Age, sex, location. It is considered rude as an opening message and will usually get you ignored or blocked.

What is Hinglish, Manglish or Thanglish?

Indian languages typed in Roman letters rather than their own script — Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil respectively. All are completely normal in chat rooms.

What does timepass mean?

Passing time with no particular purpose. It is the standard honest answer to "what are you doing here".

Someone using a fake identity and stolen photos, usually building trust before asking for money or images.

Is it rude to use lots of abbreviations?

Not inherently, but stacking them makes messages hard to read. Shorthand should speed the conversation up, not turn it into a code.

GlossaryGuide

Chat Room Slang and Abbreviations Explained

31 July 2026 · 3 min read · The DoChat Team

Illustration for an article explaining chat room slang and abbreviations

Chat rooms run on shorthand, and a lot of it predates social media by decades. If you have ever stared at "brb, gtg, cya" and felt lost, this is the plain version — including the Indian-specific slang that general glossaries never cover.

The essentials

These come up in almost every room, every day.

asl — age, sex, location. Considered rude as an opener. Do not use it.
brb — be right back.
afk — away from keyboard. Same idea, usually a longer absence.
gtg or g2g — got to go.
cya / ttyl — see you / talk to you later.
wb — welcome back.
nvm — never mind.
idk — I do not know.
imo / imho — in my opinion / in my humble opinion.
tbh — to be honest.
irl — in real life, as opposed to online.
dm / pm — direct message / private message.
op — original poster, the person who started the topic.
lol / lmao — laughing. Often just punctuation at this point.

Room and moderation terms

Useful for understanding what is happening around you.

lurker — someone reading but not typing. Completely normal.
flooding — posting many messages rapidly. Usually gets you muted.
spam — repeated or promotional messages.
troll — someone provoking reactions for entertainment. Do not feed them.
ban / kick — removed permanently / removed from the room for now.
mute — temporarily prevented from posting.
shadowban — your messages are only visible to you.
ban evasion — returning after a ban under a new nickname. Against the rules everywhere.
bot — an automated account, not a person.
catfish — someone using a fake identity and stolen photos.

Indian chat-room shorthand

These are the ones general glossaries miss entirely, and they are everywhere in Indian rooms.

Hinglish — Hindi typed in Roman letters. "Kya kar rahe ho".
Manglish — Malayalam in Roman letters.
Thanglish — Tamil in Roman letters.
Tenglish — Telugu in Roman letters.
Banglish — Bengali in Roman letters.
timepass — killing time, no particular purpose. The honest answer to "what are you doing here".
bakchodi — messing about, nonsense talk.
yaar / bhai / bro — friendly address, roughly "mate".
na / naa — tag question, like "right?" at the end of a sentence.
kya scene hai — what is happening, what is going on.
GM / GN — good morning / good night. Extremely common in Indian rooms.

Slang worth recognising as a warning

Some shorthand is a signal to be careful rather than something to adopt.

Anyone opening with "asl" is almost always looking for something other than conversation.
"cam?" or "vc?" within the first few messages — a push to video early is a common precursor to recording and extortion.
"num?" or "insta?" early on — a request for contact details before any trust exists.
Requests to move to another platform "because it is easier" — usually because there is no report button there.
Anything about "earning", "task", "investment" or "trading" — these are scams without exception.

Etiquette around slang

A couple of small conventions. Do not mock someone for not knowing an abbreviation — chat rooms attract people of every age and plenty are new. And do not pile abbreviations so densely that your message becomes unreadable; shorthand is meant to speed things up, not to be a code.

Typing in all caps still reads as shouting, as it has since the 1990s. That one has not changed.

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Frequently asked questions

What does asl mean?: Age, sex, location. It is considered rude as an opening message and will usually get you ignored or blocked.
What is Hinglish, Manglish or Thanglish?: Indian languages typed in Roman letters rather than their own script — Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil respectively. All are completely normal in chat rooms.
What does timepass mean?: Passing time with no particular purpose. It is the standard honest answer to "what are you doing here".
What is a catfish?: Someone using a fake identity and stolen photos, usually building trust before asking for money or images.
Is it rude to use lots of abbreviations?: Not inherently, but stacking them makes messages hard to read. Shorthand should speed the conversation up, not turn it into a code.