filters — including a warm vintage "Lapse" and a cool "Midnight" — and long-press any message to copy it. Behind the scenes, uploads are faster and far more reliable on spotty networks, the app feels snappier, and we fixed a pile of bugs along the way. Invite your friends from Settings and jump in.
1.0.5 Aug 15
What's New
Meet Secrets — a whole new way to share. Send any photo or video as a Secret and it arrives blurred, waiting to be unlocked. Your friend just sends a photo or video back to reveal it. Secrets open for one 15-second look, then they're gone. Try to screenshot? It comes back blacked out, and everyone in the thread knows. Look for the pulsing key to send your first one.
We also cleaned things up:
Insights is simpler — see your overall score and your best content at a glance
Long-press any message to copy it
Invite friends right from Settings
A smoother launch, with no more white flash on open
Thanks for using the app — more good stuff on the way.
1.0.2 Aug 14
What's New in 1.0.1
• Search your followers, following, and likes lists
• Sending a message now takes you straight into the conversation
• New film filter in the camera — swipe left to apply
• See your real member number when you join
• Message the founder directly from Settings
• Refreshed Join button, leaderboard celebrations, and menus
• Small fixes and polish throughout
Trimmed-down alternative if you want it tighter:
• Search within followers, following, and likes
• Messages open straight into the new conversation
• Film filter in the camera + refreshed look throughout
1.0.1 Aug 13
Plans is a map now. Tonight, tomorrow and the weekend as pins: your friends' plans, Pull ups you can ask into, and events on campus. Tap a pin to see who's going and say you're in. Long-press anywhere to start a plan at that spot, or search a venue and the pin drops where it is. Pull ups can carry a place now, so they land on the map too, and one tap keeps one open three more hours. Your house page is one scroll: tonight's event, who's out right now, announcements you can mark as seen, chats, photos. The camera is just Post and Friends, with a quick walkthrough of how a Friends film comes together overnight. Lots of fixes and polish.
more Version 1.2.6 4h ago
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