Chat abbreviations and what they actually mean

Chat shorthand moves fast, and a few common ones now mean something noticeably different from what they used to. This is the practical set: the ones that actually appear, rather than an exhaustive list nobody uses.

The basics

• IMO / IMHO: in my opinion / in my humble opinion.
• TBH: to be honest. Usually signals the sentence after it is the real one.
• IIRC: if I recall correctly. A hedge.
• NGL: not gonna lie. Functionally identical to TBH.
• FWIW: for what it is worth.
• IDK / IDC: I do not know / I do not care.

Ones whose tone has shifted

• lol: rarely means laughter now. It mostly softens a sentence, closer to punctuation than to a reaction.
• lmao: carries the actual laughter that lol used to.
• k: reads as curt or annoyed. "kk" or "ok" is the neutral version. This one causes more accidental friction than any other.
• ...: hesitation or disapproval, seldom a pause.
• a full stop on a one-word reply: often reads as cold, particularly to younger users.

Worth recognising for safety reasons

• DM / PM: direct or private message. On BuzzChat a DM normally needs a friendship you have accepted, so an early push toward one is a request rather than something that can just happen.
• alt: an alternate account. Sometimes benign, sometimes ban evasion.
• catfish: someone using a false identity, usually with stolen photos.
• sextortion: coercion using intimate images. If this is happening to you, do not pay and do not send more: block, report, and contact your local authorities.

On matching register

Shorthand signals informality, and mismatched registers read oddly in both directions. Someone writing full sentences to a stream of abbreviations can seem stiff; the reverse can seem dismissive. Drifting roughly toward however the other person writes is a small thing that makes conversations noticeably smoother.