Hiipal Documentation

Hiipal is a new kind of social media, built around search instead of feeds and followers. Search across text and images using semantic AI, and Hiipal instantly connects you with other people searching the same topic right now.

What you can do on Hiipal

Getting started

1. Open hiipal.com in any modern browser — no account required.
2. Type a topic or upload an image in the search bar.
3. Hiipal surfaces relevant results and shows you other people searching the same thing.
4. Click a pal to start chatting, or tap the mic or camera icon to call.

Want the full screen-by-screen version, including how the AI actually decides what matches? Read the complete walkthrough on the blog.

Who is Hiipal for?

Hiipal is built for anyone who wants to learn, connect, or collaborate around a shared interest — a student looking for a study partner, a researcher exploring a new field, a professional seeking industry connections, or simply someone who wants to meet people with similar hobbies.

• Students — find study partners and discuss topics in real time.
• Researchers — search across text and images, discover collaborators.
• Professionals — network with people working on the same problems.
• Curious people — explore topics and meet others who share your interests.
• Communities — build micro-communities around niche topics organically.

What makes Hiipal different?

Most social media is built around feeds, followers, and posts you accumulate over time. Most platforms also separate search from social — you search on Google, then find people on LinkedIn or Reddit. Hiipal is a new kind of social media that collapses that gap: the search itself is the social signal. The moment you look something up, you are discoverable to others looking up the same thing, using AI that understands context and meaning rather than just keyword matches — no feed, no followers, just real-time connection.

Our mission

We believe the best discoveries happen when knowledge and people meet at the right moment. Hiipal's mission is to make that meeting instant, intelligent, and human — search should not be a solitary activity, it should be the start of a conversation.

AI Search

Hiipal uses multimodal vector embeddings to understand the meaning behind your query — not just match keywords. This means you can search naturally or upload a photo to find similar content.

Search modes

Text search

Type any phrase. The AI finds semantically related results even if the exact words do not match.

Image search

Upload or paste an image. Hiipal generates a caption and searches for related content and people.

Search tips

• Use descriptive phrases rather than single words for better semantic matches.
• Images work best when they contain a clear subject — a product, landmark, or concept.
• The live dashboard shows who else is searching similar topics in real time.

Personalization

Your dashboard adapts to what you have actually searched for, indexed, liked, and lingered on — the "recently added" grid only shows images genuinely connected to something in your memory or activity, not just whatever was indexed most recently. Each result also shows a plain-English reason (tap the info icon on an image) explaining why it was surfaced. This works both ways: showing interest in a topic gives it a boost, and if you tell Hiipal you are not interested in something, matching results are actively held back instead of just failing to be promoted. A brand-new account with no search or activity history yet sees an unpersonalized, recency-ranked feed until it has something to learn from.

Profiles, Pals & Connections

Hiipal builds a lightweight profile for every account from what you have actually searched, indexed, and interacted with — never anything you fill out manually.

Available pals

Your dashboard shows an "available pals" strip of other recently active, verified users. Click anyone's avatar to see a short list of their interests, generated the same way your own are — a shared, lightweight profile, not a full account page.

Recommended for you

A row of short topic words drawn from your own memories and interactions — click one to instantly search it.

Connections

Send someone a connection request from their profile; once they accept, the connection is durable and persists across sessions, unlike the ephemeral "nearby pals" you see while actively searching the same topic.

Verified badge and avatar

Verified badge

Shown next to a member's name once they have explicitly registered a pal name or signed in with Google, distinguishing them from anonymous guest accounts.

Profile picture

Registered users can optionally upload a photo during registration (it goes through the same content moderation check as any indexed image), or it's filled in automatically when signing in with Google. Anyone — guest or registered — can also pick one of several preset avatars by clicking their own pal name.

Real-Time Chat

When you search a topic, Hiipal shows you nearby pals — other people searching the same or similar topics at the same moment. You can open a direct chat with any of them.

Chat features

Text messages

Send and receive messages instantly over WebSocket. No page refresh needed.

Image sharing

Upload an image directly in the chat window. Images are stored securely and shared inline.

Reactions

React to any message with an emoji, visible to everyone in the conversation in real time.

TTS (text-to-speech)

Enable TTS to have incoming messages read aloud — useful for hands-free use.

Privacy

Chats are peer-to-peer where possible. Your messages are not stored beyond the active session. You can end a conversation at any time by leaving the chat window. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Voice & Video Calls

Hiipal supports peer-to-peer WebRTC calls directly in the browser. No app download, no account, no plugin required.

Starting a call

1. Open a chat with a nearby pal.
2. Click the phone icon for a voice call, or the video icon for video.
3. Your browser will ask for microphone or camera permission — allow it.
4. The other person receives a call notification and can accept or decline.

Requirements

• A modern browser: Chrome 100+, Firefox 110+, Safari 15.4+, or Edge 100+.
• Microphone access for voice calls; camera access for video calls.
• Both participants must be online and in an active Hiipal session.

Voice effects

During a call, apply a live voice filter — robot, deep, radio, cave echo, or alien — switchable mid-call with no interruption. Purely for fun; it doesn't affect call quality or connection.

Safety

Hiipal is designed for safe, respectful interaction. We take platform abuse seriously.

Community rules

• No harassment, hate speech, or threatening behaviour.
• No sharing of explicit, illegal, or harmful content.
• No spamming or repetitive unsolicited messages.
• No impersonating other users or Hiipal staff.

Reporting

In chat, use the report button next to any message. All reports are reviewed.

For detailed guidelines, see our Community Guidelines and Safety page.

Frequently Asked Questions