Promotional ad for the brb iPhone app with tagline 'Your social away message'

Brb

1989catchphraseclassic

Published August 16, 2026

BRB is internet shorthand for 'be right back,' typed into chat rooms and group threads to flag a short pause in the conversation. The three-letter initialism goes back to at least a January 1989 chat log from an Apple II Development Forum and moved through Usenet, IRC, MUDs, and AOL Instant Messenger across the 1990s and 2000s.

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Overview

BRB is a three-letter internet abbreviation for the phrase 'be right back,' typed into chat rooms and group threads to note that someone is stepping away for a moment. It sits alongside AFK, IMHO, BTW, FYI, FWIW, OTOH, and WYSIWYG in the small vocabulary of chat shorthand that Usenet posters were already listing off for newcomers in the early 1990s1.

The word almost always signals a short break rather than a full exit. Someone who types brb in a group DM is telling the room to hold the thread, not to close it. Urban Dictionary users have logged dozens of definitions since 2003, most of them agreeing on the 'leaves briefly, returns shortly' reading, with plenty of jokes about the friend who types brb and never actually comes back6.

Origin & Background

Platform
Apple II chat forum / Usenet & IRC (viral spread)
Date
1989

The earliest known use of BRB comes from a chat log tied to an Apple II Development Forum on January 3, 1989, where at least two different users typed the three letters to note they were stepping away from the room5. Live text chat was still a new medium at the time, mostly running on bulletin boards and early online services, and short forms like BRB caught on with people who wanted a way to flag presence without breaking the pace of a conversation.

How It Spread

BRB was already in circulation on Usenet by January 13, 1994, when a poster named Tony Y.T. Chan asked the alt.usage.english newsgroup what 'FYI' stood for. Ron O'Dell answered with a short list of seven internet abbreviations he had picked up online, including BRB, BTW, IMHO, FWIW, OTOH, and WYSIWYG1. The exchange is one of the earliest surviving Usenet threads to spell out the small chat vocabulary that gamers and IRC users were already taking for granted.

Reference material for the abbreviation piled up through the late 1990s. In June 1997 the term appeared in the FAQ for Valhalla, a DikuMud derivative that had been running since roughly 1993 and hosted quests, spells, and player-run characters3. On January 18, 1998, the Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing added an entry defining BRB as '(I will) be right back,' sitting between 'Brazil' and 'breadcrumbs' in the site's alphabetical index4.

The 2000s pushed BRB into the wider web. Urban Dictionary logged its first entry for the term on April 11, 2003, and eventually collected close to seventy variants and jokes about the initialism6. In May 2006, MapleStory forum users ran a small poll comparing AFK and BRB, with 70% picking BRB as their preferred away marker in-game5. The abbreviation also crossed over into image macros around that period, riding along on LOLcats captions and later showing up in LOL Jesus edits.

How to Use This Meme

BRB works as a quick heads-up in any real-time chat: type it, step away, then come back and rejoin the conversation. Common practice is to add a short reason after the letters, like 'brb dog' or 'brb food,' so the rest of the group has a rough sense of how long to wait6. Some people type 'b' or 'back' when they return, though a returning message is optional. The abbreviation reads the same in lowercase or uppercase, and dropping it into a slow-moving thread like email or a work channel is usually read as a joke rather than a real away signal.

Cultural Impact

In 2013, developers David Krevitt and Noah Levy launched a mobile app called BRB on the iOS App Store that let users broadcast a custom away message across Twitter, Facebook, and SMS with a countdown timer2. The Daily Beast covered the launch that September, framing the app as a nostalgic callback to AOL Instant Messenger away messages and a small fix for the fear of missing out that comes with putting your phone down at dinner2. Krevitt told the outlet that many high schoolers were downloading BRB to tell friends they were in class and could not text back.

Fun Facts

Ron O'Dell's 1994 alt.usage.english reply introduced Usenet readers to BRB alongside BTW, IMHO, FWIW, OTOH, and WYSIWYG1

The Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing has defined BRB since January 18, 1998, listing it between 'Brazil' and 'breadcrumbs' in its alphabetical index4

The 2013 BRB iOS app was pitched by its founders as a fix for the awkward spiral that comes with putting your phone down at dinner2

Valhalla, one of the MUDs that documented BRB in a 1997 FAQ, was designed so builders could add new content and quests without crashing the whole game3

Urban Dictionary users have jokingly split BRB into 'correct usage' (leave briefly, come back) and 'incorrect usage' (say brb, never return)6

Derivatives & Variations

BRBInfo, a Christian nonprofit set up in April 2006 built around the tagline that Jesus will 'be right back'[5]

BRB iOS app launched August 2013 by David Krevitt and Noah Levy that broadcast countdown-timed away messages across Twitter, Facebook, and SMS[2]

Frequently Asked Questions