Bebo is back - but it's totally different: How to use the new 'Message with Attitude' app

Fact v Fiction?

It's true, Bebo has relaunched - but this time, it's totally different. It's now an emoji/avatar based messaging app of madness.

Fact v Ficton?

Yes, the website will return, with all your old pictures intact - but not until January. So, you have time to mentally prepare yourself for the onslaught of #morto coming your way.

Bebo announced: "We have good (and not so good) photo memories on the old Bebo, and they will be available starting January 31st".

However, your photos are being reported to be only available for download, and not publicly viewable.

All hail the (not publicly viewable) return of the Bebo Stunnahs!

Fact v Fiction?

No, you can't use your old account - on logging into the app, users are presented with a message that asks "old Bebo users" to "please create a new account".

The Old Bebo

Bebo began in 2005 and was intensely popular for a few years but was shut down in 2013 after the platform lost most of it's users to Facebook.

The original owners had sold Bebo to AOL for $850m in 2008  only to buy it back in 2013 for $1m.

1M people signed up to the Bebo waiting list over a year ago and Bebo have been gearing up for the re-release for some time now, with equal amounts of excitement and trepidation from users.

The 'other' Bebo

Bebo made a brief foray into messaging apps around 18 months ago with the BLAB video messaging app, which was featured by Apple as one of their "Best news Apps 2014" but failed to make a big splash in the messaging app pool, losing out to Snapchat and WhatsApp.

The New Bebo

"Everybody else is trying to be very “serious” about social networking, which feels a bit strange to us," Bebo said in a statement. "The new Bebo is for people who don’t take life too seriously."

The app allows users to message one another - similar to WhatsApp and other messaging apps - but with (a lot of) added quirks - like avatars that look like you, trending hashtags, customised emoticons and pictures.

The first thing you do when you set up a new account and log in is create your avatar. You can make the avatar look as much like you as possible and change it in the future via your status, which adds props to your avatar - or removes them, in the case of 'Status: Naked' below.

The point of the app seems to be to communicate in hashtags and pictures rather than text. Users type in a hashtag for a picture of their avatar to pop up doing something related to the hashtag - for example, typing in #AllTheSingleLadies puts your avatar in the famous Beyoncé 'Single Ladies' video, or #hipster places your avatar on a 'fixie' bicycle.

However, don't worry if something you type doesn't have an available scenario for your avatar - Bebo are taking suggestions on what hashtags need images. (Of course, Irish users are running rampant with this, suggesting words like #sh*te and #immersion. )

Users can do other things too - like play interactive Tic Tac Toe using their avatar's heads - by typing #TicTacToe and then selecting the game to make the next move. Users can also flip a coin to make tough decisions. By typing #Flappyhead, users can play a copy of 'Flappy Bird' with the head of their own avatar.

By pressing the big red hashtag on the left of the chat box, you can see the currently trending hashtags - the ones being used most by other users.

Emojis even get Bebo-fied, with normal emojis being turned into 'Bebojis' - a carbon copy of the emoji using your customised avatar.

Unfortunately, the new Bebo doesn't seem to be able to "give love", something users were very excited for the return of.

The question remains to be answered - will the new Bebo last, or is it just a flash in the pan, riding off a  famous name?

Only time will tell - Bebo have announced that over 1.2M messages have been sent on the app in the first 24 hours.

The app is available on Android and iOS and the website will return to desktops in January.