YikYak now lets you connect to your main community while you’re away

YikYak owes much of its popularity to college campuses, where it functions as an anonymous, mostly-in-good-fun message board for sharing memes and in-jokes with fellow students. But what happens after the school year comes to an end? YikYak answered that question today with “Basecamp,” a new way to stay connected to your main community when you’re away. The feature, which is still in beta, lets users set a home community, or “basecamp,” that they can check in with even if they aren’t physically in the area.

The feature should prove popular among college students whether they’re away on summer vacation, doing a semester abroad, or just back home for a weekend. To set it up, go into the app’s settings and click “enable Basecamp.” YikYak will suggest a home basecamp for you based on where you use the app most frequently, and if it guesses wrong, you can contact the app’s support team to set your Basecamp elsewhere. (The company said it may asks users to verify their school using a school email address.)

In a blog post, YikYak says the feature is being tested “for a limited time.” But it feels like exactly how YikYak should work. For now, the app’s value lies in its ability to focus attention on a geographical area. But it’s smart to realize that those communities aren’t always physically together.